- Renaissance of socialist values
- Hong Kong and Shenzhen to grow together
- New dispute over Taiwan
- Rich are to pay more taxes
- Lockdown in North China
- End for Amnesty in Hong Kong
- Yu Yongding: China must restore growth
China’s government is planning its next intervention. With the law on the “promotion of family education”, Beijing’s intervention this time reaches far into private life: the upbringing of its own children. This new law aims to teach China’s youth morals, intellectual development, and social skills, according to official sources. Ning Wang took a closer look at these seemingly noble plans and found that in reality, the government is putting thumbscrews on parents.
Hong Kong has been in the headlines for weeks. Our correspondents also cover the former crown colony, albeit on a topic that is not related to human rights and democracy. It’s about what may be the most ambitious plan to date to solve the chronic housing shortage in the special administrative region. Over an area of about a third of Hong Kong, housing is to be provided for up to 1.5 million people over the coming years. But the plan also extends over the mainland to Shenzhen to further the development of the so-called Greater Bay Area.
Lastly, I would like to recommend today’s guest opinion by Yu Yongding. The renowned Chinese economist takes the ongoing power shortage and the crisis surrounding the real estate developer Evergrande as an opportunity to look at the current state of the Chinese economy. His conclusion: China’s policymakers must act now to restore much-needed growth.
I hope you enjoy today’s issue!
Michael Radunski
Feature
More socialist values for families
Beijing continues to tweak its idea of the perfect Chinese family: A new law aims to improve education in families while protecting children from too much school stress. Not all details of the law have been published yet. However, media reports indicate that the proposed guidelines are intended to encourage parents to promote morals, intellectual development, and social skills of their offspring.
From now on, for example, it is part of child protection in China that parents make sure that their children take enough breaks while studying and do enough sports. However, this does not lift pressure off legal guardians, rather the opposite – because mothers and fathers are soon to be held responsible for the “bad behavior” of their children. This is what the draft law on the “promotion of family education” says.
Officials are convinced, that the fact that young people do not behave in a socially acceptable manner is first and foremost due to the wrong upbringing by their parents: “There are many reasons for the bad behavior of young people, and the lack of proper family upbringing is the main reason,” Zang Tiewei, spokesman for the Legislative Affairs Office of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said last week. Parents are expected to teach their children how to “respect the elderly and take care of the young.”
Continue reading now
… and get free access to this Professional Briefing for a month.
Are you already a guest at the China.Table? Log in now