#HarrisWalz2024. Author, LEFTOVER WOMEN and BETRAYING BIG BROTHER: The Feminist Awakening in China.
Nov 27, 2022 • 22 tweets • 7 min read
Pay attention to all the young women on the front lines of China's protests, being the first to take action. Their discontent has been mounting for many years prior to this moment.
I just woke up, so I don't know anything about the circumstances. But I'm suddenly reminded of some things that happened while I was a PhD student at Tsinghua University in Beijing (which also happens to be Xi Jinping's alma mater).
Jul 2, 2021 • 22 tweets • 6 min read
🧵On the the 100th anniversary of China’s Communist Party, don’t forget that feminism played a key role in China’s revolutionary history.
The first woman to emerge as a leader within the Chinese Communist network was 23-year-old Wang Huiwu, a May Fourth activist who used her community of Shanghai women’s activists to organize locations for secret Communist meetings in 1921. (From my book, Betraying Big Brother 116)
Jun 7, 2021 • 25 tweets • 8 min read
China’s government wants families to have more children. Chinese women don’t. My piece for @washingtonpost: washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
Why doesn’t China simply get rid of all birth restrictions? Despite the rosy rhetoric about giving couples more freedom to have children, the government’s goal is not simply to increase total births nationwide — they must be the right kinds of births. washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/0…
Apr 29, 2021 • 26 tweets • 7 min read
Glad to guest host this week’s @politico China newsletter: “Feminists thwarting China’s population goals” politico.com/newsletters/po…
At least 20 Chinese feminist activists have had their Weibo accounts deleted in recent weeks after a wave of online, misogynistic attacks by nationalist trolls.
Aug 17, 2020 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
Short thread on how online harassment led by people like Carl Zha works (from my personal experience). Here's the original tweet from him, which I asked people to report:
Here's my original thread on the Chinese government's persecution of Uyghur and other Muslim women, which sparked massive harassment of me and various fake accounts impersonating me:
As I write in my book “Leftover Women”, I believe it is no coincidence that the Women’s Federation website posted its first article on “leftover” women in 2007, shortly after China’s State Council issued its “Decision on Fully Enhancing the Population and Family Planning...
Jul 12, 2020 • 31 tweets • 11 min read
This disturbing video is part of Beijing's effort to dilute the Uyghur population by pushing Han-Uyghur marriage.
As I write in my book #BetrayingBigBrother, Xinjiang officials have for years offered bonuses to inter-ethnic couples with one Han Chinese partner marrying a member of an ethnic minority.
Jun 29, 2020 • 13 tweets • 6 min read
Leaked data on Uyghur and other Muslims held in detention camps showed that "of 484 camp detainees listed in Karakax county in Xinjiang, 149 were there for having too many children - the most common reason for holding them." washingtonpost.com/health/china-f…
"While individual women have spoken out before about forced birth control [among Uyghur and other Muslims in Xinjiang], the practice is far more widespread and systematic than previously known, according to an AP investigation" washingtonpost.com/health/china-f…
Apr 15, 2020 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Many countries led by incompetent, science-denialist men have led to catastrophic coronavirus outbreaks. A disproportionately large number of leaders who acted early and decisively were women. My @CNN op-ed: cnn.com/2020/04/14/asi…
In Taiwan, early intervention measures have controlled the coronavirus pandemic so successfully that it is now exporting millions of face masks to help the European Union and others.
Apr 8, 2020 • 22 tweets • 7 min read
Interesting that many of the countries who handled the coronavirus outbreak well are headed by women:
THREAD. I have been reluctant to say anything about Sanders's promotion of Rogan’s endorsement because if Sanders wins the nomination, I will certainly vote for him. But it’s very disturbing to me that the Bernie Sanders Twitter handle promoted a racist, transphobic, misogynist.
The Sanders campaign said “Sharing a big tent requires including those who do not share every one of our beliefs”. The Sanders campaign says it’s better to have a hateful bigot INSIDE their tent, than to drive someone like Rogan into Trump’s arms.
THREAD/ 1. In #BetrayingBigBrother, I write about something I call "patriarchal authoritarianism" in China. The Communist Party has relied on the subjugation of women as a critical element of its authoritarian control over the entire population.
2. Misogyny and sexism - such as subordinating women to the role of very obedient wife and mother in the home - are absolutely critical to the longevity of the Communist Party. I also write about how this is not a phenomenon unique to the Communist Party state.
Nov 14, 2019 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I taught at HKUST during the 2014 Umbrella Movement and CUHK through the end of 2016. I worry that all mainland students who showed sympathy for their Hong Kong classmates’ political actions will face interrogation or worse.
In 2016, one of my mainland students at CUHK in 2016 was stopped by armed guards at the border when he had *CUHK library* books that were considered suspect. Guards confiscated his books and let him go after several hours of interrogation. #StandWithCUHK
CNN just said Biden is establishing himself as “the grown-up in the race”. How insulting for the fabulous women and people of color who are also running - a reminder of how political media is too male and too white.
It’s not just CNN: here is KPBS calling Biden a “grown-up” kpbs.org/news/2019/apr/…
Dec 18, 2018 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
"Xi’s political power is as great as that of any leader in decades, yet his party’s tightening of controls over the economy and ever more aspects of society suggest a deep-seated insecurity at the highest levels" write @chubailiang & @stevenleemyers
I write about Xi's hypermasculine personality cult in #BetrayingBigBrother. Xi sees his primary role as stamping out destabilizing forces that might provoke widespread social unrest and lead to the Party's collapse.
Alarming news for US citizens living in any authoritarian country, not just Russia. Imagine if Chinese President Xi asked to interrogate Americans. Can we no longer count on US government for protection?
Trump’s willingness to hand over an American diplomat to a hostile foreign state profoundly changes the meaning of America and being an American in our world.
