Intersex Rights in China

In February 2018, Asian intersex activists published a statement from the Intersex Asia and Asian Intersex Forum, which set out the requirements ^[2] .

Small Luke (Hong Kong) characterizes Chinese society as holding traditional patriarchal views, encouraging the education of intersex children as boys, where possible ^[1] . She claims that the “one-child policy” in mainland China has led to the denial, neglect, and death of many intersex infants.

Both Luke ^[3] and Taiwanese activist Hicker Chiu ^[4] openly talked about the medical interventions they performed on them in childhood. Chiu says the surgical practice of “normalizing” began in Taiwan in 1953. In China and Hong Kong, surgical operations on the bodies of intersex children are being tried as early as possible. For example, a clinical review conducted in 2014 for 22 children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia in Hong Kong shows that all children in this study underwent a clitorectomy . He also showed a tendency to perform early surgeries when the child is 1-2 years old, and evaluate surgical success with a focus on the appearance of the genitals and the need for further cosmetic surgery ^[5] .

Prices for surgeries in China make medical treatment inaccessible, which leads to fewer forced interventions, but exacerbates health problems for some people ^[6] and leads to an increased likelihood of abandonment of such children and violence against them ^[1] .

In a 2015 report to the UN Committee against Torture, concerns were expressed about the lack of self-determination in Hong Kong and China, forced medical interventions in Hong Kong, lack of state assistance and the right to marry, and problems with violence and discrimination. ^[1] In response to submissions from Hong Kong, the United Nations Committee issued recommendations calling for the postponement of “non-urgent, irreversible medical interventions” until the children are old enough to give full, free and informed consent ^[7] . The committee called for an investigation of violent, involuntary and forced acts in the PRC, as well as measures to protect the physical and personal integrity of intersex people ^[8] .

Press reports in 2015 and 2016 provided examples of abandonment of children, neglect and even attempted murder. The South China Morning Post reported that in mid-2015, an intersex infant was found in the park in the Shandong province ^[9] . Attempts to kill an intersex child in Henan Province in mid-2016 were later reported; the killings were motivated by the fact that the child was a “monster” in the eyes of his father ^[10] .

In 2017, the Hong Kong Equal Opportunity Commission, together with the Center for Gender Studies of the Hong Kong Institute for Asian and Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, requested the Hong Kong government to introduce legislation to protect against discrimination based on intersex variation, sexual orientation and gender identity ^[11] .

The United Nations Committee against Torture has called for redress for involuntary and forced interference in both the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. ^{[7] [8]}

Small Luke led the company for self-determination of gender identity ^[1] , as well as for recognition of the third sex in Hong Kong ^[12] .

The first people in China to publicly report being intersex were Hicker Chiu, founder of Oii-Chinese, a Taiwanese-based human rights organization ^[13] , and Small Luke, founder of Beyond the Boundary, Knowing and Concerns Intersex, a human rights-based organization. in Hong Kong ^[6] .

In 2010, Chiu held the "Free Hugs with Intersex" promotion in Taipei. Oii-Chinese also lectures and works with the government ^{[13] [14]} . The goals of Beyond the Boundary - Knowing and Concerns Intersex are to increase public awareness of intersex and protect the rights of intersex people, including the prohibition of forced genital normalization and conversion therapy. Luke calls on the Hong Kong government to inform the public about intersex, introduce anti-discrimination laws, and stop surgical interventions in intersex children’s bodies without their consent ^[15] .

• Intersex Rights in Taiwan
• Intersex Rights
• Xie Jianshun