China does not recognize same-sex marriage or civil unions. Since 1 October 2017, all adults have been able to enter into voluntary guardianship agreements with their chosen guardians, regardless of relationship status and sexual orientation. This system offers the designated guardian limited legal authority, including decisions about medical and personal care, death and funeral, and property management. Some same-sex couples utilize this system to obtain limited legal protections; however, they may face obstacles, including outright refusal or the imposition of discriminatory requirements by local notary offices. Attempts to legalise same-sex marriage in 2020 were unsuccessful, but polling suggests that support for the legal recognition of same-sex marriage is rising in China.

In Hong Kong, the same-sex partners of local residents are able to obtain dependent visas. Same-sex spouses of government employees also receive the same spousal benefits as heterosexual spouses, which includes medical care and joint tax assessment. Hong Kong courts have also ruled in favor of equal treatment for same-sex couples with regard to inheritance rights and parental recognition after the breakdown of the relationship.

Immigration, tax and inheritance rights Beijing Beijing provides dependent residency status to the same-sex foreign partners of legal foreign residents. It is not clear whether this extends to the foreign partner of a local Chinese resident. On 1 July 2013, foreign same-sex partners (including married couples) of residents became eligible for a "dependent resident status". This law only applies to the municipality of Beijing. The key beneficiaries were expected to be white-collar foreign expats whose partners and spouses were able to accompany them and gain residency status in Beijing as a result of the law.

Hong Kong

In 2014, Hong Kong immigration officer Angus Leung Chun-kwong married his same-sex partner, Scott Adams, in New Zealand. Following the wedding, Leung attempted to update his marital status with the Civil Service Bureau, whose policy states that officers' partners can receive spousal benefits, which includes medical care and joint tax assessment. The Bureau rejected Leung's attempts to extend these benefits to Adams, prompting a legal challenge, Leung Chun Kwong v Secretary for the Civil Service, in court. On 6 June 2019, after conflicting decisions from lower courts, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the Civil Service Bureau and the Inland Revenue Department had unlawfully discriminated against the couple, and ruled that the same-sex spouse of a government employee should receive the same spousal benefits as an opposite-sex spouse. In 2020, the Inland Revenue Department issued regulations as a result of the court decision stating that "any married person – regardless if he or she is in a heterosexual marriage or same-sex marriage – is now entitled to elect joint assessment or personal assessment jointly with the person's spouse, as well as to claim allowances or deductions in respect of his or her spouse. In addition, he or she is also eligible to sponsor his or her spouse for a dependant visa/entry permit for entry into Hong Kong."

A Hong Kong court ruled in September 2017 that a lesbian expatriate worker could live in the territory with her partner as a dependant and ordered the government to issue her a spousal visa. The ruling was labelled "a big win" by Raymond Chan Chi-chuen, Hong Kong's first openly gay lawmaker. The Hong Kong Government appealed the ruling in November 2017,Hong Kong criticised for refusing to accept visa ruling for British lesbian The Guardian, 2 November 2017 and it was upheld in July 2018 by the Court of Final Appeal in QT v Director of Immigration.Hong Kong's highest court upholds landmark judgment in favour of lesbian expat QT , Hong Kong Free Press, 4 July 2018 The ruling became effective on 19 September 2018. In September 2020, the Hong Kong High Court ruled that same-sex couples should receive equal treatment under inheritance law. The case challenged the city's inheritance and intestacy laws which forbade a gay person from inheriting the estate of their partner without a will. Judge Anderson Chow Ka-ming ruled in Ng Hon Lam Edgar v Secretary for Justice that the policy was "unlawful discrimination". In May 2021, the Court of First Instance ruled in favor of equal parental rights for lesbian couples in S v KG. The court ruled that following the breakdown of the relationship the non-biological mother should be granted joint custody, shared care and guardianship rights of her children, despite not being legally recognized as the children's mother.

Guardianship system

In March 2017, the National People's Congress amended Chinese law so that "all adults of full capacity are given the liberty of appointing their own guardians by mutual agreement." Previously, only those over the age of 60 or with reduced mental capacity could nominate a legal guardian. Specifically, article 33 of the amended law, which went into effect on 1 October 2017, states:

The system, called "legal guardianship" or "guardianship agreement" (, pinyin: , ), allows any adult with full capacity for civil conduct to designate a guardian. It permits the designated guardian to make important decisions about medical and personal care, death and funeral, property management, and maintenance of rights and interests when the adult becomes incapacitated. Same-sex couples have utilized this system to obtain limited legal protections. The first couple was registered in Nanjing in late 2017. However, many face obstacles, including outright refusal or the imposition of discriminatory requirements by local notary offices. Some notary offices impose requirements such as both partners being out to their families. A 2021 report by the China Notary Association stated that employees of some notary offices "ha[d] been disciplined by authorities for providing voluntary guardianship services to same-sex couples". Some notary offices, when faced with their first same-sex applications, often exhibited extreme caution and uncertainty. In one case in Changsha, the local notary office held a six-hour meeting to decide whether to accept the application, with the discussion focusing on whether approval would "disrupt public disorder or morality". In another case in Guangzhou, an office allegedly demanded that the same-sex couple submit a ¥100,000 deposit, a requirement not imposed on heterosexual applicants, leading the couple to abandon their application. Some notary offices only grant guardianship for property matters but not healthcare, while some offices refuse applications from same-sex couples altogether.

Chinese LGBT activists welcomed the move, calling it an "important, positive first step". Peng Yazi, the director of LGBT Rights Advocacy China, said after having signed guardianship papers with his partner that "if anything happens to one of us, we know our basic rights are protected". As of August 2019, guardianship agreements have been signed in Jiangsu, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Shanghai, Hubei and Beijing, among others. The practice is more common among older same-sex couples or couples who have been in a relationship for several years. According to a 2019 online opinion poll on Sina Weibo, which garnered over 5 million responses, 85% of respondents were in favour of the guardianship system, while 5% were opposed; the rest being undecided.

Same-sex marriage Background There are documented cases of same-sex unions in Ancient China. During the Song era, there are tales of two men, Pan Zhang and Wang Zhongxian, who fell in love and lived together in a relationship described as "affectionate as husband and wife, sharing the same coverlet and pillow with unbounded intimacy for one another".Hinsch, Bret. (1990). Passions of the Cut Sleeve. University of California Press. p. 24 In modern times, the earliest known advocate for same-sex unions was the 19th to 20th century utopian reformer Kang Youwei, who advocated temporary marriage contracts lasting up for a year. These contracts would have been open to both same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples. However, he did not believe that China was ready for such a historic step, and deferred this policy until the future Great Unity.Kang Youwei 2010: Datong Shu. Beijing: Renmin Daxue chubanshe.Kang Youwei 1958/2005: Ta T'ung Shu: the One-World philosophy of Kang Yu-wei. Translated by Lawrence Thompson. London: George Allen and Unwin. Chinese Buddhism considers marriage to be a secular issue or a social contract, and therefore not a religious matter. There is no religious marriage service and marriage customs are often adopted from local cultural traditions. Writing for the Journal of Religious Studies in 2022, Andi Fian, an alumnus from the Gadjah Mada University, argued that prohibitions against same-sex marriage in Confucianism may have influenced Chinese Buddhism.

On 13 January 2010, the China Daily published a front-page splash photo of a Chinese couple, Zeng Anquan, a divorced architect aged 45, and Pan Wenjie, a demobilized People's Liberation Army soldier aged 27, being married in a gay bar in Chengdu. The marriage is understood as having no legal basis in the country, and the families of both men reacted negatively to the news of their marriage. In September 2014, Brian Davidson, the British Consul-General of Shanghai, married his male partner, Scott Chang, in a ceremony officiated by Ambassador Sebastian Wood at his residence in Beijing. The marriage was performed under British law and lacks legal recognition in China, though the ceremony provoked mixed reactions in China. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. state of Utah established an online civil marriage service for couples wishing to marry. The marriage is officiated by Zoom and for an additional fee the couple can obtain an apostille validation stamp for the marriage license provided by Utah state authorities. By October 2022, around 200 same-sex couples in China had married via this online service, though the marriages have no legal status in China. The move has also become particularly popular in Israel where same-sex marriages performed abroad are legally recognised.

According to certain estimates from 2010, about 80% to 90% of Chinese gay men were married to women, who are known in Chinese as tongqi (, pinyin: ). These marriages, often called "sham marriages", are attributed to the fact that there is significant social pressure from family to marry and to found a family with a partner of the opposite sex. In most of these cases, the women are unaware of their husbands' sexual orientation. In 2012, a professor at Sichuan University committed suicide after her husband came out as gay. In some cases, lesbians and gay men deliberately choose to marry each other.LGBTQ rights in mainland China looking gloomy after Taiwan's new ruling on same-sex marriage The ConversationChina rights: Gay people pledge not to enter into sham marriages BBC News Research has shown that the social well-being of gay men and lesbians is significantly deteriorated by these "sham marriages", resulting in estrangement from family and suicide.

Court cases On 5 January 2016, a court in Changsha, agreed to hear a lawsuit filed in December 2015 against the Bureau of Civil Affairs of Furong District. The lawsuit was filed by 26-year-old Sun Wenlin, who in June 2015 had been refused permission to marry his 36-year-old partner, Hu Mingliang.Gay man sues for right to marry in China's first same-sex marriage lawsuit South China Morning Post, 6 January 2016 On 13 April 2016, with hundreds of same-sex marriage supporters outside, the court ruled against Sun, who said he would appeal. On May 17, 2016, Sun and Hu were married in a private ceremony in Changsha, expressing their intention to organize another 99 same-sex weddings across the country in order to normalize same-sex marriage in China.