Among the arrested were current university students and young professionals who had just entered the workforce. Many of them had not earned significant income from their writing. According to sources familiar with the matter, the number of individuals affected could reach into the hundreds. The incident has sparked heated debate among legal experts and the public regarding the standards for defining “profiteering from obscene materials,” the jurisdiction of law enforcement, and the boundaries of creative freedom.

Since authorities in Jingxi County, Anhui Province initiated a “Clean Up the Online Environment” campaign in 2024, enforcement against female-oriented online platforms such as Haitang Fiction City has continued to escalate. On June 1, the WeChat blog “Li Yuchen’s Laughing Chronicles” revealed that Lanzhou police had launched an unprecedented wave of cross-provincial arrests in the first half of 2025. The article cited insiders saying most of the targeted writers were women who created BL and NSFW content. The operation involved multiple departments under the Lanzhou Public Security Bureau, including the Chengguan Branch, Lanzhou New Area Branch, and even the Forest Division.

Unlike the Jingxi cases, which differentiated criminal liability based on the amount of profit, the Lanzhou police pursued legal action even against authors who published their work for free or received only token rewards. Authorities argued that such works attracted traffic to platforms, thereby contributing to “overall profiteering.” This expansive interpretation of “profiteering” has drawn strong criticism.

The operation has been described as a new wave of “deep-sea fishing,” reminiscent of the Jingxi crackdown from June to December last year, which led to the arrest of over fifty BL writers across provinces. Lanzhou has now followed suit with similar large-scale action.

Attempts to contact the Lanzhou Public Security Bureau and its New Area branch were unsuccessful, with phone calls going unanswered.

Lanzhou-based senior journalist Liu Yang said in an interview on Tuesday (June 3) that he had heard rumors a month earlier but did not expect the scale to be so large. “The cultural market has always been a target for heavy-handed regulation, especially works involving same-sex romance. Anhui police did this last year with ‘deep-sea fishing’ tactics, and now it seems they’ve done it again, calling it obscene. I don’t understand — are they pushing for political correctness or just desperate for money? The police have no budget; maybe arresting people has become a revenue stream.”

BL (boys’ love) literature primarily depicts romantic relationships between men and often cannot pass China’s strict content censorship. Many authors publish on overseas adult platforms such as Haitang Fiction City, a Taiwanese site. Last year, Anhui police classified this as “producing and distributing obscene material for profit,” initiating large-scale arrests in cities like Chongqing, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Yunnan starting June 20, 2024.

According to the article from “Li Yuchen’s Laughing Chronicles,” even an author who received only “two Haitang coins” in tips was prosecuted. Some writers told lawyers that “even if the work was published for free, it was considered evidence of obscene content profiteering.” Authorities reportedly processed cases in batches and denied requests for bail.

This blog is run by renowned internet culture commentator Li Yuchen, who is known for deep dives into Chinese online culture and societal trends, especially around content censorship and the rights of online authors. He has been a key source of news in this field, particularly for BL literature and female subcultures.

Some Given Probation, Others Imprisoned

According to media reports, those whose alleged profits were under 250,000 yuan ( 35K USD ) and who agreed to return the money were mostly given probation. However, top author “Yunjian” was sentenced to four years and six months despite returning the funds. Another writer, “Ciyan,” who was unable to return the money, faces five and a half years in prison.

Song Tao, a law lecturer at a university in China, said this mass-scale crackdown on female BL authors is the most extensive and controversial case under Article 363 of the Criminal Law, which covers “producing, reproducing, publishing, or disseminating obscene materials for profit.” He emphasized, “Cracking down on illegal profits should not come at the cost of creative expression. The boundaries of enforcement must be clear — fictional writing and actual dissemination must be treated differently.”

He noted that Article 363 explicitly targets profit-driven production and sale of obscene materials. The Lanzhou police’s interpretation — that even unpaid or minimally paid writing counts as profiteering — greatly expands the scope of this criminal charge.

Legal scholar Lu Chenyuan commented that even Nobel laureate Mo Yan’s literary works contain sexual elements. Classical Chinese novels like Jin Ping Mei, San Yan Er Pai, and Dream of the Red Chamber also include erotic scenes. He added, “Literary works shouldn’t be so harshly restricted — this shouldn’t even be illegal.”

According to a BBC report, in 2018, a novelist writing under the pen name “Tianyi” was sentenced to ten and a half years in prison and fined 50,000 RMB (approximately 7,800 USD) by a court in Anhui for publishing her novel Occupy. She was convicted of “producing and selling obscene materials for profit.” The verdict sparked widespread controversy to this day.

Lawyers Question Legitimacy of Police Jurisdiction

Lawyer Ma Guoguang from Jiangxi said that, under China’s Criminal Procedure Law, criminal cases should be handled by public security authorities at the location of the alleged crime or the defendant’s place of residence. He questioned why Lanzhou police were carrying out nationwide arrests: “Without a clear framework for judicial cooperation or unified case standards, this kind of non-local enforcement risks exceeding their authority.”

He also pointed out that China currently lacks judicial interpretation on how fictional literary works with explicit content should be treated. There are no clear definitions on whether BL or NSFW subcultural content qualifies as obscene or what constitutes “social harm.” In such a legal vacuum, harsh criminal enforcement may produce a chilling effect and damage the overall writing ecosystem.