China under international scrutiny over women’s rights

The UN conference marking the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action has once again sparked criticism of the situation of feminist activism in the Asian country.

Although 30 years have passed since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, considered a milestone for women’s rights, international views continue to clash over the situation of feminist activism in China. The recent UN conference in the Asian country, where the gender agenda was central, revived critical comments toward the Chinese government from organizations and media figures. Attention remains focused on the “Chinese model” and the role it assigns to women.

One of the voices that spoke out was Amnesty International. Sara Brooks, China director of the human rights organization, issued a report setting out strong positions on the Chinese government’s record regarding women. The persecution of activists, restrictive and conservative public policies toward women’s freedoms and a lack of action against gender-based violence stand out among the factors.

Brooks cited cases such as that of human rights lawyer Wang Yu, whose license was revoked after she defended, in 2013, a girl sexually abused by the principal of the school she attended. Reference is also made to the case of Chinese MeToo movement activist Huang Xueqin, imprisoned for four years by the Chinese government on charges of “inciting subversion.”

More recently, in 2023, the case known as the “chained woman” also came to light, referring to a femicide in China’s Jiangsu region, where a woman was found with a chain around her neck after being raped and buried by a man. Added to this are the persecution of LGBTI activist groups and online interventions targeting feminism-related networks. On this point, Amnesty International mentioned the arbitrary closure of three accounts on WeChat in the past month alone.

Although the government of the Asian country has a significant presence in rights bodies such as the UN, there are also frequent criticisms of government centralization in the area of rights as an obstacle to civic activity. The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) released a report in April of this year denouncing how the Chinese State “blocks” civil society participation in the activities of bodies such as the United Nations. The report emphasizes how “government-organized NGOs,” or “GONGOs,” monopolize memberships in multiple international bodies in order to limit “independent voices of society.” This phenomenon is in line with the complaints of Chinese feminist activist groups.

The complex relationship between China and women

Eva Liu, a specialist in Gender Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has provided details on the history of the feminist movement in the Asian country and its current situation. Liu has discussed the evolution of Chinese feminism over the past century and its relationship with the political and social processes of socialist China toward the end of the century and with globalization, along with their respective fluctuations. In that context, the expert maintains that, after the State withdrew its support for NGOs linked to women, activist self-organization gained strength through non-traditional spaces such as social media.

In several of her works, Liu has highlighted how feminism has been labeled by sectors of Chinese nationalism as “Western hostility,” and how that discourse has generated a new Chinese “female patriotism” that strains old traditions. In an interview, Liu also mentioned that even the most “moderate” feminism is the target of censorship and persecution, especially on social media. 

In addition, in her work “When Feminists Are Misidentified as Traitors,” Liu describes how the women’s movement has been stigmatized, above all in cyberspace, as “anti-national” elements through disinformation and prejudice. Liu has pointed to the case of a famous Chinese troll known as “Ziwuxiashi,” accused of driving online smear and silencing campaigns against feminist activists Liang Ziaomeng, Xiao Meili and Zheng Churan in 2016. They were accused and harassed by virtual armies under the labels of “separatists” and “traitors.”

Guillermo Whpei

President of Fundación para la Democracia