The rad-fem website Feministing is shocked, shocked that China doesn’t ban sexual harassment. (Hat tip to National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez.) Like most radicals, the fems of Feministing seem to be under the impression that life in any non-Western society has got to be better than it is here in the capitalist U.S.A.


But China Daily reports:


“Surveys have found that many professional women across the country experience sexual harassment in the workplace. One national survey found among more than 8,000 respondents, 22 percent of males and 79 percent of females experienced sexual harassment. The survey was conducted by Sina.com and the official Fortnightly Chat Magazine.


“Another survey, organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, showed nearly 40 percent of professional women – who worked for either private enterprises or foreign companies – suffered sexual harassment. About 18 percent of women experienced sexual harassment in state-owned enterprises.


“Another survey, conducted by Liaoning Province in the northeast, found more than 70 percent of women working in service industries suffered sexual harassment.”


Now the Chinese government seems to be about to enact some anti-harassment legislation by the usual diktat that is the equivalent of democracy in the Maoist state. 


Life has never been exactly wonderful for women in the People’s Republic. Here’s a report on the “missing girls” problem occasioned by the one-child policy the government forced on the country during the 1980s, leading to a superabundance of male births due to the abortion and infanticide of girl babies:


“From a relatively normal ratio of 108.5 boys to 100 girls in the early 80s, the male surplus progressively rose to 111 in 1990, 116 in 2000, and is now is close to 120 boys for each 100 girls at the present time, according to a Chinese think-tank report.


“The shortage of women is creating a ‘huge societal issue,’ warned U.N. resident coordinator Khalid Malik.”


Here’s a report on forced abortions in non-pro-choice China. And here’s a report on how China treats female dissidents.