China sparks outrage for sentencing an author who wrote about gay love to 10 years - longer than some rapists get

• A Chinese court sentenced an author to ten years in jail for publishing a book that "obscenely and in detail" described gay sex, state media reported.
• Pornography is illegal in China, as is same-sex marriage.
• Many people have argued that the sentence was too harsh. Some people accused of sexual assault have received shorter sentences in the past.
• China has been cracking down on what it considered inappropriate content, such as pornography and even people having tattoos.

A Chinese court sparked outrage after sentencing an author to ten years in prison after she published a book that detailed gay sex.

The author, surnamed Liu, was found guilty by a court in Wuhu, eastern China, after self-publishing a book last year that "obscenely and in detail described gay male-on-male acts," the state-run Wuhu Broadcasting Channel news reported.

Pornography is illegal in China, as is same-sex marriage.

The novel, titled "Occupation," includes "violence, abuse, and insults related to sexual perversion," state media reported, adding that the contents were "unsightly."

Wuhu county court called for the ten-year sentence because Liu - who writes under the pen name Tian Yi - made 150,000 yuan ($21,600) by selling more than 7,000 copies, the state-run Global Times tabloid reported. The outlet referred to the money earned from the book as "illegal profits."

The judge likely thought that the book "has a baneful impact on the society," the Global Times reported, citing lawyer Lü Xiaoquan.

Police were alerted to the book after it went viral online shortly after its publication in 2017.

Liu has appealed her sentence, the Global Times reported.

Many people have since leaped to Liu's defense, saying that the sentence was too harsh.

One unnamed person said on popular microblogging site Weibo that she was sexually assaulted and injured in Beijing this May, but the perpetrator was sentenced to eight months in prison, the Global Times reported.

Others noted that an official in Yunnan province, southwestern China, was sentenced to eight years in prison for abducting and raping a four-year-old girl, the BBC and South China Morning Post reported.

In 2013, the son of two famous singers was sentenced to ten years in jail after he and four other people were accused of raping a woman at a Beijing hotel. Ten years is the maximum sentence for rape under Chinese law.

Read more: Planting spies, paying people to post on social media, and pretending the news doesn't exist: This is how China tries to distract people from human rights abuses

China's crackdown on content

The Chinese Communist Party has recently intensified its crackdown on what it considered inappropriate content, such as pornography.

Popular social media platform Sina Weibo censored LGBT content alongside pornography earlier this year, likely to honor a government initiative, but reversed the decision after China's gay community who said the company had smeared homosexuality.

Earlier this year Beijing also called on video-streaming sites to censor content that included tattoos, gambling, drinking, smoking, "flirtatious" dancing, and even scenes that use "a bed or sofa as a prop or background."

In May, Douyin, one of China's largest video-sharing apps, also banned content about Peppa Pig from its platform because the cartoon pig had become an icon of Chinese "slackers," which runs against Communist Party ideals.