Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women in Beijing ABCF Week 42 Update

How far has China come on gender equality? - with Yueping Song
This week on Inside the China Room with Jiang Jiang, I’m joined by Professor Yueping Song from the School of Population and Health at Renmin University of China to explore the current landscape of gender equality in China.
In 1995, Beijing hosted the Fourth World Conference on Women, where the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action became a global milestone for advancing women’s rights. Thirty years on, as China prepares to host the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women this October, how far has the country come in promoting gender equality and women’s well-rounded development?

Opinion | After decades of struggle, women in China are rewriting their future | South China Morning Post
Every Lunar New Year, the urban professional woman – let’s call her Tracy – returns to her rural hometown, where she quickly drops her city identity for her simple rural name Cuihua, helping her family prepare the holiday meal.
Funny before-and-after pictures emphasising the contrast between sleek blazers and comfortable pyjamas have captivated Chinese social media users. But these social media memes mask a deeper question. How does “Cuihua” become “Tracy”?
Her journey involves more than a change of name; it encompasses the dramatic rise of Chinese women’s social status driven by personal resilience, family support and a nationwide campaign.

Xi said every woman is a star on the journey of Chinese modernization
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday delivered a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women in Beijing -- arguably the highest-profile international meeting on women’s issues hosted by China over the past decade. A chair’s statement was issued at the closing ceremony.

Hu Xijin: Silence is not gold - by Yuxuan JIA
Many people are growing far more cautious about speaking on social media or have stopped posting altogether. Celebrities’ feeds that once chatted about daily life are now mostly for official announcements. People in the state system tread even more carefully: many no longer post to their WeChat Moments [similar to Facebook or Instagram posts visible to friends]; if they do, it’s just a repost of a state media report. University teachers have become a “sensitive group,” most choosing to say as little as possible online. The same goes for executives and middle managers in private firms. In short, personalised content of many groups has been scrubbed as clean as fields after the autumn harvest.
It’s a loss for the public information space in the internet age and it leaves public opinion incomplete. This collective silence doesn’t belong in an open society.
Why is this happening? At root, society’s tolerance has narrowed. Speaking in your own voice now carries growing personal risk and can even put your organisation in the firing line. So people, either proactively or after a gentle “reminder” from their workplace, have sharply reduced their willingness to share views online, or stopped entirely. What remains is scrolling, with the occasional like. Look closer and two forces are at work. First, the overall online climate has turned harsher. The hunt for “flaws” is frequent and meticulous. Once a target is found, attention converges fast; the digging and attempts to “connect the dots” seem endless, and all too often things are blown up into sweeping indictments. That kind of risk is hard for anyone to bear. For public employees within the state system or mid-level managers at a private company, it can easily implicate the organisation behind them.

A comparison of lipsticks let me see the truth of Chinese economy
A short video

In Texas, a student trip to China becomes a political act | South China Morning Post
For Krislyn Massey, it all began with late nights watching Japanese anime as a child. That sparked a discovery of Chinese novels and a deep interest in studying Asia – an unlikely path for someone who grew up in a conservative family in Houston, Texas.
She began learning Japanese and getting involved in student-run educational exchanges. One of those, Bridge Culture Exchange Academy, led her to attend a virtual conference in 2023 with students in China, strangers who soon became friends she wanted to meet face-to-face.
By the time she was earning a master’s degree in international studies, the 25-year-old was aware of the high-level tensions between Washington and Beijing. Still, she did not expect how carefully she would have to navigate the politics surrounding even a student trip to China – once a routine part of international study.

Clip of China parents celebrating son passing exam goes viral as dad values boy’s happiness | South China Morning Post
A video of parents from eastern China celebrating their son’s exam results after he got just one point above a pass has gone viral online.
Unlike the typical Chinese “tiger parenting” style, the father prioritised his child’s health and happiness over perfection.
The clip shows a mother entering a house with three children, holding an exam paper and smiling broadly.
She excitedly tells her husband, who is lying on the couch: “Our son scored 61 out of 100; he passed the monthly maths exam.”
The father, surnamed Liang, jumps up from the couch, exclaiming: “My son, this is truly an honour for our family. Let me call your grandparents to share the good news.”
He announces that they will treat the children to a big dinner. The mother then embraces her eldest son, who stands shyly nearby.
According to the mainland media outlet Hongxing News, Liang’s eldest son is in the fourth year of primary school and has struggled academically, especially in mathematics.

Explainer | What makes the Xinjiang-Tibet mega railway China’s ‘project of the century’? | South China Morning Post
Construction is set to begin next month on a monumental railway linking Hotan in Xinjiang with Lhasa in Tibet – one of China’s most ambitious infrastructure projects to date.
The 1,980km (1,230 miles) line has been dubbed one of the “projects of the century” for the extreme engineering challenges it presents and the massive investment required. Traversing mountain ranges, glaciers and permafrost zones at altitudes averaging above 4,500 metres (14,764 feet), it will connect the two autonomous regions in northwestern and southwestern China.

China bids to break job market ‘curse of 35’ as it raises civil service age cap | South China Morning Post
China is raising the maximum hiring age for some civil service positions from 35 to 43 amid rampant age discrimination in the job market that has left many older workers complaining of a “curse of 35”.
The upper age limit for candidates in next year’s national-level civil service examinations has been increased to 43 for fresh master’s and doctoral graduates, according to a recruitment plan published by China’s central government and affiliated institutions on Tuesday.
The age requirement for all other candidates for central government positions has also been relaxed slightly, with the cap raised from 35 to 38, according to the plan.

China woman wakes from coma, reveals boyfriend who spends US$28,000 on her care, is abuser | South China Morning Post
A woman in northeastern China woke from a coma to reveal that her boyfriend, who had spent 200,000 yuan (US$28,000) on her care, was the one who had beaten her into unconsciousness.

AI-powered fraud: Chinese paper mills are mass-producing fake academic research | South China Morning Post
Paper mills that sell authorship or fabricate entire papers are a staple of China’s competitive academic landscape
Chinese paper mills are using generative artificial intelligence tools to mass produce forged academic papers, a new investigation by the mainland’s state broadcaster has found.
The report, which aired Sunday on China Central Television’s (CCTV) “Financial Investigation” programme, found paper mill workers using generative AI chatbots to help them each complete over 30 academic articles a week.
Paper mills that sell authorship or fabricate entire papers are a staple of China’s competitive academic landscape, where many students and researchers are subject to strict publishing targets.

Not just a boy’s club: 3 up-and-comers in Macau’s F&B industry tell it all | South China Morning Post
These female chefs and bartenders carved a space for themselves in a male-dominated industry – here, they share their stories and philosophies.

Open Questions | Maths guru Shing-Tung Yau on what China needs for global leadership in science | South China Morning Post
Shing-Tung Yau, one of the world’s most influential mathematicians, is chair of Tsinghua University’s Qiuzhen College, which is fast-tracking talented young students through a programme of his own design.
Born in the southern province of Guangdong and educated in Hong Kong and the US, the 76-year-old shared his ideas on science and education, key to China’s 15th five-year plan (2026-2030), which is expected to focus on the development of an innovation-driven economy.
Speaking solely in a personal capacity, Yau shared his views on the importance of domestically groomed talent, Hong Kong’s transition to a science and tech hub and its opportunity to host a top-tier maths conference in 2030, as China and the US vie for primacy in their tech race.

China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race | South China Morning Post
When Alibaba Group Holding’s CEO Eddie Wu Yongming took the stage at the company’s annual Apsara conference in Hangzhou on September 24, few people expected the media-shy executive to deliver anything shocking, especially since he read from prepared statements at last year’s event.
Wu, however, immediately outlined a clear road map for Alibaba’s AI development, with a goal towards so-called artificial superintelligence (ASI) – when the firm’s Qwen open-source models and cloud services would serve as the software and computing infrastructure of the future.
In essence, Alibaba aimed to become the “world’s leading full-stack AI service provider”, he said. Alibaba owns the Post.

This weekly newsletter is put together by DeLisle Worrell, President of the ABCF. Visit us at Association for Barbados China Friendship | (abcf-bb.com).
Thanks to everyone who sent contributions for this week’s Update. Please send items of interest to me via the contact page at ABCF-BB.com or to info@DeLisleWorrell.com