NANJING -- Seventeen people have been held accountable for an alleged woman abuse case in Fengxian county, East China's Jiangsu province, the provincial authorities said Wednesday.

Among them, Lou Hai, Party chief of Fengxian, has been removed from his post, and Zheng Chunwei, head of the county government, has been demanded to resign, according to a report issued by an investigation team of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the provincial government of Jiangsu.

Police have found that a woman named Xiaohuamei, born in a village in Yunnan Province in 1977, began living with a man surnamed Dong in Fengxian in June 1998.

Over the years, Xiaohuamei gave birth to eight children. Suffering from schizophrenia, she is under treatment at a hospital.

Dong was arrested on charges of abuse on Tuesday. A preliminary police investigation showed that Xiaohuamei was bought by Dong's father in June 1998. Further investigation is underway.

Authorities in Jiangsu have launched a campaign across the province to investigate and crack down on crimes that infringe upon women's and children's rights, according to the report.