The value of a woman in China

No matter what the Chinese state says about its citizens, the women are not feeling valued, and why would they? Granted, it's not Communism that says boys are of more value than girls, but when a draconian policy interferes with natural fertility, forcing families to have but one child, the cultural preference for boys means that girls are caught in the cross-hairs.

“A woman takes her life every three seconds in China,” and men outnumber women by 40 million because of the “systematic elimination of girls” through forced abortion and sterilizations resulting from China’s one-child policy, Chai Ling, founder of the human rights group All Girls Allowed, said Tuesday.

Ling testified during a House Foreign Affairs Subcommitte on Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese activist who was imprisoned by the Chinese government and fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He is waiting to complete paperwork so that he can travel to the United States.

This is the nature of "human rights" in China that Chen has documented and protested--for which he has been made a folk hero. This is the message that China wants buried. And this is the sort of embarrassing detail that the US abhors, because trade is more important than such rights.

And what do the large, unwieldly numbers hide? Individual stories like this:

“I would like to share some of the stories and images that will show you what is happening in China even as we speak. I should warn you that these stories are disturbing,” Ling said.

Ling shared the story of Deng Lourong, the second of three girls, whose parents wanted a boy desperately enough to violate the one-child policy only to have Chinese officials demolish their home and confiscate their belongings.

Lourong’s mother disappeared three days after giving birth to her third child, and her father fled too, giving the girls over to the care of their grandmother. “Undeterred, officials detained the girls’ grandmother in 2002 and left them without a guardian,” Ling said.

“During the night, a man broke into their room and raped the 12-year-old Lourong. Her sisters managed to obtain the release of their grandmother after this, but the elderly woman died a month after she returned home,” Ling said. Lourong’s rapist only received five days in administrative detention.

Lourong was sold as a child bride three years later to a man twice her age, and her sisters were sold by traffickers and have yet to be found, according to Ling.

“When a German reporter and Chinese volunteers found Lourong’s father last November, he told them that Lourong’s husband had turned her into a prostitute to earn income for him. He beats her frequently and sold her body to bachelors in that area. Deng was in poor mental state. She would roam the mountains for over a week sometimes before returning to the house,” Ling said.

Multiply that by millions and you have a world of hurt. God sees, no doubt, but he also wants us to see and act. God wants us to weigh our imports against these broken lives, for us to weigh diplomatic protocols against cries of anguish for those dismembered bearing the divine image, for us to consider the price of our silence.

True Empress of China, intercede for these, your dear children!