China News Roundup

by Tony Lambert

FOCUS ON THE ELDERLY

An old saying in China likens children to birds. A filial bird should always live with its parents to care for them when they are old. Yet in Shanghai as well as other big cities this tradition is approaching an end. Statistics show that 37% of the city’s elderly are now living separately from their grown children. To Westerners it is natural for children to leave the nest when they become adult. But many Chinese parents feel betrayed when their children leave home. Old people’s homes are another dread of senior citizens. Most do so because there is no alternative. (Shanghai Star 1 August 2002)

THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE IN CHINA

Officials in the province of Guangdong have just increased fines for couples daring to violate Beijing’s “one-child” policy to a sum eight times their annual income. Since the 1970s when laws restricting childbirth were introduced, the Communist authorities have striven to restrict the population to 1.6 billion by 2050. In the last two decades alone officials say some 330 million births have been “prevented.” The policy has caused immense damage to future population growth and economic prospects by producing a surplus of 120 million boys. Fully 97% of all abortions—as determined by Birth Control Committees—are of girls. (National Post, 31 July 2002)

China has slammed a White House decision to cut funds for United Nations’ family planning programs, denying U.S. allegations that it forces abortions among its citizens. China’s Embassy in Washington has said that Beijing clearly encourages one child per family but denies that it forces abortions. However, it has conceded that there have been isolated cases that may have occurred beyond its control. Planners have said that illegally forced sterilizations still occur in small pockets of the country due to loopholes and limited resources. The one-child policy has been relaxed in the countryside where people are often allowed to have a second child after 4 to 6 years if the first was a girl. There are also exemptions for many ethnic minorities and in some cases for couples who are both single children. (CNN 23 July 2002)

CHINA LEADS RACE FOR FIRST HUMAN CLONE

China is leading the race towards human cloning. One of its top research scientist reports producing more than 30 cloned human embryos. Her breakthrough brings closer the prospect of scientists producing an entire cloned baby—a goal that is officially opposed throughout the world but is privately regarded by most embryo researchers as irresistible. It is the first time Chinese embryo researchers have had their work recognized in the West and is viewed as a major coup. The professor claims to have produced her first cloned human embryo in 1999 two years ahead of the American firm (ACT) usually acknowledged as the pioneer in the field. (Sunday Times, 14 July 2002)

DISCRIMINATION NOT BY RACE, AGE OR SEX BUT BY HOMETOWN

Companies putting want ads in the newspaper include in their qualification for the jobs, “Not from Sichuan or Anhui.” The first time such a case was reported in the press wide comment was aroused. Shanghai locals think people from North Jiangsu are poor, lack fashion and taste; sarcastic jokes were spread on the Internet about the meanness and untrustworthiness of people from Henan; and in pop culture people from Northeast China are depicted with funny accents, drinking heavily and likely to make empty promises. New immigrants to Shanghai or other big cities often meet with inquiries of “where are you from?” And the inquirer forms an impression about the person based on where they came from. Mass media also plays an important part in the strengthening of geographical stereotypes. (Shanghai Star 1 August 2002)

INEQUALITY THREATENS SOCIAL EXPLOSION

Three Mainland scholars have warned that China faces a repeat of the 1989 Tiananmen student uprising or an Indonesian-style social crisis unless stronger action is taken to rein in widespread social injustice and inequality. A strongly-worded report warns and urges policy makers to face reality and prevent social upheaval. The report, “The Most Severe Warning: Social Instability Behind the Economic Prosperity,” says China has entered a new phase of social instability as strong social discontent and grievances simmer among the rising number of low-income groups that have been marginalized as the economy develops. It says policy-makers have underestimated domestic challenges and overestimated their ability to handle social crises. It says a national survey shows that 200 million people are unhappy with the status quo. Of these, 32-36 million people, representing about 8% of urban residents, are extremely unhappy. (South China Morning Post, 8 August 2002)

CRACKDOWN ON CATHOLICS

Thirty Roman Catholic worshippers including 25 children were detained for holding an illegal summer vacation church service in southeast China’s Fujian province. The detentions appear to be part of an ongoing government crackdown on non-registered, underground churches that intensified earlier this year as Chinese authorities began viewing such groups as “evil cults” similar to the banned Falungong. Sister Chen Mei, 28, was sentenced without trial to 15 days of detention for holding the unapproved summer vacation catechism class in a private home. Four other adults were given an “education warning” and were released the same day as were the 25 children aged 10 to 16. In May two unofficial Catholic churches in Fujian were razed by police while last year authorities flattened five large churches in Changle and nearby Fuqing city. Also in May, authorities expressed alarm over the rapid rise of influential Christian “cults” in rural areas and called for intensified supervision of them. (Agence France-Presse, 21 July 2002)

THE PLIGHT OF NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES IN CHINA

Since famine struck their homeland North Koreans in the thousands have crossed the fast-flowing Tumen River to escape into this forested mountainous corner of China. Up to 100,000 refuges have found sanctuary, food and work, threading their way into the patchwork of Chinese society. But that fragile security ended on March 14 when a group of North Koreans, seeking political asylum, pushed their way into the Spanish embassy in Beijing. Similar incidents followed at other diplomatic missions, embarrassing the Chinese leadership.

The refugees are hiding in remote farmhouses, in roofs and cellars of city dwellings, in bare mountainsides and in the pine forests that stretch to the Russian border. “Many of them came across the river and paid us for food and shelter,” said a parishioner at a village Catholic church on the riverbank facing North Korea, “but the soldiers have warned us not to help them any more. Now we are praying for them.” Other churchgoers told a stark tale. Some North Korean street children were being housed in a private orphanage run by an underground Christian church in the centre of Yanji. All the children have vanished. The refugee dilemma is about to get worse. UN officials expect a fresh wave of desperate escapees to come across the river as a food shortage threatens millions. (Sunday Times, 4 August 2002)

A key figure in an underground campaign to help North Korean asylum-seekers escape to South Korea via China and elsewhere said he has been freed from a Chinese prison after eight months and would soon be deported. Chun Ki-won, a 46-year-old South Korean Christian missionary, said he had helped 170 North Koreans escape to South Korea since 1999. He said eight months in a grimy prison has hardly shaken his faith in his work. “I found my mission when I first saw some of the North Korean women in China forcibly separated from their husbands and children and sold for money by human traffickers. I will continue to help these people wherever I am.” (Associated Press, 6 August 2002)

GEARING UP FOR THE OLYMPICS

The Beijing city government is spending millions of yuan on restoring prestigious religious venues in the capital, officials said. The announcement came a day after Catholic Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan said that the century-old Our Savior Cathedral would become his official residence next month. The cathedral has been occupied by a secondary school for 50 years. A vice-director of Beijing’s Religious Affairs Bureau said that the government has spent more than 120 million yuan on religious properties over the last few years. More than 31 million had gone on the restoration of major churches such as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and the Chongwenmen Protestant church. (SCMP, 8 August 2002)