China has no direct translation of the word „manosphere” but it is plagued by one nonetheless—indeed, the abuse of women on social media is every bit as poisonous there as it is in democracies. The difference is that, in a country where censors rush to silence posts they dislike, the authorities tolerate the manosphere’s vitriol and instead focus their energy on women. The cyberspace regulator’s crackdown on harmful content specifically lists „extreme feminism”, including posts that promote singledom.
This is just one symptom of a much broader problem that China’s old, male rulers have with the opposite sex. Unlike Asia’s other two big powers, Japan and India, China has never been led by a woman in modern times. As China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has consolidated power, he has also sidelined women. The powerful Politburo, which usually has 24 members, has been exclusively male since 2022. No woman has ever made it to the more important Politburo Standing Committee. No wonder China has been tumbling down international rankings of gender equality.
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At the heart of Communist Party policies towards women is a crushing error. The party is worried about the country’s demography. But it imagines the solution lies in browbeating women and telling them, in traditional tones, to be „virtuous wives and good mothers”. The result is an approach to women that will not only fail to realise the party’s narrow aims, but will also make countless women miserable.
