In recent months, there have been a number of cases of adults in positions of trust being arrested for sexually abusing children and teenagers. As is often the case, Shenzhen took the lead in introducing preventive measures in the form of a black list of teachers with a history of inappropriate behaviour toward children.

Now cases in Shenzhen and Jiangmen, both involving men in positions of power, have shown that the problem is not one that can be tackled easily.

Shenzhen Daily reports that a doctor at Longgang District People’s Hospital admitted to police that he molested a 17-year-old female patient last week while pretending to be checking on her late at night.

The paper has more:

The patient, surnamed Cai, went to the hospital to have appendicitis surgery July 22. Mao, 40, conducted the surgery. At about 1 a.m. Thursday, Cai saw Mao walk into her hospital room, claiming to check on her. Mao admitted to police that he then inappropriately touched Cai’s genitals.

“It hurt and I thought it was very weird, but I did not say anything. He did not say anything to me, either,” Cai said.

At about 10:30 p.m. the same day, Mao went into the room again after the light was off.

“He (touched my genitals) again for about 10 minutes. I heard a zipper’s sound in the dark,” Cai said. “Because it was too painful, I tried to push his hand away, but he grabbed my hand to touch his genitals.”

Shockingly, this guy is the head of the hospital’s inpatient department. The case is being investigated.

In another case involving an abuse of power, Xinhua reported July 26 that a local official in Jiangmen had been arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing two female middle-school students.

Huang Baolin, 50, is a deputy of the People’s Congress in Yamen Village and the head of the local farm and forestry department. The two year one middle school students have claimed that on four occasions he took them on trips to neighbouring cities such as Taishan and Zhuhai.

They claim that on one occasion, he stayed in a hotel room with them and forced them to perform sexual acts before trying to rape them. They successfully resisted.

Huang has already been stripped of all of his titles.

It remains to be seen, however, to what extent these men will be made an example of.