Pseudonymous author was charged under law that makes it an ‘especially serious’ crime to sell more than 5,000 copies of a work classed as pornographic

Free-speech campaigners have slammed China’s “flagrant disregard for fundamental human rights” after the author of a gay erotic novel was sentenced to more than a decade in prison for producing and selling pornographic materials.

The author, who writes under the pseudonym Tianyi and is from eastern China’s Anhui province, was identified by the state-run Global Times only by her surname, Liu. The paper reported that police were alerted after the book Gongzhan, translated as Occupy, went viral last year. Police in the Anhui city of Wuhu, where Liu was sentenced, said the novel described obscene sexual behaviour between males, and was “full of perverted sexual acts such as violation and abuse”.

Liu’s jail sentence is 10-and-a-half years, and stems from a judicial interpretation dating back to 1998, according to the South China Morning Post. This states that if an author sells more than 5,000 copies of pornographic books, or makes more than 10,000 yuan (£1,123) from them, it is an “especially serious circumstance” that carries a sentence of imprisonment for not less a decade or life.

Liu is reported to have sold 7,000 copies of Occupy, which deals with a “forbidden love affair between a teacher and a student”, and to have made illegal profits of 150,000 yuan. She has filed an appeal to the judgment, said the Global Times.

Shanghai lawyer Deng Xueping told the Global Times that the judgment was determined by a standard from 20 years ago, and that “our judicial explanation should advance with time”. Internet users have also been vocal in their criticism of Liu’s sentencing.

Homosexuality was decriminalised in China in 1997, but a 2016 UN survey found that only 5% of the country’s LGBT community had come out publicly. In April, the Chinese social media site Weibo was heavily criticised for saying it would remove content “with pornographic implications, promoting bloody violence, or related to homosexuality”, in order to “create a sunny and harmonious community environment”. After users protested, Weibo backed down and said its campaign would only focus on pornographic and violent content.

The director of English PEN, Antonia Byatt, said the free-speech group was very concerned for Tianyi. PEN International campaigns manager Sahar Halaimzai called it “yet another episode in China’s draconian crackdown on free expression and human rights”.

“PEN International is deeply concerned about China’s flagrant disregard for fundamental human rights and will closely follow the case of Tianyi as it unfolds,” Halaimzai said, pointing to other recent cases including the disappearance of Chinese-born Swedish publisher Gui Minhai, the life imprisonment of Uighur academic Ilham Tohti on separatism-related charges, and Beijing’s encroaching presence in Hong Kong, which has historically remained free from central government crackdowns on freedom of expression.