22. The All-China Women’s Federation owns a gleaming 11-storey building in the centre of Beijing as well as the next door hotel - not an image people have of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Its privileged status is further evidenced in the ability of its officials to join government delegations or to field their own. The term “non-governmental” is applied to Government-supported mass organizations, ⁴² although the World Bank has categorized the All-China Women’s Federation as “a quasi-governmental agency.” ⁴³ This structure has not remedied “the serious absence of women at policy-making levels in government institutions”. ⁴⁴ The Special Rapporteur was keen to learn whether the Federation’s priorities for Chinese women, whom it claims to represent, matched what she had discerned from the current research to be key issues. One was the deteriorating sex ratio at birth, demonstrating continuing son preference. Another was the negative gender impact of the free market. However, she was to be disappointed.

23. The results of the 2000 census showed 117 boys born for every 100 girls, a considerable deterioration from the census of 1990 when there had been 111 boys for every 100 girls. Although pre-natal sex determination and sex-selective abortions had been banned many times, the census results showed that the prohibition was not effective. The popularly dubbed “Women’s Law” laid down in 1992 many substantive guarantees but did not anticipate enforcement or remedies for its breaches. ⁴⁵ There is an unfortunate tendency to examine each country’s standing within a variety of global rankings that are constantly produced, and China ranks very high, if not the highest, in female suicides. ⁴⁶ A part of the explanation is contained in the “Women’s Law”, which lists practices victimizing women such as drowning or abandoning female babies, maltreatment of women who give birth to female babies or are sterile, and abandonment of aged women. ⁴⁷ The Special Rapporteur recommends that specific government institutions be made responsible and accountable for the implementation and enforcement of laws dealing with women.

24. The Special Rapporteur’s first visits to China, almost 10 years ago, coincided with the publication of the Chinese translation of her study Human Rights in Population Policy by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. At the time, the Family Planning Commission espoused the view that “the solutions and program for each country to deal with its own affairs cannot be restricted and intervened [in] by any given ethic standard or model.” ⁴⁸ The Population and Family Planning Law, in force as of 1 September 2002, stipulates that officials should not violate citizens’ rights. Even before this law, the Family Planning Commission had issued circulars banning coercion. Thus, the approach has profoundly changed within a decade, demonstrating gradual adaptation to universal human rights and pointing to the need for patience and persistence in facilitating change.

26. A series of warning signs have highlighted the detrimental effects of the recent economic changes on girls and women. Women’s income diminished from about 80 per cent of men’s in 1990 to about 70 per cent by the turn of the millennium. ⁵² The increased private costs of public education, with girls deemed not to constitute a good investment, have led to estimates that 80 per cent of the “new illiterates” may be girls. ⁵³ Indeed, female illiteracy increased in the 1990s from 68 per cent to 71 per cent. ⁵⁴ Girls have overtaken boys in primary education with 50.6 per cent of enrolments, but are lagging behind at the university level with 38.2 per cent. ⁵⁵ The Special Rapporteur recommends the adoption of a comprehensive strategy for attaining gender equality both in and through education at the highest level of the Government.
 

B. Migration    [ Go to Contents ]

27. Restrictions upon freedom of movement and residence are exemplified in hukou, the requirement of local residence permits to access public education or health care. This requirement is based on registration at birth, and the local authorities are responsible for providing services to their registered residents. The existing statistics refer only to those people who have been registered. Children who are not registered at birth - almost always girls - do not acquire an entitlement to any services. Nor do migrants and their children. An unauthorized change of residence deprives migrants of services and exposes them to the risk of enforced return. An unknown number of migrant children are denied their right to education because they lack permits, and a series of regulations have been adopted. ⁵⁶ Those migrant children who are allowed into school are required to pay a “temporary schooling fee” amounting to 20,000 yuan in Beijing, as the Special Rapporteur heard to her dismay. That sum is beyond the reach of most migrants. The enforcement of restrictions on migration, ⁵⁷ including deportation, is a constant deterrent for all undocumented migrants. Although migrants are visible and Hou Wenzhuo says that “migrant children are everywhere in Beijing”, ⁵⁸ there is a studious, constant attempt not to see them. Not counted, they do not count and cannot exercise their human rights. The Special Rapporteur recommends an explicit and authoritative affirmation that all children have the right to education, and an invitation to all school-age children to enrol. This will reveal the exact number of schoolchildren, as nobody knows how many migrant or out-of-plan children there may be. It will also create the necessary background for assessing the cost of educating all the children and the public funding that ought to be provided.

28. The education of migrant children is a visible problem in large cities, which are magnets for the rural exodus. The change from agriculture to manufacturing has been profound. In 1952, 84 per cent of the population were categorized as agricultural workers, halved to 44 per cent in 1999; the proportion of manufacturing workers grew from 6 per cent in 1952 to 23 per cent in 1999. ⁵⁹ Estimates of the number of internal migrants vary between 100 and 160 million, but nobody really knows. The most likely reason is that this pool of surplus labour constitutes China’s competitive advantage as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. Increasing numbers of migrants are used to justify broadening fee-for-service practices as well as for enforcing the restrictions upon freedom of movement and residence so that the numbers do not swell further. The shared hardship, and the shared anger that often accompanies it, result in visible, but small-scale, protests. The police apparently have clear instructions as to which protests to allow and which to suppress. Foreigners demonstrating curiosity regarding the substance of the complaints on protest banners are brushed off, as the Special Rapporteur herself experienced.
 

C. Disability    [ Go to Contents ]

29. “The quality of the population” is a concept used in China’s law, ⁶⁰ and “low quality” is attributed to rural migrants in Beijing or to children with disabilities. More than 90 per cent of abandoned children are classified as disabled, and an unknown number are not born if a disability has been detected, or even feared. For example, the 1998 Shandong regulations, which banned foetal sex identification, allowed termination of pregnancy if “a foetus has [a] serious deficiency.” ⁶¹ The one-child policy has had a serious negative effect on the image of disability in society as parents wish their one and only child to be perfect, and discrimination on the grounds of gender and disability leads to selective infanticide. ⁶² China’s law still treats girls and children with disabilities as unworthy, allowing parents of such children a second child. This is, perhaps, compensated by the Government’s references to the rights of women and people with disabilities, but these are not accompanied by guarantees for implementation and enforcement. The Special Rapporteur recommends an urgent and clear affirmation of China’s human rights obligations, which pertain to all parts of the Government and encompass all rights of all people with disabilities, and the assignment of institutional and personal accountability for ensuring that these are translated into reality.

30. According to the 1990 Law on the Protection of Disabled People, the Government should guarantee the right to education to all of them. However, only 0.4 per cent of the education budget was allocated in 2000 to the education of people with disabilities, according to the official statistics. Some schools do exist for children with disabilities, catering for the selected few, while there is not even an estimate of how many others are left with no access to education as there is no definition of learning disability. For example, the 1998 Higher Education Law allows the rejection of students who do not meet the conditions for admission, which may include a specified height of 170 cm for men and 160 cm for women. This was brought to light by a complaint from a student rejected as being too short in March 2002. Students who have a big scar or pigmented mole, or are lame, can be excluded from studying diplomacy, law or pedagogy, ⁶³ illustrating continuing prejudice. The Special Rapporteur recommends revising the definition of disability, and initiating comprehensive and sustained public education aimed at eliminating the underlying prejudices and stereotypes.
 

V. THE 1-2-4 FAMILY STRUCTURE AND COMPETITIVENESS    [ Go to Contents ]

31. A five-year-old boy looked up and asked, in perfect English, where I was from, translating for his beaming mother. That “little emperor”, who probably started in a bilingual kindergarten, is likely to make it all the way to the university, possibly a foreign university. The term “little emperors” entered usage with the one-child policy. Another common expression, “six pockets, one mouth”, refers to the parents and two sets of grandparents doting on the one and only child, as does the “1-2-4 formula” - one child, two parents, four grandparents.

32. The “social maintenance fee” ⁶⁴ imposed on those who have an out-of-plan child has led to estimates that the cost of raising a child may be as much as 100,000 yuan. Estimates for Beijing are that the compulsory nine years of public education cost $8,000 for each child. ⁶⁵ Parental investment in a child’s education may amount to much more: an annual $2,000 for a private, multilingual kindergarten and an annual $25,000 for secondary education abroad. The former figure is more than twice the average national per capita income; the latter exceeds it by almost 20 times. Protests against rapidly and deeply increasing income inequalities, evidenced in the ability of some to afford hugely expensive education and the inability of many to ensure any education for their children, are frequent. They are fuelled by a widespread assumption that most wealth results from misappropriation of public funds. A survey by Renmin University showed that only 5.3 per cent of respondents thought that the newly rich obtained their wealth legitimately. ⁶⁶

33. Of the children who start primary school, very few make it to higher education. Children’s test results tend to be publicly displayed at school to shame poor performers into improving. Test results determine progression up the education pyramid, access to the best schools, the best class in the same school and, thereafter, the best universities. Although the absolute number of graduates has been rapidly increasing, it remains minuscule compared with the huge number who wish to proceed to the university but cannot. Parents do their best for their “little emperors” and children may be transformed into “studying machines”. ⁶⁷ Fierce competitiveness focuses on the university entrance exam as the gateway to career-making, fuelled by the phenomenon of graduate unemployment.

34. More than 2 million university graduates in 2003, 46 per cent more than in 2002, ⁶⁸ have increased the pressure to create employment, including upon the Government, and despite its pledge to reduce the number of its employees. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has predicted that unemployment could reach 15 per cent in the coming years, ⁶⁹ while the official statistics keep the unemployment rate below 5 per cent. Changes in the curricula or teaching methods aiming to replace rote learning by creativity - without a changed university entrance exam - are not expected to have much of an impact. ⁷⁰
 

VI. THE THIRST FOR LEARNING    [ Go to Contents ]

35. The Special Rapporteur’s fondest memories of Beijing have always been her visits to bookshops, full to overflowing with eager learners. A Chinese proverb, “even if you are rich, you do not throw away your books”, conflicts with data showing that more than 80 per cent of pupils dislike school. ⁷¹ This dislike focuses on being forced to memorize large amounts of information to pass exams at every step up the education pyramid. The combination of a “strong emphasis on ideology” ⁷² and teaching-to-test preclude adaptation of education to change. The Special Rapporteur recommends adaptation of education to the best interests of the principal subjects of the right to education.

36. Shen Shuzhen has aptly stated that “the basic function of education is to mold people.” ⁷³ The Book of Rites (Li Ji) said the same a long time ago: “man cannot know The Way without learning.” Hence, key questions regarding education are qualitative rather than quantitative, revolving around what is being taught, how, and why. Although there is an affirmation that minority languages can be taught, there is no similar tolerance of religion: “no religion is allowed to disrupt education” and “no one is allowed to make use of religion to oppose the socialist system or to undermine the unification of the country”. ⁷⁴ As the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has stated, “a distinctive religion is essential to the identity”. ⁷⁵ The Special Rapporteur was dismayed at the illiteracy rate in Tibet, 39.5 per cent, and asked the Ministry of Education whether one reason might be the fact that the literacy test was in Tibetan, while Mandarin is used in political, economic and social life. “Out of more than 120 languages spoken in China, 50% are endangered”, ⁷⁶ reinforcing the necessity of remoulding education with a view to preserving cultural diversity An education that would affirm minority rights necessitates full recognition by the majority of the worth of minority languages and religions in all facets of life. Otherwise, education is seen as assimilationist and, hence, not compatible with China’s human rights obligations. The Special Rapporteur recommends full integration of human and minority rights in education policy, law and practice.
 

A. The future of teaching history    [ Go to Contents ]

37. Recent Chinese history profoundly influenced education. The “ideology of denigrating formal learning” ⁷⁷ during the Cultural Revolution severely affected education. Many schools were closed in 1966 and the Ministry of Education was also closed. Colleges and universities reopened in the early 1970s, and graduate institutions as late as 1978. Many Red Guards were recruited from middle schools and universities and their teachers were usually their first victims, “the stinking ninth category”, sent to the countryside to do manual labour, or worse. Too many teachers were driven to suicide. Undermining the damage done to education takes a long time, as was acknowledged in 2003 on Teachers’ Day: ”Chinese teachers were degraded to a low social status during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Thus, raising the status of teachers has been advocated by the central Government since 1977.” ⁷⁸ The Special Rapporteur recommends that the raising of teachers’ status include guarantees of their freedom of association.

38. The introduction of human rights education would necessitate revisions of the content of the syllabi, curricula and textbooks. China’s law specifies “Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics” as guidance for education, while pupils and students have an obligation to “develop sound ideology”. ⁷⁹ Further, all schools are required to strengthen the education in patriotism, collectivism and socialism. ⁸⁰ Study guides for the university entrance exam highlight what students should demonstrate as their acquired knowledge. Such questions involve confirming “why China cannot copy the Western system of separation of powers”, or offer as a correct answer that “the Communist Party has written a magnificent chapter in the 20th century and will surely write a new magnificent chapter in the 21st century.” The specific formulations of such questions are used as a political barometer. ⁸¹

39. As in all other countries, the teaching of contemporary history has hugely important human rights dimensions. Two weeks before the Special Rapporteur’s mission, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the normalization of relations between China and Japan revived, yet again, “problems left over from history”. ⁸² Diplomatic protests relating to history textbooks published in Japan about the Second World War, including the Nanjing massacre, have not yet led to something resembling a truth commission, whereby a shared version of history could emerge. Such a process would, inevitably, lead to the rewriting of many history textbooks. For example, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest had initially been called a “counter-revolutionary rebellion” and, 10 years later, “political turmoil.” ⁸³
 

B. Visions of the present: in-school and out-of-school education    [ Go to Contents ]

40. Ongoing changes out of school have not altered the selfless heroism celebrated in school textbooks. This conflicts with the self-interest that fuels today’s economic boom and conspicuous consumption. An inevitable contrast between the socialist ideology woven throughout education and the free market outside it, the extremes of luxury and deprivation, the cherished cultural heritage and rampant modernization, the praised selflessness and notorious corruption impose upon the young the necessity of making their own choices among radically different visions of their own country. China encapsulates so many diverse realities that it defies all single-word descriptors.
 

2. Biennium Report 2001-2002, UNESCO Beijing Office, 31 May 2003, p. 39. «-- back

3. Olympics lures global investors, China Daily, 13-14 September 2003.. «-- back

4. The Convention on the Rights of the Child lays down the most detailed guidance for rights-based education: (1) it prohibits State interference with the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct educational institutions; (2) it stipulates that children belonging to religious minorities should not be denied the right, in community with other members of the minority, to profess and practice their religion; (3) it affirms every child’s freedom of religion and emphasizes the rights and duties of the parents in this regard; (4) it obliges the State to respect and ensure all rights of the child, including the right to education, without discrimination based on religion. «-- back

5. Committee on the Rights of the Child - Initial report of China, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/11/Add.7, para. 1, 21 August 1995. «-- back

6. Pilot prison raises bar for penal system, China Daily, 13-14 September 2003. «-- back

7. Court ruling helps clarify personal injury case law, China Daily, 18 September 2003. «-- back

8. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2003/4, UNESCO, Paris, 2003, p. 49 and 328. «-- back

9. “Nobody is allowed to revise or adjust statistical figures at will and is banned from concealing problems to present a false picture”, the People’s Daily quoted the pronouncement of the State Statistical Bureau, which continued: “Any individual who resorts to deception in statistical data will be investigated and seriously dealt with under the statistical laws and there will be no tolerance.” Far Eastern Economic Review, 5 June 2003. «-- back

10. “We want here to apologize to everyone,” Li Liming, the director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told mainland and Hong Kong journalists in an April 4 press conference in Beijing.” Far Eastern Economic Review, 17 April 2003. «-- back

11. Education for All: The Year 2000 Assessment. Final Country report of China, available at www.unesco.org/education/efa/wef/countryreports. «-- back

12. Hossain, S. - Making an equitable and efficient education: The Chinese experience, Policy Research Working Paper No. 1814, The World Bank, 1998, p. 7. «-- back

13. China: National Development and Sub-national Finance. A Review of Provincial Expenditures, Report No. 22951-CHA, 9 April 2002, p. 95. «-- back

14. Ahmad, E. Et al. - Recentralization in China?, IMF Working Paper WP/02/168, p. 13. «-- back

15. Nirmala Rao, Kai-Ming Cheng, and Kirti Narain - Primary schooling in China and India: Understanding how sociocultural factors moderate the role of the state, in Bray, M. (ed.) - Comparative Education: Continuing Traditions, New Challenges, and New Paradigms, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2003, p. 156. «-- back

16. Xiaoling, C. - School’s out too early for Chinese girls, DCI Monitor, vol. 15, No. 2, Defence for Children International, Geneva, May 2002. «-- back

17. Xinhua, 24 August 1993, cited from FBIS-CHI, 24 August 1993, pp. 28-30. «-- back

18. The statistics differentiates between budgetary funds and four other sources: (1) funds of social organizations and citizens, (2) donations and fund-raising, (3) tuition and other fees, and (4) unspecified “other educational funds”. Educational Statistics Yearbook of China 2001, Department of Development & Planning, Ministry of Education, The People’s Republic of China, p. 366. «-- back

19. China: National Development and Sub-national Finance. A Review of Provincial Expenditures, Report No. 22951-CHA, 9 April 2002, p. 107. «-- back

20. Gittings, J. - Zhu hits out at corruption by officials, Guardian Weekly, 14-20 March 2002. «-- back

21. These unified and/or standardized school fees in compulsory education, yi fei zhi, were selectively applied in 2001 and extended in October 2003. The charging of textbook and exercise book fees is permitted as are unspecified “miscellaneous fees”. These should be charged according to centrally determined criteria, but the fees could be locally increased by 20 per cent. Furthermore, in September 2003, the State Council also affirmed that migrant children should continue paying fees on the same level as resident children. «-- back

22. Lawrence, S. - Digging up truth, and Lesson learned?, Far Eastern Economic Review, 22 and 29 March 2001; Gittings, J. - School explosion exposes China’s child labour problem, Guardian Weekly, 15-21 March 2001. «-- back

23. Pei, M. - The long march against graft, Financial Times, 10 December 2002. «-- back

24. China briefing: Taxes, Far Eastern Economic Review, 10 July 2003. «-- back

25. China: What he did and left undone, The Economist, 8 March 2003. «-- back

26. OECD - China in the World Economy: The Domestic Policy Challenges, Synthesis Report, Paris, 2002, p. 25. «-- back

27. Kynge, J. - National People’s Congress: Rural poverty may threaten China’s future, Zhu warns, Financial Times, 6 March 2003. «-- back

28. The UIS calculates public expenditure on education as percentage of GDP as well as Gross National Product (GNP) and Gross National Income (GNI), which is - in the case of China - the same figure of 2.2 per cent for 1998/1999. The World Bank’s database of education statistics (EdStats) has reported the figure of 2.9 per cent of GDP for 2000. «-- back

29. Ministry of Education - 2001 China Education and Human Resource Report, Beijing, 2002, p. 563. «-- back

30. Mark Bray, Ding Xiaohao and Huang Ping - Alleviating the financial burden on poor households: Review of cost-reduction strategies in the GBEP (Gansu Basic Education Project), Comparative Education Research Centre, University of Hong Kong, August 2003, p. 16. «-- back

31. The 1995 Education Law says: “In cases where schools ... collect fees from educatees without regard to the relevant regulations of the State, such fees shall be returned by the order of the administrative departments of education; persons directly in charge and other persons held directly responsible shall be given administrative sanction according to law.” «-- back

32. People’s Daily, 3 September 2003. «-- back

33. Ahmad, E. Et al. - Recentralization in China?, IMF Working Paper WP/02/168, p. 10. «-- back

34. Wong, C. - Converting fees into taxes: Reform of extra-budgetary funds and inter-governmental fiscal relations in China, Association for Asian Studies Meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, March 1999. «-- back

35. OECD Review of Financing and Quality Assurance Reforms in Higher Education in the People’s Republic of China, CCNM/EDU (2003) 2, 14 October 2003, p. 9. «-- back

36. Articles 25 and 29(5) of the 1995 Education Law of the People’s Republic of China. «-- back

37. Ning, C. - Progress made on education, China Daily, 28 February 2000. «-- back

38. State Education Commission of the People’s Republic of China - The Development and Reform of Education in China 1995-1996, International Conference on Education, 45th Session, Geneva, 1996, Beijing, September 1996, p. 1. «-- back

39. Hayhoe, R. - China’s Universities and the Open Door, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) Press, Toronto, 1989, p. 168. «-- back

40. Country assistance strategy of the World Bank Group for the People’s Republic of China, Report No. 25141, 22 January 2003, p. 2. «-- back

41. Seeberg, V. - The Rhetoric and Reality of Mass Education in Mao’s China, The Edwin Mellen Press, Chinese Studies Series No. 14, Lampeter (Wales), 2002. «-- back

42. China’s legislation does not permit NGOs. International NGOs cannot register and, domestically, there are “social organizations” sponsored by particular parts of the Government, research centres, or commercial actors. A Government sponsor is necessary for a “social organization”, hence a huge number exists in sponsored areas (such as women, disability, youth, or education). Obtaining registration as a research centre or a commercial actor is the path followed by those NGOs that are unlikely to get government sponsorship. «-- back

43. China: Country Gender Review, The World Bank, June 2002, p. 12. «-- back

44. China’s Accession to WTO: Challenges for Women in the Agricultural and Industrial Sectors, UNDP, Beijing, 2003, p. 89. «-- back

45. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women - Consideration of the report of China (CEDAW/C/CHN/3-4, and Corr. 1, and Add. 1 and 2), U.N. Doc. A/54/38, para. 283, 3 February 1999. «-- back

46. Murray, C.J.L. and Lopez, A.D. (eds.) - The Global Burden of Disease: A Comprehensive Assessment of Mortality and Disability from Diseases, Injuries, and Other Risk Factors in 1990 and Projected to 2020, Harvard School of Public Health; Cabral, E. - China’s Hidden Epidemic, Ford Foundation Report, Winter 1999. «-- back

47. Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, adopted at the Fifth Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress on 3 April 1992, Article 35. «-- back

48. Population and Family Planning in China, State Family Planning Commission and Department of Foreign Affairs, undated, p. 16. «-- back

49. Eying zero population growth (editorial), Shanghai Daily, 8 May 2000. «-- back

50. Women in China: A Country Profile, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Statistical Profiles No. 10, United Nations, New York, 1997, p. 6. «-- back

51. United Nations Population Fund - Country programme outline for China, Annex, U.N. Doc. DP/FPA/CPO/CHN/5, 12 July 2002. «-- back

52. Ji, L. - Gender as determinant in income differentials, Academy of Educational Sciences, Beijing, 2001. «-- back

53. CIDA - Gender Profile of China, Canadian International Development Agency, 1995. «-- back

54. Education for All: The Year 2000 Assessment. Final Country report of China, available at www.unesco.org/education/efa/wef/countryreports. «-- back

55. These and other gender disaggregated statistics are available on the website of All China Women’s Federation (www.women.org.cn). «-- back

56. The signposts were the 1986 “Trial measures for the schooling of children and youth among the floating population”, followed in 1997 by the “Provisional measures on the management of fees charged by schools offering temporary schooling”. These institutionalized “temporary schooling fees” which are still charged. In 1998, an additional set of the “Provisional measures for the schooling of migrant children and young people” posited that all school-aged children should get compulsory education if they live in a particular place more than six months, but only if they have all the required permits. In 2003, the pledge that migrant children should be able to enrol was repeated and the charging of fees continued. «-- back

57. On 1 August 2003, regulations entitled “Measures on the administration of aid to indigent vagrants and beggars” went into force. They were adopted following a successful legal challenge of the constitutionality of the previous regulations. Instead of “administration of aid”, those referred to “internment and deportation”, and their enforcement had caused the death of a student, which triggered the challenge of unconstitutionality. The new regulations anticipate aid to “vagrants and beggars”, such as shelters for the homeless, but it is unclear whether the practice of internment and deportation will be discontinued. «-- back

58. Shutting Out the Poorest: Discrimination against Migrant Children in City Schools, Human Rights in China, Hong Kong, May 2002. «-- back

59. Report on a Study of Contemporary China’s Social Strata, CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Beijing, January 2002. «-- back

60. The Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China specifies that family planning is a fundamental state policy, aimed at controlling the size and raising “the general quality of the population.” «-- back

61. Regulation on prohibiting fetal sex identification and selective termination of pregnancy for non-medical reasons, adopted at the Fifth Session of the Ninth Standing Committee of Shandong Provincial People’s Congress on 21 November 1998, Article 5. «-- back

62. Committee on the Rights of the Child - Concluding observations of the Committee following the consideration of the initial report of China, U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.56, para. 15, 7 June 1996. «-- back

63.China Education, 24 April 2001. «-- back

64. The 2001 Population and Family Planning Law states that “citizens who give birth to babies not in compliance with [one child per couple unless exemption is granted] shall pay a social maintenance fee prescribed by law.” «-- back

65. Xueqin, J. - A crumbling promise in China: Access to school, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 January 2002. «-- back

66. Lawrence, S. - The wrangle over a right to riches, Far Eastern Economic Review, 27 March 2003. «-- back

67. Muju Zhu - The views and involvement of Chinese parents in their children’s education, Prospects, vol. 29, No. 2, June 1999, p. 236.. «-- back

68.Unemployment in China and South Korea: Young, bright and jobless, The Economist, 21 June 2003. «-- back

69. A survey of China, The Economist, 15 June 2002. «-- back

70. Exam system hampers students (editorial), China Daily, 1 March 2000. «-- back

71. China: Roll over Confucius, The Economist, 25 January 2003. «-- back

72. Xiaoyan Liang - China: Challenges of Secondary Education, The World Bank, June 2001, p. 6. «-- back

73. Wang Fulin et al. - A Collection of Essays on Chinese Women of Minority Nationalities, People’s China Press, Beijing, 1995, p. 238. «-- back

74. Wu Shimin, editor-in-chief - A Survey of China’s Policies regarding the National Minorities, (English Translation), People’s Publishing House, Beijing, 1995, p. 285. «-- back

75. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination - Concluding observations of the Committee following the consideration of the fifth, sixth and seventh periodic reports of the People’s Republic of China, U.N. Doc. CERD/C/304/Add.15, para. 14, 27 September 1996. «-- back

76. Biennium Report, UNESCO Office Beijing, 2001-2002, 31 May 2003, p. 46. «-- back

77. The China Human Development Report, United Nations Development Programme, China, Oxford University Press, 1999, p. 19. «-- back

78. Interests of educators underlined, China Daily, 11 September 2003. «-- back

79. Article 3 and 43(2) of the 1995 Education Law of the People’s Republic of China. «-- back

80. State Education Commission of the People’s Republic of China - The Development and Reform of Education in China 1995-1996, International Conference on Education, 45th Session, Geneva, 1996, Beijing, September 1996, pp. 2, 3 and 11. «-- back

81. Far Eastern Economic Review, 30 January 2003. «-- back

82. China and Japan: Ghosts of the past, The Economist, 23 August 2003. «-- back

83. Tomasevski, K. - Education Denied: Costs and Remedies, Zed Books, London, 2003, p. 117. «-- back

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