Northwest police of China repress writers of online erotic fiction across the country, including many students, According to RFA sources and media relationships, with regard to police officers who punish people outside their jurisdiction.
Police from Lanzhou, the capital of the province of Gansu, summoned writers who don't even live there. A report by Caixin Media Group said that some had been returned to the police for prosecution and that anecdotal evidence indicates that writers are faced with substantial fines.
A source that spoke at Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for security reasons said that repression could involve 200 to 300 writers.
Their affairs also sparked a legal debate on the definition of “obscene materials” and renewed public discussion on the limits of creative freedom. Known as “Danmei”, the genre presents romantic relationships between male characters. He is from Japan and has become popular in China.
In the midst of tightened restrictions in China, many writers turned to Haitang Culture, a fictional website for Taiwanese adults created in 2015 to publish their work. The website of the democratic island does not force censorship and allows explicit written content. Most readers are women.
The authorities in China reacted. Last year, two distributors based in China affiliated with the cultivation of Haitang were arrested for “having helped to criminal information network activities”, according to Shhiping Jiyuan, a news portal on the social media platform WeChat.
The recent police repression in Lanzhou followed similar movements in Anhui's eastern province in June 2024, where the authorities began to arrest online erotic fiction writers under the responsibility of “producing and distributing obscene materials for lucrative purposes”, resulting in heavy fines and even prison sentences.
Police are looking for writers even when they leave outside their jurisdiction – a practice that criticism calls “offshore fishing”, which implies that the police are financial or political, rather than strictly legal.
“I don't understand what they are trying to do-do they push the politically correct, or are they simply desperate for money?” said Liu Yang, a veteran media professional in Lanzhou, told Radio Free Asia. “The police are short of funds, and now even the arrests have become a way to make money.”
Two rooms in the advice
The cases in Anhui appeared focused on the amount of profit for editors. But according to several Chinese media reports, Lanzhou police continued suspects on the basis of the type of traffic they generated.
Many of those summoned are young women, including students. A well -known Chinese online cultural criticism, Li Yuchen, wrote on WeChat that a writer who received only “Haitang pieces” in Tips was also placed under investigation, then moved to prosecutors.
Haitang refers to the fictional website based in Taiwan. RFA asked for comments from Haitang culture but has not yet received an answer.
Song Tao, a law professor of the Chinese University, told RFA that the repression of the Lanzhou police is one of the most extensive and controversial uses of the law on “the production, reproduction, publication or distribution of for -profit obscene materials” in recent years.
The legal researcher at the University of Tsinghua, Lao Dongyan, expressed his concern on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, writing that the use of inconsistent legal standards risks undermining the application of the law and the judicial system.
The case sparked intense debate in Chinese legal circles. Several lawyers posted on Weibo and WeChat offering free legal assistance to the families of those who were detained.
The scandalous history of the emperor
Yunjian, one of the best writers in the Haitang culture, was arrested last year by Anhui police and sentenced later to four years and six months in prison, according to the news portal Jiyuan. One of Yujian's best fictional works, The scandalous history of the emperorTalk about a non -binary emperor who has relationships with male characters, including generals and chancellors.
Several fictional editors have posted online on their brush with the Lanzhou police, although most of the online references to repression have been deleted from Chinese social media platforms, which means that only screenshots made by other users are still visible.
“Probably in the last 20 years of my life, I have never imagined that my first flight would be to visit a police station in Lanzhou,” said a writer named Sijindesijin who said in an article on Weibo for which she had been contacted by Lanzhou police for stories for which she had won 4,000 yuan ($ 670). Her message, since deleted, suggested that she had to go to Lanzhou to deal with the question. It was not clear where she lived.
Some Internet users have posted on Weibo to support Sijindesijin, whose handle results in “silky silky”. RFA could not reach Sijindesijin to comment or confirm the details of what would have happened and if the writer was detained.
Another writer named Jidepihuangmajia, who described herself as the undergraduate student, wrote in an article on Weibo that she flew to Lanzhou de Chongqing, a municipality who is administratively separated from Lanzhou, to meet the local police and asked for the help of other users in borrowing money to pay the fine. The writer said the police said that she had won 21,313 yuan ($ 3,044) writing the stories in question, and he was advised to return the money for a reduced punishment. This writer owed between 50,000 and 60,000 yuan ($ 7,100 to $ 8,500), including the fine.
Another writer of a high -level university named shijieshiyigejingjingshenbingyuanha, whose handle is reflected in “the world is like a giant psychiatric hospital”, said in the post that it had been taken to be questioned by the police and that his university had later canceled his admission to higher education.
Lawyers question excessive police
Chinese lawyer, my Guoguang, told RFA that in the virtue of the Chinese law in criminal procedure, criminal affairs should be investigated by the police instead of the suspect or when the alleged crime has occurred.
“The legality of the Lanzhou police pursuing writers across the country-thousands of kilometers-under the so-called” offshore fishing “model is very questionable,” he said.
But Chinese lawyer Tang Hongyang, who defended for several writers arrested by Anhui police last year, explained in Sanlian Lifeweek, an in -depth reporting magazine in China, “for crimes committed via the Internet, there is a special legal provision: any place where the content can be accessible online is considered a place where the consequences of the crime.”
According to Sanlian Lifeweek, Lanzhou police summoned local Haitang readers in Lanzhou to serve as witnesses while summoning writers from other provinces.
MA stressed that China is currently lacking clear judicial interpretations on fictitious literary works containing explicit content. According to him, the border between online erotic fiction or adult fiction and real obscene materials remains indefinite, as is the legal threshold of what constitutes “public damage”.
The main guidelines for the definition of obscene materials date back over 20 years and have been established when the Internet has been much less developed. The Lao of the University of Tsinghua argued that the definition should evolve with changing social attitudes.
“They set relatively low thresholds for what constitutes” serious circumstances “,” wrote Lao in his article. “But in a more open environment today, the bar of what is qualified as obscenity should clearly be raised.”
I warned that the application of aggressive criminals according to such vague standards could have a scary effect on creative writing in China.
RFA contacted the Lanzhou police, but the calls remained unanswered.
Edited by Mat Pennington.