This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping will present his new leadership team to the

world on stage in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Just who will be on the Communist
Party Politburo Standing Committee is a matter of fierce debate, but one thing is
guaranteed: there will be no women.
The People's Republic of China has never had a female president, nor have any women
served on the Standing Committee, where all key decisions about running the country
are made, since the party came to power in 1949.
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The next rung down -- the 25-member Politburo -- currently has only two female
members, both of whom are due to retire this year.
China's lack of female leadership is made all the more stark by the contrast with Hong
Kong and Taiwan, both of which are run by women.
Carrie Lam took office as first female leader in Hong Kong, a former British territory now
part of China, in July. In Taiwan, a self-governing island China views as a breakaway
province, Tsai Ing-wen was elected as its first female president in early 2016. Other
countries in the region -- South Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore -- have also all had
women leaders.
The founding father of the People's Republic, Mao Zedong, famously proclaimed that
"women hold up half the sky," so why, four decades after his death, are there still so few
high-level female politicians in China?
China's push to modernize its military 02:26

Discriminatory policy
Although China's constitution enshrines gender equality, discrimination remains
widespread, according to analysts.
Current retirement policy requires female public servants stop working up to 10 years earlier
than men. For government employees, including those at state-owned enterprises, the
mandatory retirement age for men is 60, while women retire at 50 or 55.
Some experts argue this age-gap perpetuates perceptions women are physically unable to
work as long as men and discourages employers from hiring women for long-term positions.
It also leads to less opportunities for women seeking advancement in Chinese politics,
where cadres only reach the height of power as they near their 60s.
"The government has no intention of doing anything substantive to improve female political
representation," said Leta Hong Fincher, author of the upcoming book "Betraying Big
Brother: China's Feminist Resistance."
"It's just doing the talk to appear more responsible as it wants to be viewed as a more
prominent global leader."
Many women -- like real estate maven Zhang Xin and tech entrepreneur Hu Weiwei -- are
succeeding in business and academia, but female politicians remain a rare breed. Time
magazine included Jiang Qing, Mao's wife and leader of the "Gang of Four" during the
Cultural Revolution, as one of the 25 most powerful women of the past century, but she only
reached the Politburo.
Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying is one of only a handful of Chinese women in senior political
positions.
The country's two most senior female politicians today are vice premier Liu Yandong, a
scion of a political dynasty -- her father was a close ally of former Chinese President Jiang
Zemin -- and Sun Chunlan, a somewhat obscure Politburo member. Both are over the
mandatory retirement age.
Another notable female politician is Fu Ying. While she is not a member of the Politburo,
she's only the second woman to ever hold the position of vice foreign minister.
"Chairman Mao's words are poetic; they're not real policies," said Cheng Li, a China expert
at the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
"Mao wanted to encourage women, but not let them go too far."
Although a 1982 revision to the party constitution calls for it to "pay great attention to
cultivating and selecting women cadres," Li said the rules have had limited impact as they
don't define a percentage.
The cult of Xi Jinping 02:46

Baijiu culture
Obstacles to women at the policy level are compounded by another factor: culture.
Surviving China's male-dominated political system means playing by its rules, such as
drinking large amounts of baijiu, the clear, highly alcoholic grain spirit that forms a key part
of formal banquets and meetings.