Instruments of the State
China's policies regarding women have often prioritized the state's evolving needs over the genuine well-being of women.
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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a well-documented history of making hollow promises.
When the Party assumed control of China in 1949, it proclaimed its commitment to liberate women from the "oppression" of traditionally patriarchal Chinese culture.
For centuries, Chinese women faced the harsh reality of being treated as second-class citizens, primarily confined to their homes and burdened with the responsibility of raising families. Marriages were usually arranged by parents, leaving women with little control over their own destinies. Men could take multiple wives, while a woman was expected to remain faithful to only one man. Seeking a divorce was almost unheard of for women, whereas a man could easily dissolve a marriage simply by returning his wife to her family, along with a note outlining her shortcomings. The greatest shame often fell upon women who failed to give birth to a son to carry on the family name, resulting in them being labeled as disgraces.
The Communist Party promised to eradicate these outdated norms and create a society where men and women would be treated as equals. Chairman Mao Zedong’s powerful statement, "Women hold up half the sky," resonated deeply and signaled a new era of hope for women in China.
The Communist Party initially brought about some positive changes for women, such as the Marriage Law of 1950, which abolished polygamy and arranged marriages. Female school enrollment and employment increased. More women filed for divorce.
Despite these early progress, the gap between the party’s promises and reality remains significant. The party’s rhetoric regarding women and equality does not reflect a genuine commitment to respecting women’s human rights. Instead, it serves as a carefully constructed façade, obscuring its actual views.
With a long history of infringing individual rights, the party has never truly valued personal freedom. Similar to the patriarchy that preceded them, party leaders view women as instruments of the state.
After the establishment of Communist China, the country—scarred by war—required a labor force to rebuild its economy. Consequently, the Chinese government vigorously encouraged and often coerced housewives into the workforce, even though some, including my maternal grandmother, wanted to stay home and take care of their young children. Women's labor participation rate jumped to 90% in a few years.
Amid the escalating tensions of the Cold War between the American-led free world and the Soviet Union's Communist bloc, Chairman Mao called upon Chinese women to bear more children. He viewed a larger population as essential for the Communist movement, believing it would strengthen China and serve as a defense in potential nuclear conflicts.
Mao reportedly told a Yugoslav visitor to China in 1957, "We have a very large territory and a big population. Atomic bombs could not kill all of us. What if they killed 300 million of us? We would still have many people left." Mao Zedong held the belief that if socialist countries maintained larger populations than imperialist nations, a nuclear holocaust could ultimately work in socialism's favor.
By the time of Mao's death, China’s population had approached nearly one billion. However, his successor, Deng Xiaoping, recognized the rapid population growth along with the resource demands it imposed as a critical economic challenge. Additionally, the economic reforms instituted by Deng in the 1980s escalated the need for labor.
To address these challenges and ensure that more women could remain in the workforce longer, Deng introduced a "one-child" policy, limiting each Chinese couple to just one child.
To implement this ambitious policy, the Chinese government created a comprehensive bureaucracy for population control and family planning, hiring half a million full-time workers and nearly 85 million part-time workers at the community level. This extensive network enabled the government to inject itself into an essential personal decision: the number of children families choose to have.
Chinese women were subject to invasive oversight. Grassroots workers, often part-time, were tasked with monitoring women's most intimate details, including the types of contraceptives they used, whether they had one or two children, and their marital status—whether they were sterilized, pregnant, married, or single.
The enforcement of the “One-Child” policy was nothing short of savage. Family planning officials, local police, and healthcare workers often used violence to force women with children to undergo sterilizations and abortions, regardless of the stage of their pregnancies. Although men were sometimes subjected to forced sterilization, it was women who had borne the brunt of the government’s inhumane population control measures, often being treated like.
For families that managed to evade the state's coercion and had more than one child, the government typically imposed substantial fines. Additionally, the state refused to register these extra children as citizens. As a result, these unregistered children did not receive state-allocated food rations, were unable to attend school, and could not find employment when they grew up due to their lack of legal status.
In rural regions where sons are valued over daughters, countless expectant mothers face devastating choices. Many resort to abortion or abandon their newborn girls, driven by the desperate hope of finally having a son. Alarmingly, approximately 20 million girls have 'disappeared' over the past three decades due to sex-selective abortions or infanticide.
It is a bitter irony that a party that vocally champions gender equality and women’s rights has, in reality, caused significant harm to women and girls.
The “One-Child” policy has lasting and serious effects on society as a whole. There are approximately 30 million more men than women in China, a disparity that has fueled social instability and a disturbing increase in human trafficking and other crimes against women and girls. Moreover, China’s birth rate is in sharp decline while the population is rapidly aging. If these trends continue, the elderly population could reach a staggering 30% by 2050, posing significant challenges for the country.
Demographer Mei Fong summarized China’s demographic crisis this way: “The one-child policy drastically reshaped the composition of China's people. So now they have a population that's basically too old and too male and, down the line, maybe too few."
To tackle the demographic crisis resulting from its population policy, the government first implemented a two-child policy in 2016 and then introduced a three-child policy in 2021. However, these measures did not succeed in reversing the downward trend in China's birth rate. In 2022, the country experienced its first population decline since the 1960s. Last year, the marriage rate fell 20%, marking the largest drop on record.
Several factors contribute to young Chinese women’s reluctance to have more children or start families. The rising costs of raising a child and the lack of well-paying job opportunities for women make the idea of starting a family daunting for many. Additionally, some women are focused on pursuing personal fulfillment beyond traditional marriage and family roles. They worry that having children could jeopardize their job security and hinder their career advancement.
It is a troubling reality that many employers are hesitant to offer women high-paying positions, often assuming they will soon marry and start families. This bias is perpetuated by inappropriate questions during job interviews, such as, “When do you plan to get married?” Research found that over 60% of women face intrusive questions regarding their marital and family plans. Such practices not only undermine women’s professional potential but also highlight the need for stronger anti-discrimination laws.
Rather than confronting the critical social, economic, and legal issues that women face, the Chinese government resorts to more invasive measures, hoping to drive up marriage and birth rates.
The Wall Street Journal highlights a troubling trend: police frequently minimize reports of domestic violence from women, dismissing them as simple “family disputes” and opting not to intervene. In divorce proceedings, judges often trivialize women’s claims and evidence of domestic violence, instead pushing couples to reconcile during mandatory cooling-off periods before considering divorce applications.
Alarmingly, only about 35% of divorce trials have resulted in actual divorces in recent years, a stark decline from roughly 70% two decades ago. Furthermore, research shows that between 2017 and 2020, merely 30% of plaintiffs seeking divorce due to domestic violence were granted one. This systemic approach effectively coerces women to remain in abusive relationships.
Moreover, there is a disturbing push to return to traditional gender roles and virtues despite the party having labeled them as “oppressive” since 1949. General Party Secretary Xi Jinping emphasizes that women’s roles as virtuous wives and mothers are fundamental to the success of Chinese socialism.
The party's propaganda machinery relentlessly promotes the idea that women should “embrace their unique abilities related to childbirth and breastfeeding” to nurture their families. Young women are even admonished with messages like: “Failing to support the government's call for a higher marriage rate shows disloyalty. Ignoring your parents' wishes is unfilial. Remaining single is an act of selfishness.”
In a troubling turn of events, the Chinese government is contemplating lowering the legal marriage age for women from 20 to 18. Furthermore, there is a concerning proposal that would require young girls to receive government-sanctioned education on fertility and family values as part of their sex education curriculum. If enacted, these measures could jeopardize the personal and professional futures of young women by limiting their opportunities.
On March 8th, the Chinese government hosted activities to commemorate International Women’s Day. Yet, since 1949, the policies regarding women have often prioritized the state's evolving needs over the genuine well-being of women. While there has been some progress, the long-standing promise that women would "hold up half the sky" has yet to be realized.
Well reasoned. Thank you for your analysis.