cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/44096052
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For China, the U.N. summit on October 13-14 is the final, triumphant act of a yearlong show of force from its diplomatic and media mouthpieces seeking to center its “historic achievements in women’s development” and position China as a global model for women’s rights protection.
Yet as officials trumpet their “30 years of progress” to assembled dignitaries, the voices of the country’s own feminists will be conspicuously absent.
That’s because many are in prison, while others face threats and harassment intended to keep them silent – whether they still live in China, or have had to flee abroad.
China’s self-congratulatory narrative on women’s rights has been pushed not just at home, but also abroad: from the halls of the United Nations to the pages of local embassies and media markets in, for example, South Africa, Tanzania, Liberia, Ghana and Grenada. Last month, state-run press even published two compilations of Xi Jinping’s speeches in English for the explicit purpose of “help[ing] international readers gain a deeper understanding of Xi’s views” on women’s rights and much more ahead of the U.N. meeting in Beijing.
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Xi’s views are clear on one point: that shutting down space for critical voices and public discussion on human rights, including topics of women and gender, are essential matters of national security.
Over the last decade, the Chinese state has continued to implement laws and policies that suppress feminist activism – and in doing so has convicted women human rights defenders one by one.
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The five women made famous by their 2015 criminal detentions for advocacy on International Women’s Day continue to work in civil society and to push for policy change – but they are careful to do so in ways that keep them and their families safe. Following their detentions, the costs of speaking out publicly have only risen. For four years, #MeToo activist and journalist Huang Xueqin has been locked up for “inciting subversion of state power” for her social media posts and her efforts to learn about and discuss non-violent movements.
Many other women activists – such as Li Qiaochu, Chen Jianfang, Xu Yan and Zhang Zhan – have languished in prison based on similarly spurious convictions. Vaccine safety advocate He Fangmei was convicted of “picking quarrels” and (absurdly) bigamy in 2024; when she’s released in 2027 she will have spent seven of the last eight years in detention. Her family doesn’t know where her daughters – the youngest one born while she was in detention – are located.
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When Chinese officials wax poetic about the country’s progress on women’s rights, it is essential to remember that this is not the whole story. The government postures on anti-discrimination, locks up women defenders, and criminalizes feminist activism – all out of fear that the system the CCP has built might come crashing down on their heads.
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Lmfao. China isn’t progressive on anything. Every LGBT person could, at any time, be dragged away.
Can’t even get married.
China is a fucking social joke.