Xi Jinping wants to make China patriarchal again, but women are fighting back

Hundreds of millions of people across China are reuniting with their families and celebrating the Lunar New Year, but for some, the festival has been filled with violence.

Earlier this month, a woman in Sichuan province posted multiple videos online showing burns on her body. She claimed that her husband set her on fire after years of domestic violence against her. Local news reported that the woman was seeking a divorce. Earlier this month, news of a woman being murdered by her husband during a “divorce cooling-off period” sparked controversy on the Chinese internet about the 2021 introduction of a 30-day wait period for couples to file for divorce. Fierce debate has reignited over the clauses that will create an atmosphere of conflict. Initial application and subsequent reapplication.

In recent years, faced with declining birth rates and an aging population, the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has argued that the solution to the country’s demographic crisis is to send women back to their hometowns to give birth and take on caretaker roles. It was decided. Making divorce difficult is just one of the party’s strategies.

The number of births in China fell by more than 500,000 last year, accelerating the population decline starting in 2022. In the same year, the birth rate fell to an all-time low of 1.09, half of the population replacement rate of 2.1. Some experts suspected the reality was even grimmer than government statistics.

But despite the authoritarian regime’s brutal track record of silencing those who dare to challenge its rule, women in China have fiercely fought back against government plans to strengthen patriarchy. There is.

Besides “cooling-off period” laws, Chinese judges have become increasingly reluctant to grant divorces. A study by Ethan Michelson of Indiana University found that 80 percent of divorce applications filed by women were rejected the first time, even when evidence of domestic violence was presented. The rejection rate for the second attempt is approximately 70%.

According to Human Rights Watch, Chinese courts have also rejected divorce applications from many trafficked women, despite enduring years of domestic violence and violence at the hands of their “husbands.” . The combination of the Chinese Communist Party’s one-child policy (enacted from 1978 to 2015) and China’s traditional preference for boys has created a huge gender imbalance in the country. As many Chinese men face difficulties finding wives, the “bride” trafficking business is booming within the country and with China’s neighbors.

In January 2022, a video of a woman chained around her neck in a rural hut in Jiangsu province went viral. A subsequent Chinese government investigation found that the woman had been trafficked twice in the late 1990s and sold as a bride. In response to public uproar over this tragic event and the Chinese Communist Party’s reluctance to address this widespread and long-standing problem, authorities censored the video and the discussion surrounding it and questioned the official findings. They threatened civilians who showed violence and imprisoned activists who tried to visit women’s villages. .

Since President Xi Jinping came to power in late 2012, feminist voices have been increasingly cracked down. Online censorship has shut down many popular women’s rights publications and deleted countless social media accounts and posts. An article criticizing a Chinese New Year celebration skit on China’s biggest TV program for its degrading portrayal of middle-aged women was quickly deleted after it began to circulate widely. Offline, authorities persistently harass and monitor women’s rights activists, forcing some into exile. Journalist and #MeToo activist Huang Xueqin has been detained since 2021 on charges of inciting the subversion of state power.

Along with censorship and intimidation, the Chinese Communist Party constantly carries out propaganda promoting traditional values ​​and denouncing feminism. “Radical feminism has become the cancer of the internet!” declared the Communist Youth League, the Chinese Communist Party’s organization tasked with indoctrinating China’s youth. President Xi himself has long urged women to return to traditional roles. In a speech in November, he called on government authorities to promote a “culture of marriage and procreation” and influence young people’s thinking about “love and marriage, fertility and family.”

But anyone who has followed China’s women’s rights movement over the past decade has seen that the Chinese government’s antics have mostly gone awry. While the birth rate continues to decline in China, the divorce rate continues to rise. Unable to safely protest against patriarchy at home, Chinese women expanded their movement globally.A lot of people gathered last month new york, Los Angeles, San Francisco and London To commemorate the two-year anniversary of the chained woman incident.

One demonstrator’s poster: “I am so happy to be able to overthrow state power together with my sisters.” read.

Yaqiu Wang is Freedom House’s research director for China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.