In a story that topped headlines and internet chatter in China last week, Dalian Polytechnic University in China’s northern Liaoning province sparked outrage by expelling a 21-year-old female student for appearing in videos posted nearly seven months ago to the Telegram account of a visiting Ukrainian esports player. Videos of the student in the visitor’s hotel room showed nothing sexually explicit, and it was unclear why the videos had become an issue now, but the university responded vehemently with a public statement naming the student and accusing her of “improper association with foreigners” (与外国人不当交往) that had “damaged national dignity and the school’s reputation” (有损国格、校誉).
The story ignited a fierce debate across Chinese social media over institutional overreach and gender double standards, trending on Weibo on July 13.
Media commentator Zhang Feng (张丰) criticized “sexual nationalism,” arguing that while Chinese men dating foreign women might be seen as acceptable or even deserving praise, the opposite invites fury among sexist males who see Chinese women as property of men and the state. Xiaoxi Cicero (小西cicero), a writer who posts on WeChat, asked whether the same nationalist uproar and expulsion would have followed had a young Chinese man been shown on video with a visiting foreign woman.
One Chinese Substacker summed up the toxic combination of sexism and state-driven nationalism with the pithy post headline: “National Dignity is Not a Penis You Can Brandish at Will.”
The esports player, Danylo Teslenko, also known as “Zeus,” removed the videos within several days, and apologized publicly for sharing what he called “too personal” content. By that point, however, the story had already grabbed headlines in China and around the world — revealing stark contrasts in ethical journalism standards.
While major international media outlets like The New York Times and the Associated Press withheld the victim’s name citing privacy concerns, Chinese domestic media extensively published her full name after the university included it in their official expulsion notice.
As the backlash grew, however, there was a clear effort across the media to scrub her name and replace it with references to her surname or general phrases such as “female student.” At Shanghai’s The Paper, original reports mentioned the student’s full name, which was later substituted for “Li XX.” Readers noticed the change. “So, you’ve swapped out ____ for ‘Li XX,'” said one.” Even posts on public accounts like this one that purported to come to the victim’s defense shamelessly named her, and continued to circulate prurient images from Teslenko’s Telegram channel.
As Chinese-language media in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Southeast Asia reported the story, they generally avoided naming the victim. This did not stop some, however, from squeezing the story for its sensational impact. At Taiwan’s Liberty Times (自由時報) on July 13, the victim was referenced only as “a Chinese female student (中國女大生), but the outlet played up the sexual element of the story by prominently featuring a blurred image of the student playfully sticking her tongue out. A report by Hong Kong’s HK01 similarly avoided mentioning the victim by name, but included a photo gallery of images previously on Teslenko’s account.
