Photo: by Olimpia Kot
What is happening?
Characterized by colorful flags and marches, the month of June sees diversity and LGBTQ+ rights celebrated worldwide.In China, however, the Pride scene is rather bleak. According to Le Monde, Beijing’s Institut Français, the French cultural center, was forced to cancel the screening of two French films featuring homosexual themes due to the constant harassment of Chinese authorities. From a phone call from police concerning the usage of the term “Pride Month” to a demand that identities of the attendees be shared with the authorities, the response was a demonstration of how authoritarian states like China utilize their power to undermine universal human rights that are portrayed as “foreign forces” interfering with“national ideologies.”
What is the broader picture?
The crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community in China has been ongoing since the 2020s, showcasing the Chinese government ability to stifles those voices it deems are representing “foreign forces, “as was the case with the Institut Français films. However, domestic organizations face even greater pressure with the mobilization of local authorities.
Regardless of these organizations’ flexibility to navigate within the Chinese government’s red lines by, for example, refraining from holding rallies and adopting a more subtle tone, they remain at the mercy of the authorities’ arbitrary rules. This year marks the fifth consecutive year since the shutdown of ShanghaiPRIDE, a Chinese LGBTQ+ nongovernmental organization that once held Pride gatherings and promoted Chinese queer experiences. The reason for the organization’s prohibition remains undisclosed. “Members of ShanghaiPRIDE were under huge pressure,” stated Raymond Phang, one of the NGO’s founders. “It became increasingly hard to execute as an organization.” Similar developments came with other LGBTQ+ organizations, such as the Beijing LGBT Center. Grassroots activists were discouraged due to detention and constant threats toward their family members and friends from police officials. Many activists even fled the country.
Another distinct tactic of the Chinese government is the manipulation of patriotic public opinion and the maneuvering of state-controlled media censorship. On Chinese social media platforms, such as Weibo (微博) and Rednote (小紅書), netizens are no strangers to censored words, as the Chinese government uses censorship as a means of controlling narratives aligned with its interests and ideology. Controversy erupted in 2025, when Voice of homosexual (同志之聲), an LGBTQ+ advocacy account on Weibo, was accused of tarnishing China’s Communist ideology through the use of the term tongzhi (同志), which means “comrade” but is also the slang term for “homosexual.” Not only was the formal term for “homosexual” (同性戀) censored, but the account was branded as a “foreign force,” and portrayed as actively undermining the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s authority in conformity with “Western Values.” Moreover, research from the Chinese Rainbow Network shows that search results for “Pride Month” remain censored across Chinese social media platforms such as Red Note (小紅書) and Douyin (抖音). Accounts from which celebrations of Pride Month were posted have been removed, and some users have even started to use the euphemism “Humble Month” as a way of dodging Chinese censorship.
It is worth noting that while commercial establishments with LGBTQ+ themes remain hands-off, activities and organizations connected to advocacy are being actively targeted. Not only does this asymmetrical approach create a seemingly inclusive facade that is “pinkwashing” China’s reputation, but it also signals its drastic control over personal freedom and freedom of speech.
Why does it matter?
Pride celebrates the freedom to be; however, the dead silence around what should be a parade of inclusivity irrefutably highlights the Chinese government’s denial of pluralism. This crackdown is an embodiment of the CCP’s policy of “telling the Chinese story well(講好中國故事),” a movement endorsed by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), which, in essence, involves turning media into a state propaganda machine.
The chilling effects of these maneuvers are limited neither to China’s estimated 75 million LGBTQ+ individuals nor to the rest of its population; with the disruptive nature of AI and transnational repression, democratic societies are susceptible to attacks on freedom of expression and personal liberty. Extra caution is, thus, required, especially while China actively infiltrates major international organizations, while bluntly undermining universal human rights.