Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu, former member of K-pop boy band EXO, has been detained by Chinese police over allegations of rape.
The Beijing police’s Chaoyang branch announced Kris Wu’s detention Saturday night (July 31) on the Chinese microblogging site Weibo.
“According to the online report that ‘Wu Yifan repeatedly deceived young women to have sex’ and other related circumstances, Wu (male, 30 years old, Canadian national) is suspected of rape after police investigation, and has been detained by Public Security Bureau at Chaoyang district in accordance with the law, and the investigation work is being further carried out,” the Chaoyang district police posted on Weibo, according to Chinese newspaper Global Times.
The post has been liked by 10.8 million users, reposted by 762,000 and earned 310,000 comments as of writing. It became the No. 1 trending topic on Weibo and as of writing, it has been read 1.39 billion times.
Kris Wu has been battling criticisms after he was accused last month by Chinese influencer Du Meizhu of luring girls including underage into sex. He lost numerous endorsements because of the controversy.
“He would come up with the same excuses – selecting female leads for MVs or signing them to become an artist under his label – to manipulate them to come out. After a while, they would no longer discuss about work, and the girls would be ushered to his drinking parties, forcing them to get drunk, and then sexual intercourse happens,” she said, according to Hype Malaysia.
She added, “This is considered fraudulent behaviour because people lose consciousness after they are intoxicated. I was deceived by him (Wu) and got drunk. Following that, he said that he’ll be responsible and will always be with me. And then this is what’s happening right now. He pretended not to know me and acted like I’m a stranger; accusing me of trying to gain clout out of nowhere.”
On Saturday night, Du Meizhu’s sister said "only after having experienced hellish torture can we have the power to conquer heaven. Our efforts are not in vain. All the injustices we suffer will turn into motivation. Thank you," Global Times added.
In their initial investigation on the relationship between Kris Wu and Du Meizhu, the Beijing police’s Chaoyang branch announced on July 22 that at 10 p.m. on Dec. 5, 2020, Feng, who was Kris Wu’s acting manager at the time, invited Du Meizhu, 18, to his home supposedly for an audition for a female lead in a music video.
Kris Wu attended the party where more than 10 people played board games and drank together. By 7 a.m. the next day, the attendees left one after another. After drinking, Du Meizhu stayed at Wu’s house and they had sex.
In the afternoon, Du Meizhu left Wu’s home after having a meal. Wu and Du Meizhu added each other on the WeChat app.
“On Dec. 8, Wu transferred 32,000 RMB to Du Meizhu for online shopping. They maintained contact on WeChat until April 2021,” the report stated.
In June 2021, Du Meizhu and her friend Liu, 19, discussed making public her relationship with Wu in order to boost her Internet popularity.
On June 2, Liu published a blog post about Wu "emotionally abusing" Du Meizhu, according to Twitter account Weibo Trending. Du Meizhu published three online posts from July 8 to 11. On July 13, male writer Xu contacted Du Meizhu for profit. The two planned for Xu to write 10 Weibo posts, which Du Meizhu would publish on Weibo starting on July 16.
The Beijing police also revealed that a man was arrested for trying to defraud Wu and Du Meizhu.
On July 14, Chaoyang police received a report from Wu’s mom claiming they had been blackmailed by Du Meizhu. On that day, the police investigated. In the process, suspect Liu, 23, was identified and arrested in Nantong City, Jiangsu Province on July 18.
Based on investigation, in June 2021, Liu saw the internet hype about Du Meizhu and Wu and came up with the idea of pretending to be a related person to defraud both parties.
During the period, Liu made a fictitious female identity and gained Du Meizhu’s trust by pretending to be another victim of Wu. Liu used the nickname “DDX” on WeChat to contact Du Meizhu and obtain information about her and Wu.
On July 10, Liu used the information he obtained and contacted Wu’s lawyer and pretended to be Du Meizhu and demanded 3 million RMB (about $463,000) in compensation under the pretext of reaching a settlement between the two parties.
Liu sent the bank accounts of Du Meizhu and his to Wu’s lawyer. At the same time, Liu used the WeChat account of "Beijing Fanshi Culture Media", claiming to be Wu lawyer, and negotiated with Du Meizhu to reach a settlement of 3 million RMB in compensation, but the two parties did not sign a settlement agreement.
On July 11, Wu’s mom transferred 500,000 RMB (about $77,000) to Du Meizhu in two transactions. Liu, who did not get the money, continued to pretend to be Du Meizhu and attempted to ask for the remaining 2.5 million RMB ($386,000) from Wu’s lawyer.
Later, he pretended to be Wu’s lawyer and asked Du Meizhu to sign a settlement agreement, or otherwise, he would get back the 500,000 RMB that she received. After Du Meizhu agreed to refund, Liu pretended to be Wu’s lawyer and provided his Alipay account to Du Meizhu, who transferred 180,000 ($27,800) to the account.
After Liu was arrested, he confessed to the crime of fraud, the Beijing police said. At present, Liu has been criminally detained by Chaoyang police.
Kris Wu previously denied the allegations. In a Weibo post on July 19, he said, “I didn't respond before because l didn't want to disturb the legal proceedings but didn't think that silence would encourage the rumormongers to take it one step further. I'm at the end of my rope!”
“I have only seen Ms. Du once during a friendly gathering on December 5. 2020. Nobody was plied with alcohol, no phones were taken away, and absolutely none of those ‘details’ she described took place. Many people were present at the gathering that day, they can all testify to this!” the pop star said, according to Weibo Trending.
He added, “I'm so sorry for disturbing everyone. | am stating that l have never ‘picked concubines’! Never ‘seduced and raped’ or ‘drugged and raped’! There were no ‘underage ’! If I behaved like this, everyone please rest assured I would put myself in jail!! I take legal responsibility for everything I just said!!”