Chinese radical feminists just suffered a devastating blow. On April 12, the Chinese government disbanded all radical feminist groups on Douban, a popular social networking website. Those are the only discussion forums that Chinese feminists could find.
Hundreds of thousands of discussion threads vanished in a second and never can be retrieved. They also banned key words like “6B4T," a radical feminist movement persuading women to turn their backs on sex, child-rearing, dating, marriage, etc., with men.
What’s more, Douban users can’t even mention the names of those disappeared feminist groups, or else their accounts might be suspended.
The reason for such drastic action is unclear. Yet radical feminists believe it’s due to their uncompromising anti-marriage stance, which goes against the state’s instruction to fight falling birth rates.
In addition, China has severe sex-ratio imbalance, where men outnumber women by 70 million. This means there will be millions of men who can’t marry in the future, and that could pose a very big risk to society.
Chinese feminists are facing increasingly stringent restrictions on speech. Just a few weeks ago, Weibo, another Chinese social media platform, suspended a number of feminists’ accounts.
I wish to share our experience with you because Chinese feminists can’t discuss this openly in mainland China’s cyberspace, but we must make our voices heard.
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