作者：关永杰
编辑：钟然 责任编辑：胡丽莉 校对：熊辩 翻译：彭小梅

自由雕塑公园Liberty Sculpture Park

中国徐州铁链女事件，发生在 2022 年 1 月上旬。不是因为执法部门接到民众的报案，也不是例行性的排查发现，而是一位自媒体播主的偶然到访，才让一个被铁链锁住脖子的女人，第一次进入公众视野。

那一刻，世界才知道：在中国，有一个女人被拐卖、囚禁、虐待、性侵，被迫生下 8 个孩子，在炼狱里被折磨了24 年。

这 24 年，横跨了两个时代：从1998年依赖BP机与有线电话的落后年代，到2022年高清摄像头密布、手机与互联网无处不在的时代。

根据当时曝光的零碎信息，只要稍作想象，便令人背脊发凉。铁链女这样的日子，持续了近24年，8000多个日日夜夜。但在这漫长的岁月里，她始终无法向外界求救。村里、乡里、镇里，一定有人知道她是被拐来的，也一定有人见过她被铁链锁住，但没有一个人站出来。如果说这是个别人的冷漠，那已经足够可怕；但当这种沉默持续了 24 年，它就不再是道德问题，而是一种结构性的共犯。

事件曝光后，仅一两个月时间就引发了超过 40 亿人次的关注，这是一个几乎覆盖整个中国社会的讨论规模。就连隔岸的日本NHK、《朝日新闻》及一些国际媒体都进行了报道，甚至录制专题节目对事件进行讨论。

但最终结果是：真相没有完整公开、调查过程不透明、责任被限制在极小范围，而她本人，至今仍未获得真正的自由与尊严。

四年过去了，中国社会改变了吗？没有！四年后的今天，监控摄像头更多了，技术更先进、成像更高清了，但妇女、儿童依然在失踪，依然有人无法被找回。

徐州铁链女不是孤例，她只是被偶然发现的那一个。这不是个案悲剧，而是政治问题，是与你我每一个普通人有着切身相关的“政治”。

如果将政治理解成官员任命、外交决策、投票选举或宏大叙事，那其实是执政者对民众的误导，让普通人认为：“政治离我很远，我没必要关心。”1996年诺贝尔文学奖得主、波兰诗人辛波丝卡在其诗作写道： “All your, our, your / daily and nightly affairs / are political affairs… Whether you like it or not, / your genes have a political past, / your skin, a political cast, / your eyes, a political aspect.”在这个意义上，铁链女事件就是最赤裸、最根本的政治问题。

一个政权，在 24 年里无法发现、无法解救一个被囚禁的女人；在 40 多亿人次关注之下，仍动用权力封锁信息、压制调查、切断问责；在事件曝光四年之后，依然没有制度性改变。这已经不是道德失范或基层腐败的问题， 而是“国家犯罪”（State Crime）。

2026年1月4日铁链女事件4周年，San Jose City Hall

2026 年 1 月 4 日，湾区圣何塞。阴雨寒冷的冬日里，我们站在市民中心，纪念徐州铁链女事件四周年。四年过去了，真相依旧残缺，自由依旧缺席。我们选择在这里，不是因为事情已经解决，而是因为它从未真正结束。

2024年铁链女事件两周年，Times Square, New York

记住徐州铁链女，拒绝遗忘！当国家本身成为施加伤害的一部分，沉默就不再是中立，而是共犯。

The Fourth Anniversary of the Xuzhou Chained Woman Incident —This Is a “State Crime”

Author: Guan YongjieEditor: Zhong Ran Managing Editor: Hu LiliProofreader: Xiong Bian Translator: Peng Xiaomei

Abstract:The Xuzhou chained woman was imprisoned and abused for 24 years, entering public view only after an accidental exposure. The incident triggered massive attention yet resulted in neither a transparent investigation nor institutional change. Four years later, the harm continues. This is not an isolated case, but a structural political problem.

Liberty Sculpture Park

The Xuzhou chained woman incident in China occurred in early January 2022. It did not come to light because law enforcement received a report from the public, nor was it discovered through routine inspections. Rather, it was the chance visit of a self-media blogger that first brought a woman—her neck bound by an iron chain—into public view.

At that moment, the world learned that in China there was a woman who had been trafficked, imprisoned, abused, sexually assaulted, and forced to give birth to eight children—tortured in a living hell for 24 years.

Those 24 years spanned two eras: from the backward years of 1998, when pagers and landline telephones were relied upon, to 2022, an age saturated with high-definition surveillance cameras, mobile phones, and ubiquitous internet access.

Based on the fragmentary information exposed at the time, even a brief exercise of imagination is enough to send a chill down one’s spine. The chained woman’s life continued in this way for nearly 24 years—more than 8,000 days and nights. Yet throughout this long period, she was never able to seek help from the outside world. In the village, the township, and the town, someone must have known that she had been trafficked; someone must have seen her bound with chains. But not a single person stepped forward. If this were merely individual indifference, it would already be terrifying enough. When such silence persists for 24 years, however, it ceases to be a moral issue and becomes a form of structural complicity.

After the incident was exposed, it generated more than four billion views within just one or two months—an unprecedented scale of discussion that nearly encompassed the entirety of Chinese society. Even Japan’s NHK, Asahi Shimbun, and other international media reported on the case, some producing special programs to discuss it.

Yet the outcome was this: the truth was never fully disclosed; the investigation process lacked transparency; accountability was confined to a very limited scope; and the woman herself has, to this day, not regained genuine freedom or dignity.

Four years later, has Chinese society changed? No. Today, four years on, there are even more surveillance cameras, more advanced technology, and higher-definition imaging—but women and children continue to disappear, and many are still never found.

The Xuzhou chained woman is not an isolated case; she is merely the one who was accidentally discovered. This is not a singular tragic incident, but a political problem—a form of “politics” that bears directly on the lives of every ordinary person.

If politics is understood merely as official appointments, foreign policy decisions, elections, or grand narratives, then that is a deliberate misdirection by those in power, designed to make ordinary people believe that “politics is far removed from me, and I have no need to care.” As the 1996 Nobel Prize–winning Polish poet Wisława Szymborska wrote in her poetry: “All your, our, your / daily and nightly affairs / are political affairs… Whether you like it or not, / your genes have a political past, / your skin, a political cast, / your eyes, a political aspect.” In this sense, the chained woman incident is the most naked and fundamental political issue of all.

A regime that, over 24 years, failed to discover or rescue a woman held in captivity; that, under the scrutiny of more than four billion views, still used power to block information, suppress investigation, and cut off accountability; and that, even four years after the exposure, has implemented no institutional change—this is no longer a matter of moral failure or grassroots corruption. It is “state crime.”

January 4, 2026, marks the fourth anniversary of the chained woman incident, San Jose City Hall.

January 4, 2026 — The Fourth Anniversary of the Xuzhou Chained Woman Incident, San Jose City Hall

On January 4, 2026, in San Jose in the Bay Area.On a cold, rainy winter day, we stood at City Hall to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Xuzhou chained woman incident. Four years have passed, yet the truth remains incomplete and freedom remain absent. We chose to stand here not because the matter has been resolved, but because it has never truly ended.

The second anniversary of the chained woman incident in 2024, Times Square, New York.

2024 — The Second Anniversary of the Xuzhou Chained Woman Incident, Times Square, New York

Remember the Xuzhou chained woman. Refuse to forget. When the state itself becomes part of the machinery of harm, silence is no longer neutral—it is complicity.