BREAKING: China Arrests Dozens of Female Erotica Authors Under Strict Pornography Laws

(Beijing, July 12, 2025) In a sweeping crackdown that is sending shockwaves through China’s literary and online creative communities, Chinese authorities have arrested at least 30 erotica authors nearly all women in their 20s on charges of violating the country’s stringent pornography and obscenity laws, according to reports from the BBC and The New York Times.

While some of the women have been released on bail, others remain in custody and face criminal convictions and possible imprisonment. The arrests target a sub-genre known as danmei male–male romance fiction, often created by women for women and sexual minorities which authorities have increasingly scrutinized over the past decade.

One arrested author, writing under the handle Pingping Anan Yongfu on Chinese social platform Weibo, described the ordeal to the BBC:

“I’ll never forget it, being escorted in full view, stripped naked for examination in front of strangers, photographed in a vest, sitting in the chair, shaking with fear, my heart pounding.”

The New York Times profiled a graduate student from southern China who self-published a 75-chapter romance between two male characters. After earning just $400 in reader payments, she now faces potential incarceration. Twelve others across multiple provinces are reportedly facing similar charges.

Danmei, which translates as “addicted to beauty,” has roots in Japanese yaoi manga and has become a thriving online subculture. While celebrated globally as a creative outlet for women and LGBTQ+ audiences, it has become a focal point for China’s punitive enforcement of obscenity laws.

Academics and moderators from danmei communities note that state surveillance and platform governance policies have intensified since 2010, eroding trust, destabilizing creators’ incomes, and fragmenting the community. Research published in the European Journal of Cultural Studies warns that these crackdowns reveal the “legal precarity” of content creators operating under China’s digital censorship regime.

“The crackdown is not simply about morality or censorship,” researchers argue. “It exposes the unpredictable intersection of state control, economic pressures, and the fragile networks sustaining these cultural spaces.”

Global Legal and Human Rights Concerns

The arrests have sparked international condemnation from freedom of expression advocates, who argue the crackdown violates Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) both of which protect the right to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers.”

Human rights lawyers warn that the criminalization of consensual, fictional content not only threatens artistic freedom but also disproportionately targets women and LGBTQ+ creators, potentially breaching international protections against gender and sexual orientation-based discrimination.

Free speech watchdogs, including PEN America and Human Rights Watch, have called for the immediate release of all detained authors, urging foreign governments to pressure China to halt punitive obscenity prosecutions that fail to meet international legal standards.