China has reacted angrily to a tweet by US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton calling Chinese leader Xi Jinping “shameless” for hosting a United Nations summit on women’s rights after detaining leading feminists earlier this year.
Mr Xi and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon co-hosted a UN meeting of world leaders on gender equality and women’s empowerment, which prompted scorn from many rights defenders after a group of feminist activists were locked up for more than a month and accused of “creating a disturbance” as they planned a demonstration against sexual harassment.
The highest-profile critic was Ms Clinton, who as first lady was a leading figure in organising the UN women’s conference in Beijing 20 years ago. “Xi hosting a meeting on women’s rights at the UN while persecuting feminists? Shameless,” said her tweet.
The activists, known as the “Feminist Five”, have mostly been freed but say they and their supporters have faced persecution since the detentions for trying to organise the demonstrations on public transport to coincide with International Women’s Day.
In a letter addressed to the UN secretary general and the executive director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Feminist Five said they were still restricted in their work, life and movement.
Heavy restriction
“The civil society with women’s rights focus in China is still under heavy restriction. On top of that, dozens of lawyers were arbitrarily detained and disappeared this summer (our defence lawyer, Wang Yu, included),” they said. With this kind of intimidation, along with the tightening conditions in the legal and political space, civil society can no longer be an effective partner of the government or of the UN, the activists said.
Mr Xi, who is at the end of a visit to the US, co-chaired the meeting to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the conference. He announced a $10 million (€9 million) donation to the UN agency promoting women’s rights and said China would fund health projects and efforts to send girls to school. “As the Chinese people pursue a happy life, all Chinese women have the opportunity to excel in life and make their dreams come true,” Mr Xi said on the sidelines of the gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Law-breakers
The official Chinese reaction has been that the women were arrested for breaking the law, not for being feminists.
“Some individuals or entities make groundless views, or show a lack of understanding,” Li Junhua, director general of China’s department of international organisations and conferences, told a briefing. “The arrest of the women was not because they’re protecting women’s rights, but because they’ve disobeyed the law.”
The Global Times newspaper, the official organ of the Communist Party, said Ms Clinton's tweet was reminiscent of the demagoguery of her rival Donald Trump.
“It seems that Hillary, eager to keep a competitive edge in the game, has also resorted to these ignominious shenanigans. Despite her political acumen as former secretary of state and senator, she is using the language of Trump to cast herself in the role of a rabble-rouser,” said an editorial.
