China has told women to uphold “family values” in an updated gender law, the latest sign females are facing growing pressure to adopt domestic roles in the world’s second-largest economy.
An amendment to the Women’s Rights and Interests Protection Act passed by the nation’s top legislative body on Sunday introduced a list of moral standards for women to observe.
“Women should respect and obey national laws, respect social morals, professional ethics and family values,” says the law’s opening chapter, which outlines the overarching principles of the revised legislation.
Photo: AFP
It would be adopted from next year.
As China grapples with record-low birthrates and plummeting marriage numbers, women are coming under pressure to revert to traditional caregiver roles.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said it was crucial for women to be “good wives and mothers” to ensure the “healthy growth of the next generation” in a 2013 speech.
“China is attempting to use laws to regulate and discipline women,” said Liang Xiaowen (梁曉文), a New York-based feminist and lawyer.
“Why do you only need women to observe family values? What kind of family values are we talking about? These are very vague ideas,” she said.
Other revisions tackled sexual harassment and discrimination, with the updated legislation banning employers from passing over women for promotions due to their marital or pregnancy status.
It also requires lower-level governments to report the suspected abduction or trafficking of women to police in a timely manner.
Liang called these developments “a step forward” for women.
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
Former Chinese ministers of national defense Wei Fenghe(魏鳳和) and Li Shangfu (李尚福) were both sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve over graft charges, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday, underscoring the severity of the purge in the military. The armed forces have been one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) after coming to power in 2012. The purges reached the elite Rocket Force, which oversees nuclear weapons as well as conventional missiles, in 2023. Earlier this year they escalated further, resulting in the removal of the top general in
‘PERSONAL MISTAKES’: Eileen Wang has agreed to plead guilty to the felony, which comes with a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison A southern California mayor has agreed to plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent for the Chinese government and has resigned from her city position, officials said on Monday. Eileen Wang (王愛琳), mayor of Arcadia, was charged last month with one count of acting in the US as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She was accused of doing the bidding of Chinese officials, such as sharing articles favorable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 58-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected
IN PROTECTION: Video released by the Senate showed Ronald dela Rosa being chased through the halls of the upper chamber, pursued by National Bureau of Investigation officers Philippine authorities on Monday said that they would not arrest for now a lawmaker wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged role in former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, capping a lengthy Senate standoff. Philippine Senator Ronald dela Rosa, who served as police chief and Duterte’s top enforcer during the bloody drug crackdown, would be treated as if in the custody of the Senate, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag told reporters after the politician had taken refuge in the legislative building. “We respect that they are a co-equal branch,” Matibag said after the Senate refused
RSS