New ‘morality’ rules target campus sexual harassment

China’s education ministry this month issued new regulations on ‘professional morality’ to include curbing sexual harassment on university campuses, after a rare admission in China’s official media that two professors were dismissed in December over harassment claims.

Feminist activists in China – many of them persecuted for raising such issues – say it is an important signal from the authorities but does not go far enough to curb the problem on campuses without proper mechanisms for victims to report harassment.

Victims willing to come forward on social media, supported by China’s growing #MeToo movement, is still the main way to press university authorities, fearful of a hit to the university’s reputation, to take action, activists say.

In a document released by the Ministry of Education on 16 December, academic staff could be disciplined or even lose their jobs over misconduct involving sexual harassment. The new regulations are part of a broader tightening of oversight of ‘teacher morality’ including academic misconduct, ethics and corruption such as receiving bribes at universities and schools, although the sexual harassment clauses related only to universities.

In December official media highlighted the sacking of two professors. The Ministry of Education in a 16 December press conference referred to the two cases in Beijing and in Shanghai, saying it would have “zero tolerance for sexual harassment”.

Qian Fengsheng, an associate professor in the accountancy department at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, was sacked by the university on 9 December over allegations that he locked one of his students in his car and sexually assaulted her.

In a statement on 9 December, the university said Qian’s teaching licence and academic title were being revoked. “Our investigation concluded that Qian Fengsheng seriously contravened professional ethics,” the statement said.

According to an earlier online post by the university, Qian sexually assaulted the alleged victim – whose identity was not disclosed – on 16 November after offering her a lift in his car, ostensibly to respond to her queries regarding the course. The university post, which went viral on China’s WeChat social media platform, revealed the student had secretly recorded her conversation with the professor while in the vehicle.

In a separate case on 11 December, Feng Renjie, an assistant professor at the school of mathematical sciences at Peking University in Beijing, had his teaching qualifications revoked, according to a university announcement on its Weibo social media account.

Official media reported that a woman claiming to be Feng’s wife posted on a WeChat social media account on 6 December saying he had sexual relationships with at least nine young women, which sparked the university investigation.

Online platform announced

An online platform would be set up for reporting misconduct including sexual harassment, according to the new rules published by the Ministry of Education and six other government ministries on 16 December on “strengthening and improving” teacher morality, saying cases of sexual harassment would be strictly investigated.

Ren Youqun, director of the department of teacher work of the Ministry of Education, said: “In November 2018, we issued three guidelines for the professional conduct of teachers, all of which clearly stipulate that no improper relationship with students is allowed, any form of threats and sexual harassment are strictly prohibited, and severe punishment measures are provided (for).”

He pointed out that in response to recent incidents the Ministry of Education instructed institutions to “scrupulously investigate” and cooperate with judicial authorities to conduct in-depth investigations.

“We must increase the intensity of supervision and investigation of violations, and continue to report publicly, so that offenders pay a heavy price,” Ren said at the ministry press conference.

Important signal, activists say

“This declaration is a signal that sexual harassment is forbidden at universities, and the signal itself is important,” says Lü Pin, a feminist activist and founder of the highly influential online Feminist Voices platform in China, which is credited with helping to spread the country’s #MeToo movement and providing support and training to feminist activists. The platform was banned by censors in 2018.

“The declaration is not perfect but definitely an improvement from before. However, we need more details about the mechanisms,” Lü, who is currently a researcher at the State University of New York at Albany in the United States, told University World News.

She notes that no universities currently have a special mechanism to tackle sexual harassment. “We do not have a reliable way to prevent or punish this kind of behaviour.”

Wang Bixing, a graduate student of Sichuan University School of Law, and other researchers found in a recent survey of 42 top universities taking part in the ministry’s 2019 world-class universities project, that of the 34 universities that have established teacher ethics standards, nine universities do not even include provisions on sexual harassment. Eight of them have not specifically issued ethics documents so far.

The official websites of only six out of the 42 top universities had announced complaint and reporting channels on teachers’ “morality”, the survey found.

Yet it is clear that campuses face a particular problem. Chang Jiang, an associate professor of journalism and communication at Tsinghua University in Beijing, created the #I'llBeYourVoice hashtag on Weibo in late July, and says he was soon flooded with responses including through private messages sent to him that week.

The main groups were female university and college students or young graduates who had experienced sexual harassment, and women from rural areas. Many were “real-name whistleblowers” who accused specific people of misconduct, he says.

Harassment is not just a ‘morality’ issue

Feminist activists in China have said a proper mechanism would include plans to train teachers in tackling sexual harassment, and proper channels for complaint and support services for the victims as well as procedures to handle incidents.

There are other problems with the ministry’s latest regulation. Lü says it is not enough to include sexual harassment on campuses into broadbrush ‘morality’ or professional ethics issues.

“We feminists do not agree that the issue of sexual harassment should be brought under the umbrella of the so-called moral issue because it is very broad and could be used by the party to control or limit the freedom of expression of professors, and that has already happened. Sexual harassment is a human rights violation, not just a so-called moral issue.

“The challenge is the lack of lawyers and public aid to help victims to pay for lawyers. Very few lawyers know much about sexual harassment,” she adds.

Unlike rape, which falls under China’s criminal law with prison sentences of three to 10 years and sometimes more, depending on the severity of the crime, sexual harassment is not governed by a stand-alone law, nor is it legally defined, covering a range of actions.

Grassroots #MeToo activists in China are playing an important role in supporting victims, particularly in the December Shanghai case which was “supported by a very high-profile victim of the #MeToo movement who became a very active feminist, and a lawyer who provided very important support to the victim,” Lü notes.

Suppression of activists

Yet despite the importance of this type of support, the activities of many #MeToo activists are being curtailed and online posts censored.

Huang Xueqin, a journalist and #MeToo activist, had in 2018 assisted a student Luo Xixi and several other female students from Beihang University (formerly Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) to lodge a formal complaint against Chen Xiaowu, Luo’s former doctoral supervisor, for sexual harassment, becoming one of the most high-profile cases of the then nascent Chinese #MeToo movement.

Huang was contacted by more victims at Peking University, Henan University, Sun Yat-sen University and Wuhan University of Technology for assistance in their cases. However, Huang was reportedly detained by the authorities in the southern province of Guangzhou in October 2019 on the vaguely defined charge of “picking troubles and provoking trouble”.

“No one knows why she was arrested,” Lü says, indicating that it was a renewal of the suppression of the #MeToo movement. “They punished a few core organisers, meanwhile at the same time they have a process to stabilise society,” she says, referring to the latest regulations on sexual harassment by the ministry. “But they cannot arrest all the people. We pay the price, but society can make some progress.”

Lü says the movement is still going on and has expanded its role from the beginning of 2018. “It has successfully got more people involved and more people talking about sexual harassment, so you can understand why the education ministry issued this declaration – because they have been pressed by the public and the growth of the #MeToo community,” she says.

Simply, support for the movement and the issues it raises, particularly sexual harassment, has become too big for the authorities to ignore. But without proper mechanisms, the focus will continue to be on specific cases, she says.

“People cannot gather, and they cannot discuss the strategies of the movement because of censorship,” Lü says. “Its focus is on single, individual cases exposed by one or another victim.”