'Fuel = sedative, car = victim': Chinese sex crime ring shocks Germany

A Chinese sex crime network that operated in Germany for years has been exposed, sending shockwaves through German society. The group targeted women of Chinese descent, drugging and sexually assaulting them before filming and sharing footage of the attacks.

A Berlin court sentenced Xiao Zhiting, 32, a Chinese doctor who participated in the online sex crime network operating on Telegram, to five years in prison, according to foreign media including The Guardian on Monday.

Xiao faces charges of repeatedly providing medical advice to network members on how to administer sedatives to victims. He was also convicted of sexually assaulting his fiancée.

The court described his conduct as "extremely misogynistic in that it reduced the victims to mere objects of sexual desire."

According to the court ruling, Xiao and seven others ran a Telegram chat group in Germany under the name "German Driving School," using it to plan and carry out sexual assaults.

The group used code words to conceal their crimes — "fuel" referred to sedatives and "car" referred to the victims. All were Chinese nationals who filmed the assaults, shared the footage and praised one another's crimes.

The network came to light after multiple victims filed reports, leading to the arrest of the group's leader, IT engineer Zhang Dapeng, 44. Police subsequently arrested another member, Chinese international student Tong Zhi, 26, and during a search of his home recovered condoms, women's underwear, syringes, prescription sedatives and hard drives.

Zhang was sentenced to 14 years in prison on charges of aggravated rape and attempted murder. Zhong Yi, a 28-year-old Chinese master's student in robotics, received a sentence of 11 years and three months for repeatedly drugging and sexually assaulting his girlfriend and filming the acts.

Tong, who was found to have sexually assaulted 11 women at various residences across Germany between 2019 and 2024, was sentenced to five years and nine months on charges of aggravated rape, dangerous bodily harm and invasion of privacy.

The court said the offenders' motivation stemmed from "extreme misogyny that viewed the victims not as human beings but as objects."