Li Tianyi, 17, denies raping woman in Beijing hotel with four other men as high-profile case gets under way

A prominent Chinese general's teenage son accused of gang-rape denied the charges against him as his trial began on Wednesday, in a case that has triggered outrage about entitlement and misbehaviour among the country's privileged elite.

Li Tianyi, 17, stands accused of raping a woman in a Beijing hotel with four other men in February. Li claimed that he was drunk at the time and had no knowledge of the incident, according to state media reports.

Li's father, Li Shuangjiang, is a People's Liberation Army general and the dean of the music department at the army's Academy of Arts. His mother, prominent singer Meng Ge, was present at the Beijing courthouse on Wednesday, but refused to answer reporters' questions, according to China's state newswire Xinhua. The proceedings will not be made public because the defendant is an adolescent, Xinhua said.

The complainant did not appear in court for health-related reasons, her lawyer told the newswire. Li's family members have said that she was a bar hostess and argued that the case is one of prostitution, not rape.

The children of China's moneyed and powerful elite, often pejoratively referred to as "second-generation rich", are routinely represented in China's media and online chatrooms as spoiled, reckless and confident that their family connections put them above the law.

Li's case sparked controversy in July, when Tsinghua University law professor Yi Yanyou wrote on his microblog that the rape was less harmful because of the woman's profession. "Chaste women and prostitutes have different views on chasteness," he told the Wall Street Journal after the post went viral, "so [rape has] a different impact on them."

Li Tianyi was the second most-read topic on Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblog, on Wednesday afternoon; it has dominated Chinese newspaper headlines for weeks. This month the Beijing Times quoted an "insider" as revealing details of the rape. The report said Li and his friends forced the complainant into a hotel room and beat her after she refused to take off her clothes. Li allegedly raped her first then his friends followed. They allegedly gave the woman 2,000 yuan (about £200) and dumped her on the roadside.

Li has been in the spotlight before – in 2011 he and a friend, driving expensive cars without licences, attacked a couple that allegedly stood in their way as their five-year-old child looked on helplessly. Li was detained for assault and spent a year in a correctional facility, according to state media. His father offered the couple compensation.