Why did China just release five feminist activists?
| Beijing
Sidestepping a snowballing international public relations disaster, China on Monday evening freed five women who had been detained since early March for organizing a campaign against sexual harassment.
Their fate had drawn widespread attention at home and criticism from US officials and human rights groups. Advocates for the women say this external pressure paid off with their release after the prosecutor decided not to press charges. China is preparing to co-host a United Nations meeting on women鈥檚 rights in New York in September. 听听
Still, such campaigns can backfire since China is generally reluctant to bow to public pressure. International protests against the trials of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and later of Ilham Tohti, a prominent moderate advocate of Uyghur rights, did nothing to save them from heavy jail sentences.
鈥淭hose were political cases,鈥� says Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer for artist-provocateur Ai Weiwei who was detained for nearly three months in 2011. 鈥淚f a case is related to national security it is treated differently from a case about something like women鈥檚 rights.鈥�
Mr. Ai was freed after a noisy international campaign on his behalf by world-renowned cultural figures. 鈥淗is detention really changed attitudes to China among a huge number of influential people,鈥� says Jerome Cohen, a law professor at New York University who follows Chinese legal affairs closely. 鈥淭he government learned its lesson鈥� when it comes to cases not deemed to directly involve national security.听
The five young women, all experienced activists with a reputation for staging imaginative public 鈥渉appenings鈥� to draw attention to violations of women鈥檚 rights, had been planning a leafleting听campaign against sexual harassment on public transport to coincide with International Women鈥檚 Day on March 8th .
They were detained the day before on pre-emptive charges that they had been 鈥減icking quarrels and provoking trouble,鈥� which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence. Their arrests came before they could do anything. The police then changed the charge to 鈥済athering crowds to disturb public order鈥� referring to two 鈥渉appenings鈥� carried out in 2012. The prosecutor appears to have found insufficient evidence for that charge too.
鈥淭his is largely a result of external support,鈥� says Wang Qiushi, one of the women鈥檚 lawyers. 鈥淭he appeals from foreign political leaders and women's rights groups played a very important role in the release.鈥�
Calls from abroad
Last Friday, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged the Chinese authorities to 鈥渋mmediately and unconditionally鈥� free the women. Hillary Clinton also denounced their detention.
鈥淭his is a case where internal and external public opinion has played a role,鈥� says Mr. Cohen. 鈥淲ithout it they would certainly have been prosecuted.鈥�
At the same time, adds Mr. Wang, 鈥渢he women did not commit any crime so they should not have been detained in the first place.鈥�
Women鈥檚 rights activists welcomed their release. 鈥淭he unprecedented huge mobilization of global feminist and other non-governmental organizations鈥� support is effective,鈥� wrote Wang Zheng, a professor of women鈥檚 studies at the University of Michigan, in a post on ChinaChange.org, a pro-democracy website.
Ms. Wang also drew hope from signs that 鈥渢he Chinese government is not a monolithic entity and the decision is a compromise between different political factions 鈥� there were officials in the system who pushed very hard towards a positive solution.鈥�
UN women's meeting
As well as international opprobrium, domestic public pressure can also be effective in China. In 2010, Deng Yujiao, a young woman working in a pedicure parlor, was initially charged with murder for killing a government official who had tried to force himself on her. The charge was dropped after nearly four million people expressed their sympathy for her on social media.
The case of the five detained feminists was especially embarrassing internationally because China is due to co-host a UN meeting in September, marking the 20th 听anniversary of the fourth world conference on women held in Beijing in 1995. Mrs. Clinton, then First Lady, now presidential aspirant, delivered a forceful speech on feminism and human rights at that conference.听
In a letter to the prosecutor, the five women鈥檚 relatives wrote that their detention was unjustified听because they had been acting 鈥渋n line 鈥� with our law for the protection of women and children and with the core values of socialism.鈥�
The women were not freed unconditionally, but on bail. Their bail conditions are not yet known, but will restrict their freedom of movement and action and could prevent them from communicating amongst themselves for up to a year while the police continue their investigation.
Given their history of activism, however, those who know the women say they do not expect them to stay silent. 鈥淲ei Tingting will decide what to do,鈥� Wang said of his client. 鈥淏ut I personally do not think she will give up.鈥�
