![\"\"](\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Me-Too-china.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
China recently marked the second anniversary of its #MeToo movement and despite no robust legislation to curb sexual harassment on a national or institutional level, the movement has had some important victories driven mostly by students.<\/p>\n
Considering China\u2019s ongoing censorship that has silenced various civic voices, the emergence and persistence of #MeToo should be regarded as a sort of miracle. It all began in January 2018, when an aeronautics and astronautics PhD graduate from\u00a0Beihang University\u00a0in Beijing disclosed that she was sexually harassed for over a decade by her former advisor. She posted the revelation online under her real name, after being disappointed by the university\u2019s indifferent response to her claim.<\/p>\n
Several days later, the first #MeToo victory thrilled its proponents as the university cancelled the professor\u2019s teaching qualification, and the ministry of education promised to create prevention mechanisms for sexual harassment on campus.<\/p>\n
However, after the graduate\u2019s online announcement, numerous posts and accounts expressing support for victims were deleted without any reason. From then on, victims, fellow students, volunteers, and advocates have had to battle sexual harassment deniers and the suppression of free speech.<\/p>\n
Advocates and organisers began keeping low profiles because of persecution from the police, which meant that ordinary netizens became the decentralised force behind the movement.<\/p>\n
Then in February 2018, more than 300 overseas scholars and students signed a petition to urge the ministry of education to take responsibility for instituting anti-sexual harassment measures. In April,\u00a0Peking University\u00a0students and a few others from some of the most prestigious universities gathered to object to the poor response from universities on a number of cases. At the end of July that year, accusations of sexual harassment against a few celebrities led #MeToo to another unprecedented level of public awareness.<\/p>\n
Since then, because of an increasing tightening of public spaces in China, the movement has focused on a few specific cases rather than growing into a collective protest. Still, cases of sexual misconduct from professors at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics in 2019 and the Central Academy of Fine Arts earlier this year, among other universities, have served to bring the topic back into the public sphere.<\/p>\n
Universities have been the primary site of China\u2019s #MeToo movement \u2013 but not because sexual harassment is more prevalent on campuses or that power relationships there are any less hierarchical, which would make reporting easier.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s partly because of the increasing imbalance\u00a0in the power that the authorities grant to professors and students. And, like in other countries, young students in China who have\u00a0not yet been co-opted into the establishment have always been the vital force behind social movements.<\/p>\n
Another notable shift is that an increasing number of young Chinese people believe in gender equality, even though they do not learn about it in school and the term \u201cfeminism\u201d is still severely stigmatised.<\/p>\n
In terms of policy change, the ministry of education released some loose guidelines around \u201cprofessional morality\u201d, which condemn sexual harassment, but universities have failed to keep their word to create anti-sexual harassment policies. Nevertheless, there have been some encouraging signs of progress, such as the Supreme Court adding sexual harassment to its list of acts that can be litigated, at the end of 2018.<\/p>\n
Public opinion remains closed to the idea that sexual harassment exists and needs policy and legislation to address it \u2013 most people do not understand or are not concerned about victims\u2019 struggles. For example\u00a0University of Minnesota\u00a0student Liu Jingyao, whose accusations against the billionaire Richard Liu provoked intense backlash on the internet, told\u00a0The New York Times:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cThere were probably just three types of people in her corner: women who have been sexually assaulted, feminists and people who know her\u202610 per cent [of news consumers in China] at best.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if it is yet to make systemic changes to\u00a0protect women’s rights, China\u2019s #MeToo movement has pushed the issue of sexual harassment on to the public agenda and has compelled the authorities and the public to hear women\u2019s voices. And it has energised women. In\u00a0October 2019, Huang Xueqin, an independent journalist and supporter of #MeToo, was arrested in Guangzhou on the charge of \u201cpicking a quarrel and making trouble\u201d. Huang\u2019s release in January 2020 did not relieve fears of suppression of civic activism, but also did not reduce the courage of #MeToo supporters, most of whom did not even know about Huang\u2019s prosecution due to information blockades.<\/p>\n After a few victories\u00a0brought on by\u00a0university students, it\u2019s only a matter of time before another opportunity arises to spread awareness and get even more people involved in social change.<\/p>\n