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"I've been warned not to talk about it," the woman wrote, before revealing snippets of the day she says she was arrested for publishing gay erotica.

"I'll never forget it - being escorted to the car in full view, enduring the humiliation of stripping naked for examination in front of strangers, putting on a vest for photos, sitting in the chair, shaking with fear, my heart pounding."

The handle, Pingping Anan Yongfu, is among at least 8 in recent months which have shared accounts on Chinese social media platform Weibo of being arrested for publishing gay erotic fiction. As authors recounted their experiences, dozens of lawyers offered pro bono help.

At least 30 writers, nearly all of them women in their 20s, have been arrested across the country since February, a lawyer defending one told the BBC. Many are out on bail or awaiting trial, but some are still in custody. Another lawyer told the BBC that many more contributors were summoned for questioning.

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[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 26 points 4 weeks ago

But .ml communities promise meChina has mote free speech than the West! How is this possible?

/s

[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 17 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Clearly, the BBC made it all up. Because it contradicts them. /s

Literally the newest top-level comment right now.

[-] PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You don’t even have to be charged with anything before ICE grabs you off the street and throws you in a van in the US…

[-] FuckFascism@lemmy.world 13 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Yes it's fucking horrible, I have the misfortune of living in the US but the same goes for China, North Korea, Russia and I could go on.

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 12 points 4 weeks ago

Which is true for China as well

[-] Tryenjer@lemmy.world 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yeah, unfortunately the US is becoming more and more like China in this regard.

[-] napkin2020@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 weeks ago

And I assume you wish the US to keep doing that because China is doing that and it's clearly working?

[-] PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world -4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I’m simply responding to the commenter’s comparison to “the west”. Like, if that’s the game we’re gonna play I think I just scored a point. Both situations are obviously terrible duh

[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

Very USA-Centric of you lol

USA =/= "The West"

[-] breecher@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

Also useless whataboutism. The sign of someone who has no arguments left to defend their beliefs.

[-] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 weeks ago

The US is part of the west. If it happens in the US, it happens in the west, because the US is in the west.

[-] PolydoreSmith@lemmy.world -1 points 3 weeks ago

Move the goalpost much? The US is in “the west” and they consistently set the tone and run the show. Welcome to geopolitics hope you enjoy your stay!

[-] breecher@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Very typical .ml whataboutism. Both things can be bad at the same time. This is not a null sum game.

[-] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 weeks ago

They're on .world, how is this .ml Whataboutism to call out that both countries are horrid to their citizens?

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Can you connect these dots for me?

[-] Corn@lemmy.ml -1 points 3 weeks ago

To be clear, writing and posting erotica isn't illegal, its profiting off it that was illegal, which is still fucked, but less of a free speech issue.

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago

It's really only a matter of degrees as you can sell other things for a profit so why not your literature?

[-] Corn@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Correct. But at the same time, once you understand your speech is limited by your reach, which is determined by how big of a megaphone the capitalists will let you have, it becomes more murky. You can say whatever you want in America, and if the government doesnt like it, you will be silenced and ignored. The same applies in China, but there is a greater record of the government actually listening, though often to the worst groups, such as nimbys protesting the expansion of the Shangai maglev and assholes protesting even limited lockdowns in the city with the most covid that keeps infecting the rest of the country.

[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today -4 points 4 weeks ago

It's really weird and kinda reddit-like to see a human rights violation and twist the story to be about some online community.

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 weeks ago

This isn’t about some online community as much as it is a comment on tankies.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz -4 points 4 weeks ago

Yes, that's exactly what they're talking about and you're being extremely weird in making it a priority of discussion on something at best tangentially related.

It's just a straw man writ large because you're miffed at another online argument you had somewhere else.

[-] breecher@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

We are referring to the staunch defenders of the oppressive system which this thread is about, defenders who are very proactive on lemmy. The fact that you cannot see the relevance is on you.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 1 points 3 weeks ago

Just because you feel like the straw men deserve it doesn't change that you're arguing with hypotheticals versions you've created instead of actual people.

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

You are using straw man incorrectly. Don't even try to go down the path of rhetorical flaws if you fuck that one up.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 0 points 3 weeks ago

You've literally defined the argument of an opposing group to look stupid so you can dunk on them. You're arguing with a straw man. This isn't even a critique of your rhetorical basis though, it's just normal Internet lameness.

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 weeks ago

You cannot present a strawman argument when the side you are arguing against isn't present. Thus I was not making a straw man. That's just insulting tankies

Don't bring these up unless you understand them and in this case you do not.

[-] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 weeks ago

"some" = the one that's the basis of and technically closely tied to the one you're using right now

[-] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world -5 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Che Guevara, from Desalinas PFP, was also rather homophonic. I wouldn't make it a point of purity testing. People in the past did things according to their time (not saying its justified).

The .ml crew has enought to criticize today. Big part them being a different flavor of impiralism

[-] otp@sh.itjust.works 10 points 4 weeks ago

Che Guevara, from Desalinas PFP, was also rather homophonic

Which other word did he sound like?

[-] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago
[-] thatsTheCatch@lemmy.nz 9 points 4 weeks ago

You accidentally said "homophonic" instead of "homophobic." A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another but with a different meaning, e.g. "weight" and "wait"

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 weeks ago

This isn’t a purity test. This is me making fun of the tankies on .ml

this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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