Tag: Gender

China Told Women to Have Babies, but Its Population Shrank Again

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China’s ruling Communist Party is facing a national emergency. To fix it, the party wants more women to more have babies. It has offered them sweeteners, like cheaper housing, tax benefits and cash. It has also invoked patriotism, calling on them to be “good wives and mothers.” The efforts aren’t working. Chinese women have been shunning marriage and babies at such a rapid pace that China’s population in 2023 shrank for the second straight year, accelerating the government’s sense of crisis over the country’s rapidly aging population and its economic…

Why no concern at prisoners being paid just 50p an hour to work? | Brief letters

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Reading another article about Chinese prisoners possibly making products for sale in the UK (Chinese prisoner’s ID card apparently found in lining of Regatta coat, 1 December), I wonder why there is no concern that British prisoners are forced to work for UK companies for about 50p an hour? This work provides no training for release and serves only to enrich private prison contractors.David AdamsDarlington, County Durham How appropriate that on the day you note that Katherine Rundell, the author of The Golden Mole, has won the Waterstones book award…

Taiwan’s ruling party rocked by sexual harassment claims

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Taiwan’s ruling party has been rocked by a wave of sexual harassment allegations, as the country grapples with a #MeToo movement that has encompassed politics and the media. On Tuesday, President Tsai Ing-wen apologised for the second time in a week in response to sexual harassment claims against senior staff in the Democratic Progressive party (DPP). “Our society as a whole must educate ourselves again. People in sexual harassment incidents are victims,” she wrote in a Facebook post. Hours earlier, Tsai’s national policy adviser Yan Chih-fa resigned after being accused…

Chizuko Ueno: the Japanese writer stoking China’s feminist underground

Chin@Strategy

To find evidence that China’s feminist movement is gaining momentum – despite strict government censorship and repression – check bookshelves, nightstands and digital libraries. There, you might find a copy of one of Chizuko Ueno’s books. The 74-year-old Japanese feminist and author of Feminism from Scratch and Patriarchy and Capitalism has sold more than a million books in China, according to Beijing Open Book, which tracks sales. Of these, 200,000 were sold in January and February alone. Ueno, a professor of sociology at the University of Tokyo, was little known…

High-profile China #MeToo case settled in US out of court

Chin@Strategy

One of China’s biggest and most divisive #MeToo cases, which had been set to play out with extraordinary transparency because of its US location and was closely watched by millions inside China, has been settled out of court. Liu Qiangdong, a 49-year-old online retail billionaire who also goes by Richard Liu and is known as China’s Jeff Bezos, had been accused of sexually assaulting a then 21-year-old Chinese graduate when she was studying at the University of Minnesota and he was visiting on a business trip. Liu has always denied…

China sentences man who attacked women at restaurant to 24 years

Chin@Strategy

The main perpetrator of an assault against a group of women at a barbecue restaurant in China has been sentenced to 24 years in prison, after the case sparked a national debate over gender-based violence. Chen Jizhi started hitting the women after they rejected his “harassment” in the early hours of 10 June in the city of Tangshan in Hebei province, east of Beijing, the court said in a statement. When the women resisted, Chen and a group of his friends attacked them with chairs and bottles, the court said,…

Woman at centre of China #MeToo case vows not to give up after appeal rejected

Chin@Strategy

The woman at the centre of a landmark case in China’s #MeToo movement has vowed not to give up after a court rejected her appeal for an apology and damages. In 2018 Zhou Xiaoxuan accused a high-profile state TV presenter, Zhu Jun, of forcibly kissing and groping her during a 2014 internship. The case inspired many others to share their experiences of sexual assault and caused a social media storm. On Wednesday the court in Beijing ruled after a closed-door hearing that evidence submitted by the 29-year-old was “insufficient” in…

Papua New Guinea election: what’s at stake?

Chin@Strategy

In the coming days, Papua New Guineans will head to the polls to vote in the first national election in five years. A struggling economy, the impact of the pandemic and growing frustrations about failing public services are among the leading issues. The results of the election will be important not only to the country’s almost 9 million people, but also for the increasingly complex geopolitical landscape in the wider Pacific region. The election process Of the 2,351 candidates running in the national election, 118 members will be elected. Members…

China mulls bolstering laws on women’s rights and sexual harassment

Chin@Strategy

China is considering strengthening its laws on women’s rights to provide more robust protection against gender-based discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. The draft regulations come amid the rise of a nascent #MeToo movement in China, which activists say has been hampered by the country’s strict regime of censorship and oppression against all signs of dissent. The major draft revision was presented to China’s top lawmaking body for deliberation on Monday. The amendment marks a significant development in the country’s women’s rights legislation since it was implemented almost three…