Executed China official raped 36 schoolgirls in belief that it
would end spate of bad luck
By Tracy Quek
HE WAS specific about the kind of girls he wanted. They had to
be between the ages of 14 and 18, pretty, as well as gentle and
quiet in manner. Most importantly, they had to be virgins. And Wu
Tianxi was determined to bed 100 of them.
The former member of China's national legislature and once
wealthy entrepreneur from Henan province was desperate to end his
spate of bad luck, which he blamed for his business failures.
A fengshui master he consulted told him that sleeping with
virgins would break the cycle of misfortune, according to a report
in The Beijing News.
So between 2005 and 2007, Wu acted on the advice. In under two
years, he raped as many as 36 schoolgirls. Of the victims, six were
under the age of 14, and the youngest was only 12 years old.
Last Thursday, he was put to death by lethal injection in the
city of Nanyang, in Henan, after the Supreme People's Court
rejected his appeal against the rape conviction in 2007. His
execution came amid a crackdown by China on officials who abuse
their power.
In the past week, the Chinese government had fired the head of
its nuclear power programme for alleged corruption and carried out
a big round-up of gang leaders and members of local legislative
bodies in Chongqing in a sweeping campaign against organised
vice.
According to Chinese media reports, Wu's associates staked out
schools in his hometown, Jia Song town, to find virgin girls for
him and abducted unsuspecting victims.
The 63-year-old raped them in his offices or in hotels. At least
one associate was always on hand to restrain the girls when they
struggled or fought back.
While Wu will be remembered as one of Jia Song town's most
ignominious villains, there was a time when he was a household name
for different reasons. It was in 1988, when he set up a meat
processing and freezing plant, that he struck gold. He became the
richest man in town and single- handedly boosted the town's
economy.
The entrepreneur set up the town's first sundry goods wholesale
and distribution markets. His meat processing and freezing company
employed 10,000 locals and had an annual sales volume of 100
million yuan at its peak.
