BEIJING: A Chinese court rejected an appeal in a landmark sexual harassment case on Wednesday, dealing a blow to the country’s fledgling #MeToo movement.

Zhou Xiaoxuan stepped forward in 2018 to accuse popular state TV host Zhu Jun of forcibly kissing and groping her during her 2014 internship at the broadcaster.

Zhou’s case inspired many others to share their experiences of sexual assault publicly and sparked a social media storm. A Beijing court rejected her appeal on Wednesday, citing insufficient evidence.

Zhou’s case was rejected last year on similar grounds, prompting her to appeal.

But the court said it had “rejected all the appeal requests by Zhou and will uphold the previous judgment”. Police cordoned off long stretches of pavement outside the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court ahead of her arrival this morning, with officers logging the details of passers-by.

“I still feel a little scared and dejected,” she said ahead of her appeal this morning.

“The process of the first trial was a deep secondary injury.” Zhou, 29, said before returning to court that her legal team would focus on getting access to more evidence, such as police transcripts of interviews with her parents after she reported the incident — which were not included in the earlier trial — and surveillance footage.

Zhou said Zhu was absent from earlier proceedings, and that while he had sued her for defamation, she was not aware of further developments in that case.

A small group of supporters came to wish Zhou luck on Wednesday, holding up signs that said “#MeToo” and balloons spelling out “All the best” in Chinese.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2022