Tearing Down the Wall: Transnational Chinese Feminist Solidarity amidst Xi’s Politics of Censorship

Author: Isabelle Lee

Under Xi Jinping’s authoritarian rule, Chinese feminists face a resurgence of state suppression. The CCP’s tight control over public discourse has intensified through pervasive online censorship, surveillance, and intimidation. As a result, feminist activism has been forced underground.

Photo Source: The Economist: China says it defends women's rights. So why attack feminists?

In 2015, the arrests of the “Feminist Five” launched discussions of feminism into mainstream Chinese digital platforms. However, their supporters quickly found their accounts were banned or suspended on social media site Weibo, posts containing “feminism” were taken down from digital marketplace Taobao, and feminist groups were dissolved on discussion channel Douban; Douban cited these channels contained “extremist, radical political, and ideological content.” This censorship was further intensified during the height of the #MeToo movement. And, feminists have increasingly reported cases of malware attacks, intrusive spyware, online harassment, and disinformation campaigns against them.

Under the CCP, feminism has been called a subversion of state power; as a result, human rights observers are increasingly aware of China’s descent into counterreform. Despite Xi’s commitments to advancing women’s rights and gender equality at the Global Leaders' Meeting on Women, genuine feminist voices have been silenced and undoubtedly criminalised.

Moreover, the CCP’s revivals of Confucian values have aggressively encouraged returns to traditional, patriarchal gender roles and increases in homophobic and sexist rhetoric. Despite such hostility and censorship, Chinese feminists have turned to encrypted apps and foreign online platforms to sustain discussions. Furthermore, transnational feminists have become key to circulating censored materials and amplifying Chinese voices; digital diasporic feminism is crucial in forming transnational feminist solidarity networks during the digital age.

Digital spaces are incredibly important sites for participating in public discourse; however, digital spaces have also increased the facilitation of gender-based violence including online stalking, harassment, doxxing, and impersonation. Digital surveillance increases self-censorship, thus leaving misogynistic narratives intact and ensuring digital exile. And, the rise of generative AI threatens to redefine digital censorship and repression; the future of free speech is likely to depend on challenging AI censorship and must be closely monitored and regulated.

Concerns of digital censorship are not unique to Chinese feminists, but are also shared by feminists from authoritarian states like Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, and Eritrea; online gender-based violence has been instrumentalised to silence dissent and maintain authoritarian domination.

Chinese feminists and their transnational allies have demonstrated that resistance cannot be contained by online threats or physical intimidation. Tearing down the great wall of censorship is both a fight against increasing patriarchal authoritarianism and a reminder that global online solidarity can reimagine online freedoms.