CHINA-RIGHTS/WOMEN Chinese feminist activist faces intense scrutiny, lives in fear after detention

Record ID: 151238

  • Title: CHINA-RIGHTS/WOMEN Chinese feminist activist faces intense scrutiny, lives in fear after detention
  • Date: 15th June 2015
  • Summary: HONG KONG, CHINA (FILE - APRIL 11, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS DEMANDING THE RELEASE OF THE FIVE FEMINIST ACTIVISTS WALKING ON THE STREET PROTESTERS STANDING AND HOLDING PLACARDS PLACARDS WITH PICTURE OF LI (LEFT) AND FELLOW DETAINED ACTIVIST WANG MAN (RIGHT)
  • Embargoed: 30th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA76O02YR5Y3C3EQTA0YBWMHPNE
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Li Tingting was once at the vanguard of China's young feminist movement, known for organising campaigns on everything from domestic violence to toilet spaces for women, but now she is living in fear of state security officers knocking at her door after she was detained for a month earlier this year.
    The 25-year old was taken into custody along with four fellow activists on the weekend of March 8, International Women's Day. They had planned to hand out flyers and stickers against sexual harassment on public transportation in Beijing, Guangzhou and other cities.
    If their case had gone to trial on charges of disrupting social order, a charge often made against activists carrying out public protests, the group would have faced a potential five years in jail.
    In a rare television interview, Li, who has been under intense scrutiny by China's security apparatus since leaving detention, spoke to Reuters about her time in custody and life since being released.
    During her detention Li said she was subject to near daily interrogations that would go on for hours.
    "They tried to make me write a confession, they wanted me to write that I disrupted social order and so on, disrupted public order. They questioned me for a really long time about the 'occupy men's toilets' and 'bloodstained brides (activities)," she said.
    "They asked in great detail, all the details. What time? Were there rehearsals? Who participated?" Li added.
    The 2012 "Occupy Men's Room" campaign led to four cities pledging to increase the ratio of toilet cubicles for women in public places, the state-run China Daily reported.
    The "Bloodstained Bride" campaign of 2013-2014 involved women posing in blood-splattered wedding gowns to draw attention to domestic violence.
    The arrest of the activists outraged a swath of Chinese society. Dozens of students and workers in Hong Kong and other parts of the world signed petitions and posted photos holding slogans calling for their release.
    International pressure began to pile on the Chinese government to release the five feminism activists.
    Hillary Clinton, front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry all called for the activists' release. Britain, Canada and the European Union had also expressed concern about their plight.
    Although the five women were released on bail they are still considered suspects and can be charged again.
    Li said people from her "neighbourhood committee", a group of residents assigned by authorities, stationed themselves outside her home for about two weeks after her release, she has also had her passport confiscated.
    Li said that while she was in detention, she had prepared herself mentally for being arrested and formally charged, but once she was released, the prospect of losing her freedom once again left her more afraid.
    The twenty-five year-old is a victim of what she and many other activists see as the Chinese government's desire to maintain social stability regardless of the cost to civil society.
    President Xi Jinping's administration has detained hundreds of activists in the past two years, in what some rights groups say is the worst clampdown on dissent in two decades.
    "Maintaining stability in this way actually represses a lot of demands of the people, so in an environment like this people will feel really unsafe, including me, including all five of us sisters, perhaps everyone will be worried about when there will be another knock at the door, when will I be taken again. This leaves you with no feeling of safety and there's fear in your heart. What's more, this kind of shadow won't disappear within a matter of days," she said.
    Despite the experience, Li said she had no plans to give up fighting for improved women's rights in China.
    "Perhaps I'll change the methods, because it's impossible to do it like this, so we'll have to make some compromises. But I don't think the things I did were wrong, advocating feminism isn't wrong, doing LGBT (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender activities) isn't wrong. So we will continue. Also, I think we need to establish a sexual harassment campaign group, as we entered (the detention facility) because of sexual harassment after all, the five of us can establish something, though we haven't thought specifically about this. But I feel like this time, the Bureau of Public Security did one thing right (in detaining her and fellow activists) which is they made more people in China be aware about feminism," Li said.
    Even while held in detention, Li said she tried to educate police officers interrogating her about gender, equality and LGBT rights. Her experience in detention has also prompted her to study law so she can work as a defender for women's rights.
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