A "crisis of trust" fueled a heated discussion over now-disproved reports that a Chinese woman intentionally threw herself in front of a foreigner's motorbike on Tuesday to extort money from him, experts say.

The woman, surnamed Li, was knocked over by a foreigner when she was on a pedestrian crosswalk in Beijing's Chaoyang district on Monday morning. The woman and the foreigner then argued while many bystanders looked on.

The woman was taken to a hospital after police arrived. The foreigner later gave the woman 1,800 yuan ($295) as compensation in the hospital.