Years ago, a disheveled woman with signs of mental illness appeared in a village in northern China. One man decided to bring her home and, over the next 13 years, he had several children with her. He was later detained on suspicion of rape.

多年前，一名衣衫襤褸、貌似有精神疾病的女子出現在中國北方的一個村莊。一名男子決定將她帶回家，並在接下來的13年裡與她生下了多名孩子。這名男子後來因涉嫌強姦罪被拘留。

Recently, prosecutors reached a conclusion that stunned many Chinese. They determined that the woman’s mental illness left her unable to defend herself from sexual assault, but said the man had not committed any crime.

近日，檢察機關作出的一項結論令許多中國人感到震驚。檢方認定，這名女子因精神疾病喪失抵禦性侵的能力，但同時認為該男子並未犯罪。

The prosecutors argued that, because the man had lived with the woman for a long time and had children with her, his conduct was “fundamentally different from rape,” according to a copy of the decision obtained by The New York Times.

根據《紐約時報》獲得的決定書副本，檢察官的理由是，由於該男子與該女子長期共同生活並育有子女，其行為與「與強姦犯罪行為存在本質區別」。

The decision in Heshun County, a rural area of Shanxi Province, provoked widespread outrage. On social media, critics said it suggested that when a sexual relationship produces children, the authorities are willing to overlook a woman’s possible lack of consent.

這一發生在山西和順縣的裁決引發了廣泛憤慨。社群媒體上的批評人士指出，這表明當性關係產生孩子時，當局願意忽略女性可能缺乏同意的情況。

Further stoking anger was the fact that prosecutors did charge two other male villagers with raping her, specifically citing a doctor’s assessment that the woman, identified by her surname, Bu, had “no sexual self-defense capacity.”

進一步激起公眾不滿的是，檢方以強姦罪起訴了另外兩名同村男子，並明確引用了一名醫生的評估，稱這名卜姓女子「無性自我防衛能力」。

The term comes from Chinese official guidelines about how to evaluate women with mental disorders who are potential victims of rape; it means that the woman has “lost the ability to recognize and protect her own right to sexual inviolability.” Chinese criminal law does not explicitly define sexual consent, but says that rape involves “violence, coercion or other means.”

這一術語源自中國官方關於如何評估可能成為強姦受害者的精神障礙女性的指南；它意味著該女性已「喪失了對自身性不可侵犯權利的認識與維護能力」。中國刑法沒有明確定義性同意，但規定強姦涉及使用「暴力、脅迫或者其他手段」。

For many women, the prosecutors’ decision confirmed their fears about how far the government will go to promote childbearing. As China’s birthrate plunges, the government told women to see starting a family as a patriotic duty. Marital rape is not defined as a crime in China. (Prosecutors said the man, identified by the surname Zhang, held a wedding celebration for himself and Ms. Bu but did not say if they were ever legally married.)

對許多女性來說，檢察機關的這一決定印證了她們對政府將不惜代價推動生育的擔憂。隨著中國出生率急劇下降，政府曾要求女性將組建家庭視為一種愛國責任。在中國，婚內強姦並未被明確界定為犯罪。（檢察官表示，這名張姓涉案男子曾為自己和卜女士舉辦過婚禮，但未說明兩人是否存在法定婚姻關係。）

Ms. Bu’s story first came to light in 2024, when a woman in Heshun contacted a blogger who specializes in helping Chinese people find lost relatives. The woman said that her uncle had been living with a woman — who was known only as Hua Hua — for over a decade, but no one in the family knew anything about her background.

卜女士的遭遇於2024年首次曝光。當時，和順縣的一名女子聯繫了一位專門幫助中國人尋找失散親人的部落客。她說，自己的叔叔與一名女子共同生活了十多年，這名女子只被稱為「花花」，家裡沒人知道她的身世背景。

The blogger soon announced that he had discovered Hua Hua’s birth family. Her surname was Bu and, 13 years earlier, she left her home in the city of Jinzhong, 90 miles away. At the time she disappeared, she was a 32-year-old university graduate who had been hospitalized multiple times for schizophrenia, her brother told Chinese news outlets. Her family had reported her missing.

不久後，這位部落客宣布找到了「花花」的家人。她姓卜，13年前從145公里外的晉中市離家出走。她失蹤時32歲，是一名研究生，曾因精神分裂多次住院治療——她的哥哥向中國媒體這樣介紹。家人當年在她失蹤後曾經報案。

According to a government investigation, Ms. Bu eventually arrived in Heshun County, where she encountered Mr. Zhang. He “took her in,” the police initially said.

政府調查顯示，卜女士最終流落至和順縣，在那裡遇到了張某。警方最初稱張某「收留」了她。

On social media, people accused the police of using a euphemism for human trafficking or illegal detention. After public pressure, the government detained Mr. Zhang on suspicion of rape, saying that he had known she had a mental illness.

在社群媒體上，人們指責警方使用了對人口拐賣或非法拘禁的委婉說法。迫於輿論壓力，當局以涉嫌強姦罪拘留了張某，稱他明知卜女士患有精神疾病。

Then, last week, several Chinese outlets reported that prosecutors had decided not to charge Mr. Zhang.

然而，就在上週，多家中國媒體報導稱，檢察機關已決定對張某不予起訴。

“His subjective intent was to form a family,” the prosecutors wrote in their decision.

檢方在決定書中寫道：「其主觀意願系組建家庭。」

They also said that Mr. Zhang had given away one of Ms. Bu’s children in exchange for about $5,700, but concluded that the transaction amounted to private adoption, not child trafficking.

檢方還指出，張某曾將卜女士生的一個孩子以4萬元價格送他人抱養，但認定該行為屬民間送養，不構成拐賣兒童罪。

“The aforementioned actions are conspicuously minor and caused minimal harm,” the decision said.

決定書稱：「上述行為情節顯著輕微，危害不大。」

On Chinese social media, commentators said the authorities cared only about protecting men and the traditional family.

在中國社群媒體上，評論者指出，有關部門只關心保護男性權益和傳統家庭。

Reached by phone, a worker at the prosecutors’ office in Heshun declined to comment. Two of Ms. Bu’s relatives also declined to comment, with one saying that his phone was being restricted.

記者致電和順縣檢察院，一名工作人員拒絕置評。卜女士的兩名親屬也拒絕發表評論，其中一人稱自己的手機正受到限制。

The government has long turned a blind eye to the trafficking of women, especially because of the country’s surplus of tens of millions of men, many of whom cannot find wives.

長期以來，政府對拐賣婦女現象視而不見，這在很大程度上源於中國男性比女性多出數千萬的現實，許多男性找不到老婆。

“For women with mental disabilities, whether or not rape has occurred no longer depends on their capacity for consent, but rather on whether the other party has successfully packaged the sexual relationship within a seemingly normal, stable and socially acceptable relationship,” a lawyer, Yan Senlin, wrote in a post that was later censored.

律師顏森林在一篇後被刪除的帖子中寫道：「對精神殘障女性而言，是否構成強姦，不再取決於她是否有能力同意，而取決於對方是否成功將性關係包裝進了一種看起來正常、穩定、被社會接受的生活關係之中。」

But prosecutors did charge the two other villagers who they said had gone to Ms. Bu’s home multiple times and raped her.

但檢察機關對另外兩名村民提起了公訴，指控他們多次前往卜女士住處實施強姦。

“The defendant knew that the victim had a mental illness and had sex with her multiple times,” the indictment of one villager said. “The circumstances are egregious. He should be held criminally responsible for rape.”

「被告明知被害人系精神病患者而多次與之發生性關係，」其中一名村民的起訴書寫道。「情節惡劣，應當以強姦罪追究其刑事責任。」

A hashtag about Ms. Bu was censored after being viewed more than 160 million times on the social media platform Weibo. But videos posted by her sister-in-law on social media show that she is with her family, receiving medical care. In the videos, Ms. Bu smiles and answers questions.

社群媒體平台微博上關於卜女士的話題標籤在獲得超1.6億閱讀量後被屏蔽。但她的嫂子在社群媒體上發布的影片顯示，卜女士目前與家人生活在一起，正在接受醫療照護。影片中，卜女士面帶笑容，能夠回答問題。

“After one year of treatment, Hua Hua is clearly improving,” one caption said.

其中一條影片的配文寫道：「通過一年的治療花花明顯好轉了。」