China's Online 'Manosphere' Grows as Beijing Targets Feminism in Battle Over Marriage and Babies

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/59370594

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China's gender conflict has moved well beyond dinner-table arguments. Male content creators who openly criticise feminist ideas have built audiences on major Chinese platforms, while researchers say misogynistic online communities have continued to find space despite periods of censorship.

A CNA Insight documentary, published on 17 September 2026, put a face to the trend through David Wang, a content creator who has built a following by targeting what he calls 'extreme feminism'.

One broadcast summed up his position: 'Only unattractive women support extreme feminism.' Wang is part of China's growing 'manosphere', where male grievances and hostility towards women find an audience on platforms including Bilibili, Zhihu and Hupu.

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Academic research published in Feminist Studies in 2025 found that 'misogyny in China has grown increasingly radicalised' but is 'rarely curtailed by state censorship and is often amplified by platform algorithms'.

The study examined misogynistic communities across Chinese digital platforms and argued that such misogyny can channel rising class discontent into hostility towards women.

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The demographic figures highlighting the pressures facing Beijing are stark. China's National Bureau of Statistics reported that births fell to 7.92 million in 2025, down from 9.54 million in 2024. The country's population contracted for a fourth consecutive year, shrinking by 3.39 million to 1.40489 billion.

Marriage figures show a similar decline. China's Ministry of Civil Affairs recorded 6.106 million marriage registrations in 2024, down from 13.47 million in 2013, less than half the number recorded 11 years earlier.

The 2024 total was down 20.5 per cent from the previous year, according to official data. Demographer Yi Fuxian of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has warned of the implications of China's demographic decline for the country's future.

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The United Nations Population Division estimates that China's total fertility rate is below 1.0 births per woman, compared with the roughly 2.1 children per woman generally associated with long-term population replacement in the absence of migration.

Beijing's efforts to regulate online gender discourse therefore sit alongside a much broader demographic challenge involving marriage, fertility, economic conditions and changing attitudes towards family life.

Against the backdrop of a widening gender divide and low marriage rates, the demographic shift could have consequences beyond China's borders.

A contracting and ageing population in the world's second-largest economy could affect labour supply, domestic demand and the country's economic outlook, with potential implications for businesses and economies that depend heavily on China.

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A related report says that last Friday (18 Sep 2026), Sophia Huang Xueqin the imprisoned journalist who helped to ignite China’s MeToo movement, was released from Chinese prison, five years after her arrest. She will return to see a feminist movement that has dramatically changed in the years she has been detained.

Experts question, however, that Ms. Huang will be able to move freely as the Chinese internet has changed a lot since her arrest in 2021.

At the time of her conviction, Huang was also sentenced to four years “deprivation of political rights”. Human right groups say it could prevent her from continuing to work as a journalist or travelling abroad.

In a statement released on Saturday, activists pushing for Huang’s release said “though she is released from prison, none of us [her friends] were able to reach her or receive any information from her.

[...] Li Sipan, a Chinese investigative journalist and feminist scholar, says: “The Chinese Communist party regards all mobilisation of the public and movements demanding changes from the government as threats. The feminist movement clearly has these characteristics” {...]

Jasmine [a member of China's MeToo movement - says: “If you want to organise a public event, anything explicitly related to feminism or LGBT issues is basically not possible, at least in Beijing. If you advertise it that way, there’s a risk the event will be shut down [...]

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