In China, the ruling Communist Party encourages women to focus on motherhood and the home, rather than self-emancipation. While some Chinese feminists have tried to denounce the inequality and discrimination they face, their numbers are dwindling amid a crackdown by authorities. Our correspondents report.
Feminism is not welcome in China. Like all forms of activism, it is nipped in the bud as soon as any kind of mobilisation begins. In the eyes of the Communist Party, any collective organisation or political demand is seen as a threat. Actions deemed harmless in the rest of the world are so severely repressed and monitored in China that almost nobody now takes the risk. Huang Xueqin, the first journalist to write about the feminist #MeToo movement, has been in prison for nearly three years on charges of "inciting subversion of state power".
In China, feminists have to keep a low profile and find ways of making their voices heard without crossing the line in one of the most highly censored countries in the world. It is impossible for them to denounce head-on their exclusion from places of power, the discrimination they suffer in the workplace, domestic violence or even the beauty standards to which they are subjected. The rare criticism that exists is made in hushed tones – or from abroad, by feminists in exile.
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