(Taipei) Huang Xueqin, who publicly supported a woman when she accused a teacher of sexual assault, was arrested last September. Wang Jianbing, who helped a woman report a case of sexual harassment, was detained with her. Both have since disappeared. Meanwhile, several women’s rights activists have faced smear campaigns on social media and some have had their accounts closed.
When tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public life this month after accusing a former senior Chinese politician of sexual assault, it sparked an international uproar. But in China, Peng Shuai is just one of many people – activists and alleged victims – who have disappeared from public life or who have been accused of crimes, intimidated or silenced for speaking out against harassment, violence and the discrimination women face every day.
When Huang Xueqin helped spark a #moiaussi-type popular movement in China in 2018, she gained fairly wide visibility and achieved some success, because through her efforts, the Civil Code defined what harassment is. sex for the first time. But it has also encountered stiff resistance from the Chinese authorities, who are rushing to counter any social movement that they believe could challenge their hold on power. That crackdown has intensified this year, as part of broader efforts to limit what is acceptable in public discourse.
PHOTO ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
The #moiaussi movement burst into China, when Huang Xueqin (pictured) helped a woman named Luo Xixi publicly accuse her professor at Beihang University of trying to force her to have sex with her.
“They are publicly excluding us from legitimacy, from legitimate public space,” said Lu Pin, an activist who now lives in the United States but is still active on women’s rights issues in China.
In another sign of how threatening the #moiaussi movement and women’s rights activism are to Chinese authorities, many activists have been accused of being tools of foreign interference – a label used to discredit their concerns and accuse them of being in the pay of China’s enemies.
The ongoing crackdown has mainly targeted activists who are little known or influential and often work with marginalized groups.
Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing have both defended disadvantaged groups and have been accused of subverting state power, according to a friend of the two activists who saw a notice sent to Wang Jianbing’s family. He requested anonymity for fear of police reprisals. Police in Guangzhou, southern China, where the woman and man were arrested, did not respond to a request for comment faxed by The Associated Press.
The charges are vague and often used against political dissidents. The families of Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing have not heard from them since their detention and are unable to contact them – another tactic often by the authorities.
The #moiaussi movement burst into China, when Huang Xueqin helped a woman named Luo Xixi publicly accuse her professor at Beihang University of trying to force her to have sex with her. The university investigated and fired the scholar, who it said violated professional ethics.
Luo Xixi’s account inspired dozens of other women to come forward, all online. Thousands of students have signed petitions and pressured universities to tackle sexual violence. Women in different industries spoke out, leading to public discussions about gender power imbalances in many workplaces, the lack of justice for survivors of sexual violence, and how gender can determine how a no one is treated in Chinese society.
While this national conversation has been unsettling for authorities from the start, efforts to counter women’s activism have intensified this year. Efforts led in particular by nationalist and pro-government influencers, some of whom seem to have the blessing of the authorities and have been hailed by the state media.
In the space of a few weeks in the spring, influencers with millions of followers launched a wave of attacks on women’s rights activists on Weibo, one of the main platforms in China. They accused them of being anti-China and of being supported by foreign forces, without proof. Such allegations have often been made against protest movements, including the pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong that Beijing has relentlessly tried to eradicate.
At the end of April, around a dozen activists and nonprofits had their accounts temporarily or permanently suspended. It is not known why either way, but an activist who lost her account, Liang Xiaowen, shared a notice from Weibo that her account had “shared illegal and harmful information.”
Even Zhou Xiaoxuan, who accused famous state television host Zhu Jun of assaulting her when she was an intern and who has already been praised for her courage in speaking out, has faced a campaign of harassment and can no longer publish on its public accounts.
PHOTO ANDY WONG, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zhou Xiaoxuan accused famous state television host Zhu Jun of assaulting her when she was an intern.
On Weibo, users send him private messages such as, “Get out of China, I’m sick of living in the same place as you. Another person called it a piece of “toilet paper” that “strangers use and then throw away.”
The effect is such that any discussion of the harassment, violence or inequalities that women face is increasingly hidden from public view.
Now the situation on social media is such that you have no way of speaking.
Zhou Xiaoxuan
The attacks weren’t limited to the digital space. In September, when Zhou Xiaoxuan went to a court hearing in the civil case where she was suing Zhu Jun for damages and apologies, a group of aggressive passers-by shouted at her and tried to prevent her from speaking to reporters. . The police on the spot did not arrest them.
Late that night, when she left the courthouse and made her way to her house, she said she was followed by men in two cars. The men waited outside his residential complex for half an hour before leaving.
The lobbying campaign also forced a low-profile group called Hot Pepper Tribe, which worked with female migrant workers, to shut down in August. The group had tried to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by women working in factories, construction and other fields related to manual labor. The group had come under pressure from the authorities.
However, activists hope that the #moiaussi movement has opened a door that can no longer be closed.
“You can find a few feminist bloggers and close their accounts, but it’s not that easy,” Zhou Xiaoxuan said.
“To become a feminist is to find out what kind of problems you are facing. And once you become a feminist, then it is very difficult to give it up. And the very important meaning of the #moiaussi movement is that it has inspired a large feminist community. ”