There were unsuccessful attempts to include provisions legalising same-sex marriage in the new Chinese Civil Code in 2020. In August 2019, a parliament spokesman said that "limiting marriage to a relationship between a man and a woman will remain China's legal position." In December 2019, LGBT activists announced they had gathered over 200,000 signatures in favor of same-sex marriage. Later that month, Yue Zhongming, spokesman for the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, said that the National People's Congress would review the possibility of opening marriage to same-sex couples in March 2020 and opened the topic to public comments. Several government-related Sina Weibo accounts launched online opinion polls to gauge public support for same-sex marriage, with results as of 22 December 2019 being a ratio of 6 to 4 in favor. Results of an online Phoenix Network survey, which had garnered close to 10 million votes, showed a 67% majority in favor of same-sex marriage. In May 2020, an official from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress claimed that the signatures and comments in support of same-sex marriage the committee had received were "copied and pasted" and stated that the ban on same-sex marriage would be maintained.