Fighting in the shadow of heteropatriarchy : feminists versus gay men’s discursive battle over surrogacy in China

China’s dwindling birthrate and aging population have brought fertility to the limelight. Artificial reproductive technologies, e.g., surrogacy, have triggered intense public debates. While ample studies on surrogacy have been conducted in other national contexts, few studies have mapped the contour of surrogacy debates in China. Through textual analysis of online debates and depth interviews with key discussants, this study finds that anti-surrogacy feminists and pro-surrogacy gay men have driven the Chinese surrogacy talks. How and why did two minorities, both oppressed by the heteropatriarchal reproductive regime, fight against each other? The findings indicate that pro-surrogacy gay men, by suppressing talks on their disadvantaged sexual orientation to leverage male privileges, endorsed the discourse of a free surrogacy market that is minimally regulated by the state; they, thus, tacitly participated in the extension of the heteropatriarchal reproductive regime. In contrast, anti-surrogacy feminists assumed an intersectional lens and challenged gendered and other forms of oppression in the heteropatriarchal reproduction regime that is supported by traditionalist families, unruly markets, and the state’s non/intervention. This study, therefore, contributes to understanding not only the Chinese surrogacy debate but also the conflictual negotiations of minorities’ identities when their privileged and underprivileged facets clash with each other.