An absence of overt contention has led scholars to question the existence of social movements in China and to agree with the “state corporatism” description of state-social group relations there. This article presents the idea of "adaptive confrontation "to demonstrate that there are women s and lesbian groups in China that go beyond the idea of state corporatism, as well as to challenge current applications of social movement theories and better understand state-social group relationships in a repressive regime. By applying different strategies, three gender groups have not only confronted a repressive state interference in their affairs that aims to dismiss them, hut also have managed to expand their political space. This paper presents three pieces of evidence: the building of alliances, the empowerment of other grassroots groups to do advocacy work, and the building of a community.