On 12 May, a 38-year-old Chinese immigration broker named Hu Xiaodong (sound) was sentenced to 29 years’ imprisonment in Melbourne, Australia, for battery of women. It is striking that one of the victims was repeatedly raped by Hu Xiaodong and several were forced into hospital for treatment.

Since this year, the Chinese Consulate-General in Sydney has issued several security alerts alerting groups such as students to physical and property security.

After many years of trial, the convicted person is eventually sentenced.

Georgea McMaster, Prosecutor in charge of the case, indicated that Hu Xiaodong, father of two children (known as Frank) operated an immigration intermediary in the Melbourne City Centre. The Agency mainly employs women with student visas in administrative, accounting and translation positions. As many female employees depend mainly on this work, “a great disequilibrium in power” has been introduced to Hu Xiaodong.

McMaster indicated that in June 2018, officers of the Australian Border Force stopped Hu Xiaodong at Melbourne airport and found suspicious material on his mobile phone, and that the police then opened a case investigation against him.

It was known that the police had discovered many images of women who had been sexually assaulted in his cell, and that the victims were in a state of coma or coma. However, the investigation was at an impasse at that time, owing to the inability to identify the victims.

At the end of 2018, the incident took place, and one of the victims contacted the police, claiming that they had been sexually assaulted by Hu Xiaodong.

In 1940, another victim contacted the police after being sold by Hu Xiaodong, where she entered his computer and found him to be a member of a pornographic web site where she shared pictures of sexual abuse of women who had become unconscious or sleeping. She took pictures from Hu Xiaodong to the police as evidence. Another woman with Hu Xiaodong for more than five years found that between 2016 and 2019, Hu Xiaodong filmed 1369 photographs and 195 videos while she became unconscious.

After being indicted, Hu Xiaodong pleaded guilty directly at the trial stage and pleaded not guilty to eight counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault, three counts of intentional injury and one count of ruthless causing serious injury.

On 12 May 2023, Judge Wye, sentenced Hu Xiaodong to 29 years’ imprisonment, 22 of whom were not released on bail.

• The case sits in the local courts in Australia

67 victims of violence

The court records show that Hu Xiaodong often borrows from work or recruits for medicines against women, creating a customary modus operandi. He will provide the victims with heat chocolates, nuts or white water with powder. A few hours later, the victim became unconscious, finding himself in a toilet or being transported to a hospital by Hu Xiaodong due to poor physical condition.

Previously, girls had felt “stalking” after consuming a beverage sent by Hu Xiaodong, and left behind. There were also cases in which girls had identified several women as being ill in the work of Hu Xiaodong, when Hu Xiaodong argued that this was only incidental.

Some of the victims were seriously ill-health after being brought to the medication, and Hu Xiaodong had called ambulances for medical treatment on four occasions. One of the victims, after being put down, suffered a heart attack and was taken to hospital for two days in the IU hospital, and after using a cardio-pulmonary pulmon, the physical condition of the victim was gradually recovered.

A further 67 women who had been subjected to violence read out their testimony during the court hearing, detailing how she was going to nightmare at Hu Xiaodong when sleeping.

She stated in court that “Since these events have taken place, I have been disturbed, and I will not sleep after the light. I come from a very traditional family, and I am in no way able to share this experience with the parents, and I cannot let them know that I was pilled and raped.”

Turning to the long-term impact of atrocities on their lives, she said that “I will now think too little about what I will do, let me say nothing, and I do not believe anybody”.

Judges are outraged: conduct is too cold

In the case of the trial, Judge Wye v. Hu Xiaodong: “The conduct of you is cold, systematic and repetitive. Once the victim loses consciousness, you will record this incident in detail by taking photographs of the respective victims. Your crimes have lasted for many years, reflecting the enormous amount of blood that you have invested in trying to create these atrocities.”

Judge Wye stated that Hu Xiaodong bears full responsibility for his own conduct and should feel fear, anger and shame over his own conduct. Moreover, during his trial, he lacked sympathy for the particularly serious traumatic impact on the victims.

According to the Australian media, Hu Xiaodong was a Minister in China and later came to the University of Australia to remain in Melbourne after graduation. He had told a psychiatrist that his spiritual world had “opened a wrong door”.

International Organization of African Unity

Prepared by

“The sense of shortage has not improved at all,” Hiroyuki Sato, head of Toshiba’s equipment department, said in an interview. “We expect that the current tight supply will continue until at least March next year.”

Ukraine is a major supplier of rare gases such as neon and krypton, both of which are key elements in semiconductor production. According to trendforce, Ukraine accounts for nearly 70% of global neon production.

Although some chip manufacturers are currently downplaying the impact of the conflict, Sato said it was clearly not a positive signal.

Toshiba’s equipment division produces seemingly insignificant but essential computer components such as power conditioning chips. The company issued a warning on the supply chain in September last year. Sato said that the situation and prospect evaluation have not improved since then. Sato said prices could continue to rise.

“The rise in the prices of various raw materials such as metals has been going on for a year, and we still can’t predict when this trend will reverse. We must and will need our customers to help share the burden, because no company can withstand the full impact,” he said

Sharp said last month that it was paying close attention to costs before deciding on the pricing of its latest electronic products. I-O data device, a Japanese computer peripheral product manufacturer that just raised the price of LCD last year, also said that it would soon take the same price increase measures for its networked storage products.

Toshiba said last month that it intends to advance its investment plan to expand semiconductor production capacity from the first half of fiscal 2023 to fiscal 2022. But Sato pointed out that this alone is not enough to completely overcome the chip shortage. If necessary, the company may further increase the pace of capital expenditure.