Many Chinese people took the opportunity to “celebrate” International Women’s Day by championing women’s rights, both on social media and on the streets. Passersby who questioned the actions of the men in white and in blue were concerned that she might have been kidnapped or trafficked. This is quite unlikely because human traffickers in China are professionals and could not have been so maladroit.
The truth is, this woman came from the provinces to make a petition. Maybe she’s been watching too many Justice Bao episodes and thinks it works in modern China. The men restraining her were probably plainclothes policemen. She’s likely to end up in an unofficial detention centre without being formally arrested (she didn’t commit any crime).
The second video shows a group of uniformed police officers making an arrest, accusing a man of instigating others in his WeChat group to march on Tiananmen Square to speak out for the chained woman in Xuzhou. He denied it. On 3 March 2022, the Internet police in China tracked down every single WeChat and Weibo posting on the chained Xuzhou woman.