Battling violence & censors: Women in China become 'invisible & absent'

The CCP has long promoted gender equality as a core tenet, but as cases of gender abuse make headlines, it has tried to squelch dissent, control narrative

When a prominent woman in China’s #MeToo movement took on a powerful man in court, it was the accused, not the accuser, who was held up as the victim. When several women were savagely beaten by men after resisting unwanted advances in a restaurant, the focus of the story pivoted from gender violence to gang violence.

And when a mother of eight was found chained to the wall of a doorless shack, it was her mental fitness — not her imprisonment — that became the talking point.
 

Each incident went viral online in China, initially touching off a wave