China’s LGBTQ community fades from rainbow to gray

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During this year’s Pride Month, soccer star Li Ying made history as the first female athlete in China to publicly come out as gay, in a candid series of festive photos posted on social media, which show her happily posing alongside her partner.

It is increasingly common around the world for celebrities and high profile sports stars to come out, often for widespread public endorsement. But in China, Lee’s announcement received a very different reaction.

Her post, uploaded on June 22 on Weibo, the heavily censored Chinese version of Twitter, instantly went viral, becoming one of the hottest trending topics on the platform. And while much of the reaction has been positive, with people sending their congratulations, Lee’s account has also been inundated with a wave of anti-gay abuse. The post was later deleted without explanation.

Li has not posted on Weibo since then. Meanwhile, China’s state-run media has not reported on Li’s announcement, nor the subsequent reaction it caused.

Li’s experience is just the tip of the iceberg of what for many has been a bleak pride month in China. In years past, June has been full of LGBTQ events in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, where China’s sexual minorities can celebrate their identity semi-publicly.

But in August 2020, the Shanghai Pride Festival, China’s largest and longest-running gay festival, was canceled due to mounting pressure from local authorities. When Pride Month 2021 came, quite a few events were held and those remained largely underground.

“Every year it becomes more and more difficult,” a Chinese LGBT artist, who asked not to be named for fear of government retaliation, told CNN. “Events are fewer and advocates are finding it increasingly difficult to increase acceptance.”

In recent decades, China’s sexual minorities have appeared to have received gradual – albeit uncomfortable – acceptance by the authorities.

China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and removed it from its official list of mental disorders in 2001.

But with illegal gay marriage still going on and Chinese authorities banning “unnatural sexual behavior” from the media in 2016, the impression among many is that LGBT people are free to explore their identities — as long as they do so in private.

The ongoing crackdown on the LGBTQ space seemed to accelerate on July 6, when China’s most popular messaging app WeChat suddenly shut down dozens of LGBTQ accounts run by college students, one of the most widespread and coordinated censorship actions targeting sexual minorities in the country in decades. .

When several users tried to access the groups, they received a notification that said, “After receiving relevant complaints, all content has been blocked and the account has been disabled.”

Cathy, the manager of one of the removed groups, told CNN under a pseudonym that spaces for the LGBTQ community to speak out are rapidly shrinking in China.

She said, “Our goal is simply to survive, to continue to be able to serve and provide warmth to LGBT students. We’re basically not involved in any radical advocacy anymore.”

After the closure of LGBTQ WeChat groups on Tuesday, Hu Xijin, editor of the state-owned tabloid Global Times, claimed in his blog that there were “no restrictions” from the Chinese government on the “lifestyle choices” of sexual minorities, or “discrimination and oppression”. by public opinion.

If China’s LGBTQ people can accept that their country will never be at the “forefront” of sexual minority rights, Hu said, they might be happier.

“Gays in China at this point should not strive to become a preeminent ideology,” he said.

Some gays have blamed the crackdown on the false impression that homosexuality is imported from the West into China, and that groups that support gay rights are vulnerable to infiltration by foreign forces.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has increasingly emphasized the ruling Communist Party’s absolute control over every aspect of society. Some also suspect a more direct link between the crackdown on LGBT rights and the worldviews of senior officials, which were shaped for many during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, when the authorities attempted to purge any “non-socialist” elements – including homosexuality – from society Chinese.

“National trolls stigmatize LGBT activists as being supported by foreign powers. Just like they did to feminists,” the LGBTQ artist said.

About Asia

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi fired 12 members of his cabinet, including the federal health and law ministers, in a major cabinet reshuffle Wednesday, after heavy criticism over his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Later this month, after the Japanese government announced that a state of emergency would continue in the capital until August 22 due to a spike in Covid-19 cases. Faced with a shortage of vaccinations at home, Taiwan citizens go on “visit and vaccinate” holidays to the US mainland of Guam, where tourists aged 12 and over can get their first shot on the day of their arrival. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he is “seriously considering” running for vice president in the 2022 presidential election. The powerful leader is barred from running for a second term as president under the country’s constitution.

Anger grows over Diddy’s failed initial public offering in America

The firestorm around the disastrous Didi IPO is getting fiercer.

On Thursday, a member of the US Senate Banking Committee called on US financial regulators to investigate the public offering of the Chinese taxi company.

“The [US Securities and Exchange Commission] “You should thoroughly investigate this incident to see if investors were deliberately misled by Didi’s public disclosures,” Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen told CNN Business in a statement.

Didi raised $4.4 billion by listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30, marking the largest initial public offering of a Chinese company in the United States since 2014, but the share price collapsed within days, costing American investors dearly. The sale was the result of a campaign from China, which announced on July 4 that it was banning Didi from app stores in the country because it poses cybersecurity risks and violates privacy laws.

“US investors need to have confidence that companies listed on US stock exchanges do not engage in fraud and should have access to information about the risks posed by investing in foreign companies — especially those affected by foreign governments,” said Van Hollen, a Democrat from the state. Maryland, said in the statement.

The Securities and Exchange Commission did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

There is growing anger within the United States over the IPO. Republican Senator Marco Rubio told the Financial Times this week that allowing Didi to sell shares was “reckless and irresponsible.” He argued that US investors “have no insight” into Didi’s financial strength “because the Chinese Communist Party prevents US regulators from reviewing the books”.

Former President Donald Trump late last year signed a law requiring US-listed companies to submit to US auditing standards and prove that they are not owned or controlled by a foreign government. Under the law, companies that do not comply with US auditing standards for three consecutive years will be expelled from US stock exchanges.

Written by Matt Egan

today’s picture

Old age in style: While dancing in public squares has become a popular exercise among the elderly in China, some elderly people are pursuing dancing as a more serious pastime. In Henan Province, a group of women in their sixties formed an amateur ballet group, pushing their physical limits to perform difficult chores.

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