Fridae

Less than 24 hours after the police shut down Mr Gay China pageant which was to be held at a Beijing club for not possessing relevant license, Aizhixing, a prominent Beijing-based AIDS non-government organisation (NGO), was reportedly forced to cancel a gathering to mark the 16th anniversary of its founding.

"We don't know exactly why, and we did not really ask," Dr Wan Yanhai, founder of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute, and a leading HIV/AIDS and LGBT human rights advocate in China, was quoted as saying in a CNN report. "The government might not believe in what we are doing. We hoped we could operate more openly in society. But it seems that the government will not accept this."

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post and CNN also reported that what was to be the debut of the mainland's first state-sponsored radio programme dedicated to HIV issues last Saturday has been postphoned.

The CNN report also quoted Zhang Wei, a spokesperson for the UN Development Program, as saying that the program, "Positive Talks," was scheduled to start airing weekly on China National Radio but so far has not received final approval from the government.

In a Jan 17 report titled “Pressure on gays intensifies after pageant shutdown”, the Post noted that it’s unknown “why the police launched the high-profile crackdown, with 200 people and journalists at the scene, an hour before the contest began” as Chinese officials usually notify organisers days or hours beforehand should they feel that an event is not permitted to be held.

The SCMP report also noted that the local media including Beijing News reported on the cancellation. However, the report quoted police from Beijing's Chaoyang district as saying the organisers cancelled the event "voluntarily" as opposed to the event being “shut down” by the police as reported by foreign media.

Professor Li Yinhe, a prominent sociologist specialising in gay culture studies, was quoted in the same report as saying that she was “confused” by the crackdown. "In dealing with the issue of homosexuality, authorities are always more conservative than the general public and as a result we have no rules to follow," she said. 

Meanwhile, the organisers of the Mr Gay China pageant have announced on its web site yesterday that they have decided not to send a delegate to represent China in Oslo despite their initial plans to select a winner from the eight contestants privately. 

Organisers Gayographic also announced that their weekly events at Lan Club have been “postponed indefinitely” but did not give any reasons for doing so. The organisers did not respond to Fridae’s request for comment.