Homosexuality was illegal in China until 1997, and officials described it as a mental illness until 2001.
Since then the government’s attitude might best be characterized as “don’t condemn, but don’t promote”.

So a front-page article that discussed how many gay people there might be here, and an editorial in the state-run China Daily that highlighted the tolerance of a city like Shanghai seemed to represent a shift towards a more tolerant attitude.

A few hours later, however, officials in Shanghai were visiting businesses that planned to hold events as part of Pride Week and ordering them to cancel.