作者：Chang Kun 编辑：李聪玲 翻译：彭小梅
2022 年 1 月，一段模糊却刺眼的视频在寒冬中流出。画面里，一名女子被铁链拴在破屋中，脖颈被金属勒住，神情麻木，衣衫单薄。她没有名字，没有声音，甚至不像一个被当作“人”对待的存在。后来，人们称她为“铁链女”。
铁链女的出现，并不是偶然揭开的黑暗，而是一次失败的遮掩。她之所以被世界看到，不是因为制度的自省，而是因为一段无法彻底抹除的视频。正因如此，她才如此令人恐惧——不是对民众而言，而是对统治者而言。
铁链锁住的从来不只是她的身体。那条铁链连接着拐卖、强迫婚姻、强迫生育、基层权力的合谋、地方政府的失职乃至包庇，也连接着一个长期将“稳定”置于人权之上的体制。在一个真正尊重法治与人的尊严的社会里，这样的场景不可能长期存在；而在中共治下，它却能成为“常态”，只是多数时候不允许被看见。
更令人愤怒的，并非暴行本身——因为暴行在历史上并不罕见。而是暴行被曝光之后，权力所表现出的冷漠与傲慢。多次前后矛盾的官方通报，刻意模糊事实的表述，对追问者的封禁与打压，对民间调查者的威胁与噤声，都在清楚地告诉世人：在这个体系里，真相比受害者更危险。
铁链女没有被第一时间解救，却第一时间成为“舆情风险”。她的痛苦不是优先事项，如何让事件“降温”“翻篇”“消失”才是。于是，人们看到的不是公开透明的司法追责，而是对讨论的压制；不是制度反思，而是对记忆的清洗。
铁链女之所以成为一个符号，是因为她让太多中国人意识到：她并不是唯一。她可能只是无数被拐卖、被囚禁、被强迫生育、被剥夺人生选择权的女性中，唯一被镜头捕捉到的那一个。还有更多人，被铁链锁住，却连被命名的机会都没有。
一个政权如何对待最弱势的人，决定了它的道德底线。一个以“人民”为名，却允许女性像物品一样被买卖、被占有、被消耗的体制，本质上就是对人的尊严的系统性否定。铁链女不是中共暴政的“意外”，而是它长期运行逻辑的必然结果。
纪念铁链女，并不是为了重复悲伤，而是拒绝遗忘。遗忘，正是暴政最渴望的结局。只要人们还在提起她，只要她仍被记住，那条铁链就没有真正完成它的使命。
铁链女应当被纪念，不是作为一个被驯服的受害者，而是作为一个无法被彻底抹去的控诉。她的存在提醒我们：当权力不受约束，当真相被压制，当个体尊严可以被牺牲来换取所谓的“稳定”，任何人都可能成为下一条铁链的另一端。
铁链终会生锈，谎言终会坍塌。
但前提是，人们不再沉默。
Beneath the Iron Chains Lies a Nation’s Imprisoned Conscience
Abstract:The “Chained Woman” case exposes the systemic atrocities of human trafficking, forced marriage, and power-backed impunity under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) system. More terrifying than the suffering itself is the suppression and erasure of truth. To remember the Chained Woman is to indict tyranny and to safeguard human conscience.
Author: Chang Kun Editor: Li Congling Translator: Peng Xiaomei
In January 2022, a blurry yet piercing video surfaced in the depths of winter. In the footage, a woman was chained inside a dilapidated shack, her neck constricted by metal, her expression numbs, her clothing thin and inadequate. She had no name, no voice, and scarcely appeared to be treated as a human being at all. Later, people came to call her the “Chained Woman.”
The emergence of the Chained Woman was not the accidental unveiling of darkness, but the failure of an attempted cover-up. She was seen by the world not because the system engaged in self-reflection, but because a video could not be completely erased. For this very reason, she became terrifying—not to the people, but to the rulers.
The iron chain never restrained only her body. That chain links human trafficking, forced marriage, forced childbirth, collusion by grassroots authorities, dereliction of duty and even cover-ups by local governments, and a system that has long placed “stability” above human rights. In a society that genuinely respects the rule of law and human dignity, such scenes could not persist for long; yet under CCP rule, they can become “normal,” so long as they are not allowed to be seen.
What provokes even greater outrage is not the atrocity itself—atrocities are not uncommon in history—but the indifference and arrogance displayed by power after the atrocity was exposed. Repeatedly contradictory official statements, deliberately vague descriptions of facts, censorship and repression of those who asked questions, and threats and silencing of independent investigators all send a clear message to the world: in this system, the truth is more dangerous than the victim.
The Chained Woman was not rescued at the earliest moment; instead, she was immediately classified as a “public opinion risk.” Her suffering was not a priority—what mattered was how to “cool down” the incident, “close the case,” and make it disappear. As a result, what people witnessed was not open and transparent judicial accountability, but the suppression of discussion, not institutional reflection, but the erasure of memory.
The Chained Woman became a symbol because she made countless Chinese people realize that she was not the only one. She may have been merely the one among countless women who were trafficked, imprisoned, forcibly impregnated, and stripped of their right to choose their own lives—captured by a camera. Many more remain bound by chains, without even the chance to be named.
How a regime treats its most vulnerable determines its moral baseline. A system that claims to act in the name of “the people,” yet allows women to be bought, possessed, and consumed like objects, is, at its core, a systemic negation of human dignity. The Chained Woman is not an “accident” of CCP tyranny, but the inevitable outcome of its long-standing logic of operation.
To commemorate the Chained Woman is not to relive sorrow, but to refuse forgetting. Forgetting is precisely the ending that tyranny most desires. As long as people continue to speak of her, as long as she is remembered, that iron chain has not fulfilled its mission.
The Chained Woman should be remembered not as a tamed victim, but as an accusation that cannot be erased. Her existence reminds us that when power is unchecked, when truth is suppressed, and when individual dignity can be sacrificed in exchange for so-called “stability,” anyone can become the other end of the next iron chain.
Iron chains will eventually rust and lies will eventually collapse.But only if people refuse to remain silent.
