Wu Rongrong is a Chinese feminist and a women's rights activist. She is a member of one of the larger feminist collectives in China known as "Feminist Five" or the "Gang of Five."
Early life and career
Wu Rongrong was born in 1985 in Jiaocheng County, Lüliang, Shanxi Province in North China. She attended China Women's University and majored in social work. She spent nearly two years volunteering at China Children's Press and Publication Group., a news and publication organization under the Communist Youth League of China that promotes youth activities and social engagement. She also spent nearly four years as a volunteer at New Path Foundation in China. In a blog written by Wu herself, she shared the experiences she had during her university years of sexual harassment from the local village officials of her hometown. In the blog, she also attributes the patriarchal environment in which she grew up as a cause for her later activism for women's rights. It was also during her university years that she was diagnosed as a carrier of Hepititis B. Wu established the Weizhiming Women’s Center in Hangzhou in 2014 and is its executive director. Previously, Wu was the project leader for women’s rights programs at the Beijing Yirenping Center, an organization dedicated to social justice and public health, and a staff member of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute, China’s leading NGO on the rights of people infected with HIV/AIDS.
Activism
In 2015, to mark International Women's Day on 8 March, Wu and some other Chinese feminism activists, including the Five, planned to hand out pamphlets on public buses and subways to raise awareness on sexual harassment. However, their plan was thwarted by the police and ten activists were detained and faced public disorder charges.. During the detention, Wu was denied medication for her Hepatitis condition, leading to a deteriorating health condition. On April 13, after weeks of detention, Wu was released from custody on bail together with four other activists.. After the release, Wu's husband said in a telephone interview that Wu was "emotionally collapsed" from the foul language and threats she was subjected to in jail. The activism of Wu and others received international support during this time. Hillary Clinton, running as a democratic presidential candidate at the time, tweeted "The detention of Chinese women's activists must end" and described the government action as "inexcusable." Then U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made similar comments to call for the release of the activists. In 2017, Wu was denied a permit to study law in Hong Kong by the local county security authority in Shanxi Province, despite the fact that she was already accepted by the University of Hong Kong prior to the block and granted a visa by Hong's Immigration Department. In addition, she received a ten-year ban from leaving the country. However, through lengthy negotiations, she was granted permission to go to Hong Kong a week later. When #MeToo movement gathered momentum globally, Wu offered support and advice to activists campaigning for policies to prevent sexual harassment in Chinese universities.
