Exactly 20 years ago, He Xiaopei set off into the rain for a bike ride that would change her life.



The 38-year-old bureaucrat was bound for Beijing’s northern suburbs where more than 30,000 NGO workers, activists and officials from around the globe had gathered in tents and half-built auditoriums to push for gender equality.

“If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all,” Hillary Clinton told the opening session of the UN’s Fourth Conference on Women in 1995, to loud applause.

“For me it was so new, so fresh, so empowering, so interesting,” recalled He, now 58, who left her job and became a feminist and lesbian activist who now runs Beijing’s Pink Space Sexuality Research Centre. “After the conference women really started organising. I just felt it was something I really wanted to do, to empower other people and to empower myself.”

For many Chinese feminists, who describe the UN conference as a key moment in their conversion to activism, this year should have been one of commemoration – a chance to celebrate their achievements in the last two decades.

On Sunday, China’s president, Xi Jinping, will appear alongside UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon at a Beijing+20 summit on gender equality and women’s empowerment that his country is co-hosting in New York. The Communist party-controlled All-China Women’s Federation marked the 1995 forum with an event in Beijing during the week.

But among China’s independent women’s groups there will be a deafening silence. With a severe political crackdown under way, independent activists say security officials have ordered them to refrain from any public form of commemoration.

“The authorities don’t want active commemorations,” one campaigner, who asked not to be identified, told the Guardian. “It’s very tender.”

On a recent morning, dozens of women gathered in a hotel conference room in the Chinese capital for a debate about the impact of the 1995 event dubbed “Re-launching Beijing”. In an attempt to avoid police scrutiny, a sign outside the room read: “Seminar on women’s culture”.

“We try to avoid the term Beijing+20,” explained one participant, who said many feminists felt angry and exasperated at the repression. “No one wants to do any harm to the state. We want to help our people to enjoy a better life. There are no revolutionaries here.”

Twenty years after the Beijing conference China’s report card on women’s rights is mixed. Feng Yuan, a veteran activist who attended the 1995 forum and later founded the now defunct Anti-Domestic Violence Network, said unquestionable advances had been made, most notably a draft law combating domestic violence that should be approved next year.

A government white-paper released to mark the conference’s anniversary claimed: “The number of impoverished women has dropped by an enormous margin, and the severity of poverty of women has been continuously alleviated.”



But many observers fear hard-fought advances are now being eroded. The participation of urban women in the workforce has slumped while female university applicants face unofficial quotas that mean they must score higher than male candidates in entrance exams.

Official statistics show a dramatic jump in the gender income gap since the 1990s and female participation in politics has ground to a halt.

Hopes in 2012 that a woman would claim a place on the Communist party’s elite decision-making body came to nothing.

“China is definitely moving backwards and you can see evidence of that in so many different areas,” said Leta Hong Fincher, the author of Left Over Women: the Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China.

Fears that women’s rights were being rolled back intensified this year as feminists began to feel the effects of a growing political chill. In March, on the eve of international women’s day, five feminists spent a month in jail for planning a peaceful protest against sexual harassment.

Chinese authorities should immediately release “Beijing+20 five.” Sad reflection on “women’s rights are human rights.” #FreeBeijing20Five — Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) March 12, 2015

“I considered that to be a really important turning point in the Chinese government’s strategy in how it deals with feminist activism,” said Hong Fincher.

“They were not political. They were not challenging authoritarianism. They were not challenging the party. They were given relative latitude in the past. It is an extremely ominous sign.”

Hong Fincher said she believed feminists were now being targeted because Beijing feared they might influence educated, urban, middle-class women. “There is something about the fundamental emancipation of women that is deeply threatening to China’s authoritarian system.”

If the current crackdown has left China’s feminists dejected, many draw hope from the enthusiasm of younger activists.

They include women such as Ma Hu, 25, who has been sending daily letters to prime minister Li Keqiang since July demanding greater rights for women.

“I don’t expect him to reply but I want to promote the ideas – by sending the letters I’m trying to promote gender equality in the workplace,” said Ma, who launched her campaign after being denied a job because of her gender.

“[If I could speak to the prime minister] I would ask for concrete steps such as an amendment to the law. I don’t just want him to make a gesture – I want proper action.”

Li Tingting, a prominent young activist who was among the five jailed feminists, said she was convinced more women were embracing her cause.

“Women in China are no longer powerless and voiceless – they have the power to fight back against injustice and inequality and to voice their concerns,” said Li, 25.

Hong Fincher described the emergence of a “nascent feminist movement” – whose members often staged performance-art style protests – as one bright spot in an otherwise gloomy scenario.

The domestic outcry over the detentions of the “feminist five” – who have been released but still face the threat of charges – suggested growing support for their ideas. “It is very small and of course the government is trampling on them. They want to stamp it out. But it is a movement, it is across regional boundaries [and] it has potentially very widespread national support.”

Speaking at the 1995 Beijing conference, Hillary Clinton said: “For too long the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today there are those who are trying to silence our words.”

Ma Hu admitted the police offensive had temporarily muzzled her generation. “Nothing is happening at the moment on the street. We are all under heavy surveillance.”

But she said attempts to permanently deny Chinese feminists a voice would fail. “People are becoming more and more aware of the issues – that isn’t something the government can crack down on. The government cannot control people’s minds.”

Additional reporting by Luna Lin