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More brands dump Chinese pop star accused of sexual assault

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/reuters/07/20/20210720-china-entertainment-kriswu.jpg"/><figcaption>Kris Wu arrives at the iHeartRadio MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto, Canada in this Aug. 26, 2018 file photo. <em>Mark Blinch, Reuters</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>BEIJING -- Louis Vuitton, Porsche and Bulgari on Tuesday joined a legion of brands in dropping Chinese-Canadian pop idol Kris Wu, as sexual assault allegations swirling around the star drew condemnation across Chinese social media.</p><p>The scandal has parallels with China&#x27;s #MeToo movement sparked by Chinese feminists in 2018, where women were empowered to voice their experiences of sexual harassment -- sometimes involving powerful public figures.</p><p>Nineteen-year-old student Du Meizhu accused Wu, 30, of date-raping her when she was 17 in a Sunday interview with Chinese news portal NetEase.</p><p>Du said the K-pop star had attempted to buy her silence with 500,000 RMB ($77,100) and told the outlet she planned to go ahead &quot;with legal proceedings.&quot;</p><p>Wu, who also holds Canadian citizenship and grew up between Vancouver and Guangzhou, has denied the allegations on social media. </p><p>&quot;I only met Miss Du once at a friend&#x27;s gathering, I didn&#x27;t ply her with alcohol... I have never &#x27;coerced women into sex&#x27; or engaged in &#x27;date rape,&#x27;&quot; the megastar also known as Wu Yifan, wrote on Monday, adding he does not sleep with underage girls.</p><p>Wu&#x27;s studio also published a lengthy response to Du&#x27;s claims, denying any wrongdoing and alleging that she only met him once at a party, tried to extort his staff for millions of yuan and falsified her accusations.</p><p>&quot;The studio has already launched the legal accountability process,&quot; they wrote Monday evening. </p><p>Du&#x27;s claims sparked a wave of online condemnation of the megastar, as well as an outpouring of support for Du and female victims of sexual assault more generally.</p><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6r9q3AHYJa/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="13" style="background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 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style="padding-top:8px"><div style="color:#3897f0;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:550;line-height:18px"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6r9q3AHYJa/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="background:#FFFFFF;line-height:0;padding:0 0;text-align:center;text-decoration:none;width:100%" target="_blank">View this post on Instagram</a></div></div><div style="padding:12.5% 0"> </div><div style="display:flex;flex-direction:row;margin-bottom:14px;align-items:center"><div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;height:12.5px;width:12.5px;transform:translateX(0px) translateY(7px)"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;height:12.5px;transform:rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px);width:12.5px;flex-grow:0;margin-right:14px;margin-left:2px"> </div><div style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:50%;height:12.5px;width:12.5px;transform:translateX(9px) translateY(-18px)"> </div></div><div 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style="background-color:#F4F4F4;border-radius:4px;flex-grow:0;height:14px;width:144px"> </div></div><div style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:8px;overflow:hidden;padding:8px 0 7px;text-align:center;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6r9q3AHYJa/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">A post shared by Galaxy Fanfan (@kriswu)</a></div></div></blockquote><p><script async="" src="https://www.instagram.com/embed.js" type="text/javascript"></script>The fallout has been significant, given its links with one of China&#x27;s most bankable stars.</p><p>Since Monday a growing number of brands including Louis Vuitton, Bulgari, Porsche and Tencent Video have announced on social media that they were dropping or suspending their collaborations with Wu.</p><p>&quot;Bulgari attaches great importance to the incident relating to Kris Wu and decided to terminate all related collaborations with Wu from today,&quot; the luxury brand wrote on China&#x27;s Twitter-like Weibo Tuesday.</p><p>Louis Vuitton also said it was suspending cooperation with Wu.</p><p>Angry online users have been calling for other brands including L&#x27;Oreal Men and Lancome to sever ties with Wu. </p><p>Lancome said in a Weibo statement Tuesday that its partnership with Wu expired in June.</p><p>Since Du&#x27;s comments, more alleged victims have spoken out online, accusing Wu&#x27;s staff of predatory behavior such as inviting them to boozy karaoke parties with the star. </p><p>The hashtags &quot;girls help girls,&quot; &quot;girls helping girls&quot; and &quot;girls help girls time&quot; -- where women expressed solidarity with Du -- were deactivated by Weibo and removed from the trending list Monday, although they could still be searched online. </p><p>The China Association of Performance Arts said Monday that Wu&#x27;s punishment &quot;must be based on facts instead of relying on online exposes&quot; but called for &quot;severe punishment&quot; if he is found to have broken the law.</p><p>State media has weighed in, as the Global Times called for necessary legal intervention in a Monday Weibo post.</p><p>The Weibo trending hashtag &quot;the law is the lowest standard of morals&quot; racked up 830 million views, as users complained about the high legal threshold required for victims to prove sexual assault in court.</p><div><strong>FROM THE ARCHIVES</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1694069" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Louis Vuitton, Porsche and Bulgari on Tuesday joined a legion of brands in dropping Chinese-Canadian pop idol Kris Wu, as sexual assault allegations swirling around the star drew condemnation across Chinese social media.</p>

Louis Vuitton, Porsche and Bulgari on Tuesday joined a legion of brands in dropping Chinese-Canadian pop idol Kris Wu, as sexual assault allegations swirling around the star drew condemnation across Chinese social media.