Chinese police are broadening their investigation into five detained female activists to focus on their campaigns against domestic violence and for more public toilets for women, their lawyers have said.

The women were taken into custody just before International Women’s Day on 8 March, and later detained on suspicion of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, a charge that carries a prison term of up to five years, their lawyers said on Wednesday.

Supporters of the five women – Li Tingting, 25, Wei Tingting, 26, Wang Man, 32, Zheng Churan, 25, and Wu Rongrong, 30 – initially assumed they were picked up because of their plans to demonstrate against sexual harassment on buses and trains.



But Wang Qiushi, the lawyer for Li, said the focus of the investigation was centred on a 2012 campaign calling for more public toilets for women and a 2013-14 campaign against domestic violence.

“The initial reason for taking them away was the anti-sexual harassment bus activity on March 7, but it looks like slapping them now with a criminal charge for that is obviously very difficult,” Wang said.

The 2012 Occupy the Men’s Toilets campaign led to four cities pledging to increase the ratio of toilet cubicles for women, the state-run China Daily reported.

The Bloodstained Bride campaign of 2013-14 involved women posing in blood-splattered wedding gowns to draw attention to violence.

Lu Jun, co-founder of a group that campaigns against discrimination against women, said men identifying themselves as Beijing policemen had gone to various cities to look for women who participated in Occupy the Men’s Toilets. Beijing police did not respond to a request for comment.



The US, Britain and the EU have condemned the detentions, prompting China to call on other countries to respect its judicial sovereignty. Asked whether the government was concerned about further international censure if the women were formally charged, the Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said: “I don’t think there is any reason to be unhappy about China handling the relevant case in accordance with the law.”

Prosecutors will decide within days whether the women should be formally arrested or released, the lawyers said.



Prosecutors in Beijing’s Haidian district, which has jurisdiction over the women’s cases, said they have not received their cases from the police, according to Liang Xiaojun, a lawyer for Wu. A woman surnamed Wang from the Haidian prosecutor’s office declined to comment, saying: “Their cases have not reached us.”