China wants women to stay home and bear children

Every five years China holds a national women’s congress. Like the country’s annual plenary session of parliament or the Communist Party’s own five-yearly congress, the gathering of women is a pomp-filled affair, taking place on the red carpets and under the gaudy chandeliers of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Few people pay much attention to it. But at this year’s event, held in late October, subtle changes in rhetoric from top officials raised some eyebrows. They seemed to confirm a shift in the government’s thinking about the role of women in society.For decades officials have reiterated the government’s commitment to equality of the sexes at each meeting of the congress, often using boilerplate language introduced by Jiang Zemin, then China’s leader, in 1995. But in the opening address at this year’s gathering, Ding Xuexiang omitted the standard phrasing—or any version of it. Mr Ding, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s apex decision-making body, did have some advice for women. They should study the philosophy of Xi Jinping, China’s leader, and “establish a correct outlook on marriage and love, childbirth and family”.