Communism In China

On the face of it, China seems to have cracked the code for success but that’s not all true. Countries won’t acknowledge the failures they made, and China is of no exception. Instead they hide their mistakes under the light of their successes. Failures that China are and is still making is the discrimination of women and constant disregard of the constitution. In order to cover up such failures, the Chinese focus their media on the successes of the unexpected improvement in Chinese exports and their raise in wages. China, as well as the rest of the world, still have a long way to go to reach their ultimate goal despite their successes. China is a very male dominated country. The reason for that male preference is due to their one child
policy (Document five). “…The number and percentage of female officials are still small,” said Wang Hongwei (Document three). In 2013 the rubberstamp legislature that serves the China’s ruling communist party, women made up 23.4% of almost 3,000 hand-picked deputies, as stated in document three. That was the marking of the first time the female ratio was met yet it only exceeded the ratio achieved in the mid-1970s (document three). Even though the ratio was met in that area, there was not a single woman on the ruling Communist Party’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee (Document five). As stated in document five there were 34 million more Chinese men than Chinese women in 2013 and there is 60% males and 40% females in recent studies. Even though there is a small amount of women, not one of them was able to be in the ruling Communist Party’s seven-member Politburo Standing Committee and that shows the suppression of the female population. Former legislator and committed feminist Wu Qing blames the government for not trying hard enough to support women’s rights by implementing the constitution, as stated in document five. China made a constitution to protect the right of their citizens but it was never enforced, which is their biggest mistake.
In article 10, it said the document guaranteed full powers for a representative legislature, the right to ownership of private property, and freedoms of speech, press and assembly. This document was ratified in 1982 by their National People Congress but it rotted away since then (Document #10). The constitution not only protected the basic rights of the west but it also guaranteed women’s rights. Wu Qing states that in Article 48 it says that women should enjoy equal right in the economy, in politics, in everything (Document five). By upholding the constitution they made then the Chinese would have the same basic rights as the west and the treatment of the female population would be significantly better. In 2012, The Wall Street Journal did a report on the issue of China and they said that China’s problem does not majorly lie in their finances but instead in their politics (document eight). Corruption, Income inequality, and party governance are on the top of their list. Chinese leadership acknowledges that corruption is widespread and it affects not only low-level bureaucrats but also senior officials (document 8). There have been labor abuse scandals that people were kidnapped and was forced to work as slaves (document seven). There have been many instances such as this yet the government who was too preoccupied with their financial status turned a blind eye to such instances. In document eight, it says a famous saying made by Deng Xiaoping which is, “To get rich is glorious,” but he didn’t apply that to corruption. While the way of rising their economic status would be considered inhumane, it has shown the improvement in their
exports. China has very unorthodox methods of rising their exports, these methods have made many frustrated but in the end it shows their progress. In document one it states that China successfully beat their expectations in January 2014, rising 10.6% from 2013 of their exports. While their exports unexpectedly beat their expectation, their imports jumped to 10% which leaves them with $31.9 billion as a surplus in the month of January in 2013 (document one). An economist in Shanghai named Zhou Hao said, “...The stronger-than-expected exports data also showed improvement in the global demand momentum.” (Document one). China’s economic growth went from $0.9 trillion in the 1990s to $10.1 trillion in 2010 and it continues to increase (document six). As shown in document six, China’s economic growth just keeps increasing and it’s because of this that their wages can increase. Due to the surprising rise of exports, the wages of the Chinese has also increased. China does not have a minimum wage like the west does so employees would normally get a very low income so that the companies are able to save cash. In document four, it says that a man named Zhang Jingming had normally a $1.32 per bicycle seat he made and it increased to $1.45. While in the west, that amount of money would be considered unlivable but this small difference made his $197 monthly wage increased to $263 (document four). Not only that but due to the rise of demand, factories are having a harder time to find workers and are having to pay the workers they do find more cash (document four). These increase in wages can help families such as Yang Shan (document two). Yang Shan’s mother and father would leave ten year old Yang Shan in the care of her grandparents when they go off for possibly months to find jobs when money is tight (document two). With an increase of wages, such families would not have to part for so long and can spend more time caring for their child. China has made many mistakes and failures, most of which we may not even know but they also have had many successes. China is a country with a deep and twisted history with many failures and successes. These failures and successes are what shaped China to what it is today. While China is still a country with a huge suppression of woman and deep corruption in its government, it is also a country with flourishing demands for exports and improvement of employee wages. Modern China is like every other country, trying to improve itself constantly and while it may fail and the methods may be called inhumane, China, as well as the rest of the world, still have a long way to go to reach their ultimate goal despite their successes. China has many failures they won’t admit to or turn a blind eye to things the world believes is bad and they let their mistakes hide under their bask light of their successes.