A protest movement in China demanding that authorities increase the number of women’s toilets in public buildings has fallen foul of the censors, in another sign of Beijing’s skittishness ahead of a planned leadership transition later this year.
The key words of the protest – Occupy Men’s Toilets – were blocked on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, on the mainland late on Monday night, while information on the group’s next planned protest in Henan has been deleted by China’s omnipresent internet police.
A couple of dozen women staged a protest in Beijing on Sunday, occupying men’s public toilets in the city’s downtown Deshengmen area. The protesters demanded that twice as many toilets be built for women than men, after a similar protest in Guangzhou pushed the authorities to pledge to increase the ratio of women’s toilets to men’s.