This is hideously misleading. A majority of Chinese people are denied economic or social advancement *of their choice* because the household registry system limits the ability to lawfully change one's residence or employment.
This is a burden that Americans don't even imagine.
This is a burden that Americans don't even imagine.
That burden falls hardest on rural Chinese, who, if they aren't related to a Party member or employed by the government policing their neighbors, simply have no way to better their station in life.
I get that the NYTimes piece is intended to describe the economic advance of China, but it goes way over the line suggesting that it is also socially progressive.
China is an authoritarian state with summary executions, torture, secret prisons, and collective punishment.
China is an authoritarian state with summary executions, torture, secret prisons, and collective punishment.
China's human rights abuses of its own people are so extensive, you cannot even summarize them *by category* in a single tweet.
So, when it comes to that hypothetical 18 year-old, yes, we can confidently say they one born in the United States has better prospects.
So, when it comes to that hypothetical 18 year-old, yes, we can confidently say they one born in the United States has better prospects.
Here's how the State Department summarizes (this is the summary!) China's human rights abuses.
One sentence: "The most significant human rights issues for which the government was responsible included: arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life and executions without" 1/
One sentence: "The most significant human rights issues for which the government was responsible included: arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life and executions without" 1/
"due process; extralegal measures such as forced disappearances, including extraterritorial ones; torture and coerced confessions of prisoners; arbitrary detention, including strict house arrest and administrative detention, and illegal detentions at unofficial" 2/
"holding facilities known as “black jails”; significant restrictions on freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, religion, and movement (for travel within the country and overseas), including detention and harassment of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers," 3/
"dissidents, petitioners, and others as well as their family members; censorship and tight control of public discourse on the internet, in print, and in other media; refoulement of asylum seekers to North Korea; the inability of citizens to choose their" 4/
"government; corruption; severe repression of organizations and individuals involved in human rights advocacy, as well as in public interest and ethnic minority issues; a coercive birth-limitation policy that in some cases included sterilization or abortions;" 5/
"trafficking in persons; and severe restrictions on labor rights, including a ban on workers organizing or joining unions of their own choosing." 6/6
Six tweets to summarize China's human rights abuses.
Six tweets to summarize China's human rights abuses.
This is why the United States grants asylum to more Chinese nationals than nationals of any other country, and it's not even close.
One thing's sure: the 18 year-old born in China has far greater prospect to be forcibly sterilized by her village family planning office.
One thing's sure: the 18 year-old born in China has far greater prospect to be forcibly sterilized by her village family planning office.
