The Sky is Falling for China’s Women in Top Leadership

Chinese President Xi Jinping is applauded as he enters the Great Hall of the People for the opening ceremony of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Photo by Thomas Peter, Reuters.

In China, a decades-long era of hope for women’s increased political leadership is over. For the first time in a quarter century, a woman will not retain even a single spot on the second-highest governing body in China.

When Xi Jinping revealed his chosen party leaders at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party this past October, women were noticeably absent from the list. 

Xi chose not to nominate a woman to the 25-member Politburo after the retirement of vice premier and “zero-Covid czar” Sun Chunlan, a move that defied expectations and halted the two-decade unofficial practice among Chinese leaders of nominating at least one woman to the exclusive decision-making body. Many expected the qualified Shen Yiqin to succeed Sun, but Shen was instead promoted to the 205-member Central Committee, a level below the Politburo with less power. She is just one of eleven women on that Committee, and women are a mere five percent of that total membership. A woman has never been appointed to the seven-member Standing Committee, the most exclusive and powerful inner circle of party members hand-picked by Xi.

Sun’s departure from the Politburo and the subsequent lack of female leadership within the upper echelons of China’s government is a significant step backward for women’s rights. Xi’s unprecedented political leap forward as the first-ever Chinese leader to secure a third term as the Communist Party’s paramount leader has left women behind. 

Sun, 72, had the credentials to become the first female member of the elite Standing Committee but chose to retire after passing the unofficial but expected retirement age of 68 for top party officials. However, Xi is exempting himself from any retirement. In 2018, Xi flexed his political muscle by abolishing presidential term limits, essentially guaranteeing his indefinite rule despite turning 69 in June.

Few limits on Xi’s accumulated power will make it more difficult and even dangerous for women to advocate for more social, political and economic freedom. Since Xi took power in 2012, the Chinese government has increasingly cracked down on discussions about feminism, silenced those who spoke out about sexual assault or gender-based violence, and promoted rhetoric that pressures women into marrying and bearing children amidst a looming demographic crisis. In 2015, Xi’s government suffered international backlash after jailing five women’s rights activists now known worldwide as the “Feminist Five.” After a month of intense pressure, the women were released. 

Since then, discussions about feminism have become highly politically sensitive and restricted online, leaving few avenues for women to advocate for true women’s equality. However, recent events that have gone viral on social media have drawn some renewed international attention to the struggle for gender equality in China. 

When Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai accused a top Chinese leader of sexual assault in November of 2021, she disappeared for weeks, sparking worldwide concern for her well-being. Posts about her were heavily censored by the government and when she finally reemerged in public, she suddenly announced her retirement and described her accusation as a “misunderstanding.” 

In late January, a video of a Chinese mother of eight chained to a rural hut by her neck with no coat in the middle of winter caused international outrage and sparked discussion about women’s abuse and female trafficking in China. 

In June, security camera footage of several women being brutally beaten by a group of men after refusing their advances at a restaurant spread across social media. Women flooded the internet to express their fear, anger and sadness. Hashtags related to the incident were viewed more than 4.8 billion times on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform similar to Twitter. 

On paper, women have held equal constitutional rights in China since 1954. Xi stated to the United Nations in 2020 that “we need to strive for genuine gender equality” and his government recently overhauled a law designed to better protect women against gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Yet in reality, women in China continue to face workplace discrimination and harassment along with pressure from Xi’s patriarchal authoritarian government to embrace traditional gender roles. The marginalization of women stems from the top: while nearly 29% of Communist Party members are women, less than 9% of the party’s top leaders are women. 

Sun’s retirement and Xi’s decision not to nominate a female successor leave few female voices at the highest decision-making levels of the Chinese government. As Xi strengthens his grip on power, the remaining officials who advocate on behalf of women could even be seen as threatening to his agenda. 

Mao Zedong once famously stated that “women hold up half the sky.” But for women in China today, the sky seems to be sagging.

Kate Strong (Columbia College ‘24) is a Staff Writer at Columbia Political Review with a focus on China’s foreign relations and U.S. constitutional law.