The Chinese government has celebrated these days the lianghui o “Two sessions”, a set of legislative meetings that are organized each year to define the country’s policies. More than 2,000 representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meet in Beijing, the capital of China, to discuss the economy, international relations with other countries or social policies, for example.
This year, during the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the government’s main advisory body, topics such as health policies to deal with the covid-19 pandemic, the future of the political system in Hong Kong or the role of women in Chinese society, which is increasingly changing.
China is a very traditional country that for decades has maintained its own political and social system. However, with globalization and the emergence of the internet, the country has opened up to new influences. Women, who until now had a reserved role in the home and marriage, are now focused on their professional careers and many do not want to have children.
According publicly The BBC, the government has tried to reinforce traditional roles by introducing subjects related to marriage or relationships in the school curriculum, which has outraged a part of the female population.
A proposal has also been made to lower the legal age of marriage, which is now 22 years for men and 20 years for women, to 18 years in both cases. In this way, it is intended to promote marriage and family life from a very young age, just after finishing studies.
Chinese women of working age were born while the one-child policy was still in place, preventing families from having more than one child. This policy was imposed at a time when the population was growing very fast and the government could not cope with the needs of the country.
However, now the situation is very different: the birth rate is decreasing and people are marrying less. Faced with this situation, the Chinese government seeks to promote marriages and births to boost the economy.
China grows amid pandemic
The China’s economy grew 2.3% in 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic and the global economic crisis it has caused.
In most countries, the health crisis has directly affected employment, consumption and industrial production. By contrast, China has managed to maintain positive economic growth in the past year, according to data of the Chinese National Statistical Office. It is the only country in the world that has achieved it.
The Chinese government assures that this growth is related to the speed with which the virus was controlled in the country. China went from being the country with the highest number of infections to being one of the least affected in a few months. Authorities managed to control the pandemic by applying very severe lockdowns and using mobile applications and tracking systems.
This recovery implies a certain advantage for China compared to its competitors, such as the United States or Europe. Even so, the fact that the rest of the countries continue to be affected by the coronavirus does not benefit the Asian country, because they are also its main consumers.
100 years of communism in China
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrates its centenary this year. On July 23, 1921, the first National Congress of the Communist Party of China took place, in which barely a dozen delegates participated. Among them was Mao Zedong, the first leader of the CCP, who today is considered the founding father of the People’s Republic of China.
The Communist Party is the only party allowed in the country and has governed without opposition since 1949. It has more than 90 million members, although power is concentrated at the top of the party and especially in the president, Xi Jinping.
China is one of the few communist countries in the world, and it is also one of the major powers. The communist system is opposed to the capitalist system in the political and economic sphere, although in recent years China has adopted some liberal economic measures typical of capitalism that have allowed it to grow very quickly.
Another of the characteristics of the PCC is the control of the population at different levels: from the political (with a single party) to the social (limiting freedom of association), through the media (which only reflect the official version of the government) and access to the internet and social networks (which is constantly restricted and monitored). In this way, the government tries to silence any criticism or opposition to its ideas.
Human rights organizations criticize the lack of freedom that affects citizens and the repression exercised from power.
Sources: BBC, EFE, Xinhua
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