IN 2012 A GROUP of feminists protested against a shortage of public toilets for women by using men’s lavatories instead (see picture). State-security police responded by harassing and threatening them. But the government took up their cause. Cities started building more toilets for women. Last year, at the UN, China cited this as a big achievement of its efforts in the past five years to improve the lot of women. It did not mention the people who had pushed for such change.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.Most of the toilet-reform activists have been forced to give up their campaigning. Some are subject to intense surveillance by the state. Several have become fitness fanatics, going to gyms to run and lift weights. “Many of us suffer from depression and anxiety,” says one. “Exercise is a way for us to prepare for whatever comes next, good or bad.”Feminist causes are not dead. The country’s media are not allowed to report on the #MeToo movement, an online campaign against sexual harassment that took off globally in 2017. But the same grievances have bubbled up in China. A growing number of women are suing powerful men for sexual assault. #MeToo has fuelled an “unprecedented interest” in women’s rights, says Lu Pin, a Chinese feminist who went into self-exile in America in 2015.Officials are making some effort t …
