The Bamboo Capitalist has relegated women to the backstage with focus on governance and corruption, besides economy, which is refusing to look up
by Malladi Rama Rao*
China’s forked tongue is very much on display these days not only on matters of cross border terrorism but also on mundane issues related to women empowerment even as it craves to be hailed as the new world leader.
This is surprising because Beijing is working overtime to hold its second global summit on women’s rights in thirty years.
The first summit in 1995 was held to refurbish its image, which received a beating after Tiananmen Square massacre. Probably, now President Xi finds no such need with the tariff war taking the global centre stage.
As perceptive China watchers, like Minglu Chen of the University of Sydney, point out, the Xi regime is harping on traditional family values, which, in essence, is a call to confine women to their homes by treating them as the weaker sex.
This changed perspective was evident at the recent lavish and boisterous gatherings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and its top political advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Conference (CPPCC). Both did not pay more than lip service to women’s rights and gender equality.
Prime Minister Qiang largely ignored these issues in his 18,000-word Government Work Report that outlined the key policy goals for 2025; President Xi’s greetings on the International Women’s Day offered no new manna either.
Put simply, the signal from Beijing is clear. The Bamboo Capitalist has relegated women to the backstage with focus on governance and corruption, besides economy, which is refusing to look up. Communist government’s crackdown on feminist movement is, therefore, a natural corollary.
(*Malladi Rama Rao is New Delhi-based senior journalist and avowed watcher of subcontinental politics)
