Women's Rights in China

 An old Uyghur woman in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.  Many Uyghur women aged 17-25 have been forced to other Chinese provinces to work, and in some cases, marry.

by Michael Craig

Like most countries around the world including Canada and the USA, China has fine laws that outlaw discrimination against women.  I have no doubt that Chinese leaders, like our Canadian Prime Minister, believe in theory in women's equality and frequently take steps to bridge the gap between theory and practice.  In fact, in this whole area of law making and enforcement, it always strikes me that east and west, north and south, have similar policies written mostly by men that come up against the reality of men preserving their superior status.

That having been said, China has strenuously enforced a "one-child" policy since 1979 in order to control a growing population.  In one sense this policy has been successful, as China's population has remained fairly stable at 1.3 billion.  (See Wikipedia for more detail.)  On the other hand, the corruption and rigidity of China's authoritarian system has lead to injustices that have impacted millions of women and men.

Local officials often take extreme measures, including forced sterilizations, to enforce the one-child policy and keep the birth rate down to expected levels in their region.  Blind activist and self-taught lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, continues to serve a sentence of four years and three months in prison.  His "crime", according to Amnesty International, was criticism of officials in Shandong who conducted a campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations in order to achieve low birth quotas.

One of the most extraordinary aspects of the rights of women in China is that, because of the great preference for boys, millions (literally) of female fetuses are being aborted.  And not only aborted.  It is reported that girl babies are frequently killed because the one-child policy is firmly enforced, especially in urban areas.  Hence, sadly, parents who desperately want a boy to carry on the family name are devastated when a girl arrives -- so they kill her or leave her on the side of the road to die.  Shocking but true!

In some regions of China, as I understand it, the boy-girl ratio has reached 54-46, making it very difficult for Chinese men to find wives.  As a result, another human rights atrocity:  the Chinese government has encouraged, coerced and, in some cases, forced families to allow their 17-25 year old daughters to travel from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in north-west China to other provinces to work and, in some case, marry.  According to my Uyghur friends, the number of women who have been pushed to leave their homeland is anywhere from half to 1.2 million.  Some return, many don't.  This has a secondary benefit from the government's perspective.  It reduces the birth rate in Xinjiang itself, further eroding the strength and influence of Uyghur people in a province where they are already a minority.

Trafficking is a growing problem with women kidnapped in western and rural regions being sold as wives or worse to men in cities.  This is part of the extraordinary disparity in China between urban and rural areas, rich and poor.  The government has been quite inadequate in its enforcement of the law.  Criminals with power, influence and money get away with trafficking in women, if not murder.

For what it is worth, my information and perspective comes from twenty years as an Amnesty International activist and, recently, Chair of China Rights Network, a coalition of Tibetan, Taiwanese, Uyghur, Falun Gong and democracy groups based in Toronto.

Michael Craig

China Coordinator, Amnesty International Canada
Chair, China Rights Network
34 Parkdale Road
Toronto, ON.  M6R 1E2
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