“Even if I risk my loss, I will speak the truth about you.” Thus ended Peng Shuai’s message, in which the tennis player accused a former Chinese Communist Party official of rape, on November 2. Shortly after, she disappeared. Her recent public appearances, in photos and then in videos in which she partly reconsiders her statements, have not allayed the concerns of the international community. Peng Shuai is alive, but is she speaking on her own? Is she free to move around?
If the doubts remain, it is that in China, the repression threatens all the women denouncing acts of sexual violence. Like the lawyer Xiaowen Liang, harassed and then banned from the Weibo social network in the spring of 2021 for having supported another feminist targeted online by an army of “trolls”. Or like journalist Huang Xueqin, whose investigations have shed light on the subject of sexual harassment in Chinese society. “Huang was arrested in September 2021. No one knows where she has been since”, laments her friend Wang Zheng, professor of “gender studies” at the University of Michigan (United States) contacted by franceinfo. His voice tightens for a moment: “This is the situation of feminism in China.” Censored on social networks, arrested by the police, denigrated by the courts … The fight of women who dare to speak out is becoming more dangerous than ever.
The feminist movement has not always been the object of such repression in China: in the 1990s, many NGOs supporting women were created there. “The police viewed feminism as less dangerous than other political movements”, explains Wang Zheng. This tolerance enabled these NGOs to fight against sexual harassment, which the women did not talk about to avoid shame.
In 2018, Luo Xixi is the first Chinese woman to testify, with her face uncovered, to denounce a former university professor. Her story sets off a wave of testimonies, which overwhelms students, businesses and the media, relayed by women like journalist Huang Xueqin.
“All these women wanted to talk, but they needed someone to tell them, ‘It is possible’.”
Wang Zheng, professor of gender studies at the University of Michiganto franceinfo
The regime could have supported them, gender equality being enshrined in the Chinese constitution. But in 2013, Communist Party President and Secretary Xi Jinping decided to highlight “the unique role of women in the dissemination of Chinese family virtues (…), harmony within the family and society and the normal development of children.”
Under his authority, the party worked to “strengthen traditional gender roles”, explains William Nee, research director for the NGO China Human Rights Defenders, contacted by franceinfo. Understand: encourage the education of virile men and housewives. All to guarantee social stability, but also to enhance the role of mother in a country whose birth rate has been at its lowest for more than 40 years, despite the relaxation of the one-child policy since 2013. Some objectives that do not fit well with the emergence of dissonant voices.
For three years, the government has increased its grip on cyberspace against critics. Feminist discussion groups are blocked, such as “Feminist Voices”, closed on International Women’s Day 2018. The post in which Peng Shuai detailed his accusations was deleted within minutes of its publication. Many phrases and hashtags, like #MeToo, are banned on social media, while threats of rape and slurs remain online.
For their part, the public media such as the newspaper Global Times* claim that the #MeToo movement is being used by the West to “sow chaos, division and even subversion” in China. Charges repeated by the National Federation of Women of China, an organization dubbed by power, and by nationalist influencers who do not hesitate to send their community to harass activists online. “The ‘trolls’ more easily attack feminists who also post messages in support of Uyghurs or protesters in Hong Kong. Acts of betrayal, nationalists say, points out William Nee. In this imaginary, feminism and the defense of LGBT communities are linked to foreign anti-Chinese ideas. “
To get around these barriers, talking about online sexism becomes a game of images: “MeToo” thus becomes “rabbit rice” (“Mi Tu”, in Mandarin). “There are plenty of ways around censorship, with roundabout vocabulary, which can prevent the debate from reaching less informed internet users“, regrets Doriane Lau, researcher specializing in China for Amnesty International joined by franceinfo. Those who can go into exile abroad to disseminate their ideas freely, like Lu Pin, founder of” Feminist Voices “, installed in the United States.
Certain accusations of sexual violence nevertheless succeed in crossing the barriers of censorship. Those against an executive at e-commerce company Alibaba, or against K-Pop star singer Kris Wu, have been echoed in state media. Corn “at the time, the government wanted to reclaim power from tech giants like Alibaba, recalls William Nee. The context may have allowed the accusations to spread more easily. “
Feminists who are not deterred by this mass surveillance deserve more personal attention. “They are often asked to ‘have tea’ by the police”, describes Wang Zheng with a knowing smirk. The most active can be stopped to have “stirred up quarrels and caused unrest”, or worse, for “incitement to subversion of state power”. Two extremely loosely defined crimes used to arrest awkward activists for power.
Sometimes some disappear, like Peng Shuai or Huang Xueqin. Other activists are held for an indefinite period in “black prisons” at an unknown location, without the possibility of communicating with the outside. This treatment is not reserved for feminists, but also applies to political opponents, because the motivation of the regime is always the same. “The Chinese power refuses any form of organization which could create parallel networks of influence and call into question its authority. The domain doesn’t matter, as long as that person or organization has a small audience “, summarizes William Nee.
If the fear of harassment does not deter Chinese women, the justice system is likely to do so. The country has made it clear its definition of sexual harassment in its new civil code, in 2020, but obstacles are very quickly erected in the path of victims.
“When a woman comes to file a complaint for domestic violence, the police often refuse to deal with it because they consider it a private matter.”
Doriane Lau, researcher for Amnesty Internationalto franceinfo
“Courts require a high standard of proof to convict a person of harassment”, explains for franceinfo Darius Longarino, researcher at Yale Law School. “However, these situations often occur behind closed doors, without witnesses or videos, and the testimonies of relatives are rarely taken into account.” Without material evidence that is often difficult to provide, women in turn face defamation lawsuits that are unlikely to be successful. Those who would like to divorce are not treated better, according to several studies cited by The Economist*: the courts tend to dissuade them from doing so and the couple’s property most often goes to the husband.
The few women who have achieved justice in cases of gender-based violence are not necessarily the most encouraging. “I advise victims to think twice before going to court, as it can really destroy you.”Xiang Yang, the first Chinese woman to win a sexual harassment lawsuit, said in 2020.
The effects of this repression are visible everywhere. As early as 2019, feminist Lu Pin noted with bitterness that “movement [Metoo en Chine] was losing momentum* “. “Life in China for feminists is already a nightmare, we don’t want it to get worse”, summarizes Wang Zheng. “That’s why we keep fighting”, she insists, pugnacious.
* Links followed by an asterisk refer to content in English.