Beijing [China], February 27 (ANI): A recent report has shown that even as the Chinese Communist Party offers young newlyweds 30 days of paid holiday as part of its three-child policy, many women are skeptical that real progress will follow. The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership’s new collection, Essays on Equality: The politics of childcare, pointed out the unwillingness among Chinese women to have more children. The essay has uncovered anomalies in the 3-child policy stating that the policy has infringed upon women’s reproductive rights and added an unequal burden of childcare responsibilities, affecting their careers, the Voice Against Autocracy reported.

The birth rate downturn in China is the result of a “one child” policy imposed between 1980 and 2015, and a surge in education costs that have put many Chinese against having more than one child, or even having any at all. The Chinese government implemented a one-child policy for 35 years (1980 to 2015) and compelled millions of women to forced contraception, forced sterilization, and forced abortion.
Due to plummeting birth rates, the government wanted women to have more children and swiftly moved from a one to two-child policy in 2016. But that too failed to yield the desired results. However, the government swiftly moved to a three-child policy in 2021 and offered tax cuts, subsidies, cash rewards and other incentives.

The Voice Against Autocracy reported that none of these has worked so far and China‘s birth rate continues to drop. The total fertility rate decreased from 2.6 in the late 1980s to just 1.15 in 2021. In fact, in 2022 the population might have declined for the first time since the Great Famine of 1959 to 1961, according to a projection by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. The three-child policy met with widespread cynicism online.

People opposed it using an analogy of a luxury car. “I’m not buying three Rolls-Royces not because there’s any restriction, but because they’re expensive,” a post on the Chinese social media platform Weibo read. “I want to sell my quota to rich people,” wrote another. Women in China have resisted 3 child policy because of the unequal burden of childcare responsibilities and its potentially detrimental impact on their careers.

A 2020 study, on the impact of family planning policy changes on urban women, reported that 45 per cent of respondents said their employment was negatively affected by pregnancy or childrearing. Over one-third of women reported financial loss, and more than 20 per cent described losing opportunities for training or promotions.

Another 13 per cent said they were fired or forced to resign, and eight per cent said they experienced demotion. The study pointed out that companies do not want to hire women employees who might be absent during the three to six months of maternity leave, and the costs associated with hiring a replacement.

The Chinese government has taken some steps to assist women in the workplace. In November, the government amended the Women’s Rights and Interests Protection Law, the highest law concerning gender equality in the country, for the first time in nearly 30 years, the Voice Against Autocracy reported.

Among the provisions to combat gender discrimination in the workplace, the law banned employers from inquiring or investigating the marital and maternal status of female job applicants or making such status a condition for employment. The Women’s Protection Law, which came into effect in January 2023 is likely to strengthen enforcement, which has been poor so far. In August 2022, 17 central government agencies jointly issued a notice outlining the government’s plan to increase the birth rate, with one of the major measures being increasing government-sponsored childcare facilities and services.

The Chinese Communist Party‘s latest offer to young newlyweds is 30 days of paid holiday, it has given some hope to the government that it would boost the country’s falling birth rates. China has smartly created an eco-system to ensure the fertility rate increases. Couples of reproductive age are being offered incentives so that they can comply with 3 child policy. But the reality is contrary to the government’s expectations. China‘s population fell last year for the first time in six decades. Last year, China recorded its lowest-ever birth rate, of 6.77 births per 1,000 people.

However, the government should develop programmes to reduce discriminatory gender norms related to childcare responsibilities, end discriminatory parental leave policies, expand parental leave policies and protections for both men and women who wish to take it, and ensure the availability and affordability of childcare and other forms of professional caregiving. And most importantly, the government must abolish the three-child policy because birth limits, no matter the number, are fundamentally an infringement on women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, stated the essay in Global Institute for Women’s Leadership’s new collection. (ANI)

Chinese surveillance balloons a new threat to reckon with globally: Report

Washington [United States of America], February 27 (ANI): In the month of January, a massive, unidentified, high-altitude white balloon, flew over U.S. territory and allegedly carried surveillance equipment. The U.S. shot down the massive Chinese alleged surveillance high-altitude balloon (HAB) over the Atlantic Ocean off South Carolina after it spent days travelling across the country, the Indo-Pacific Centre for Strategic Communications (IPCSC) reported.

Soon after, sightings of more balloons were reported over Latin America. The Colombian Air Force initiated an investigation of an object with similar characteristics to a balloon detected above 55,000 feet in the northern sector of the country. Similarly, Costa Rica’s Civil Aviation confirmed spotting a massive balloon flying over the capital, San Jose.

IPCSC reported that several such balloons have encroached on US airspace in recent years, evading early detection at the time. At least four balloons have been spotted over Hawaii, Florida, Texas, and Guam. Three of the four instances took place during the Trump administration but were only recently identified as Chinese surveillance airships.

As per the report by IPCSC, the balloons can be operated at a very high altitude, as high as 68,000 meters, making it more difficult for aircraft to reach them. The alleged spy balloons are much harder to detect with modern radars. The choice of using helium-infused military-grade balloons offers easier manoeuvrability, allows the operator to extract precise data, can function perfectly well withstanding the harshest of weather, and is cost-effective.

China has since operated a fleet of spy balloons over the years targeting several countries, which have been spotted over five continents. The military surveillance balloon effort has been based in Hainan Province, off China’s south coast, and has extracted data and information on military assets in countries and areas that are emerging as strategic interests for China, such as India, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, and the Philippines, as per the report by the Indo Pacific Centre for Strategic Communications.

A similar-looking object was spotted hovering high over an important naval facility in India. One of the balloons was captured on camera flying over Port Blair. The Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean are home to a strategically placed Indian Naval Facility, giving China all the more reasons to snoop around. And on that note, Japan voraciously joined the balloon saga, confirming that Chinese surveillance balloons had entered its airspace at least three times in the last few years.

The international uproar over the balloons has shed light on China’s military surveillance capabilities. The U.S. has since recovered sensors and other electronic equipment from the wreckage, which insinuates the balloon was likely used for eavesdropping on electronic signals. On further analysis of the debris, the balloon was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals as part of a huge, military-linked aerial surveillance program.

China has been developing new balloon surveillance technology for years. These surveillance airships are part of the People’s Liberation Army’s joint air force efforts. The balloons were precisely developed to conduct surveillance operations, i.e., gather intelligence, which violates the sovereignty of those targeted countries.

Several intelligence examiners have concluded that the balloons supposedly belong to the CCP’s mysterious 5th force of the PLA, or “Stratospheric Army,” as some call it. The PLA is utilising HAB for intelligence and reconnaissance activities that are capable of an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) attack. The high-altitude balloons that floated over military bases in several countries are considered a key “delivery platform” for secret nuclear strikes.

China requires significant amounts of helium to produce these high-altitude balloons to boost President Xi Jinping’s yearning for a “world-class” military to guard Beijing’s rise as a superpower. Xi has pushed for the recruitment of commercial businesses to help fulfil his desires for China’s military modernisation. The “military-civil fusion” programme aims to create a symbiotic relationship that provides the PLA with wider, faster access to commercial innovations.

First, China opens its first large-scale helium plant capable of commercial production. The Chinese Academy of Sciences, which designed and built the plant, projects an annual output of 20 tonnes in the form of liquid helium. The helium plant project was China’s first step towards reducing its reliance on US imports. The new facility will produce a fraction of China’s needs but more than enough to fuel Xi’s military capability agenda.

The facility is relatively inexpensive, and it could be the key to the mass production of more helium plants in China to meet the country’s annual helium consumption of more than 4,300 tonnes. Noble gas is used for making hi-tech products and will likely be used to build more balloons. Although China relies on the United States for the majority of its helium requirements, the spy balloon fiasco could lead to additional US sanctions, particularly on helium.

Second, the manufacturer of the Chinese spy balloons, “Zhuzhou Rubber Research & Design Institute Co. Ltd.,” is a state-owned military research institute with a weapon production license. The research institute develops and manufactures military products and is hailed as the sole manufacturing company of the China Meteorological Administration and the Military Equipment Development Department of the PLA’s Battlefield Environment Protection Bureau.

In the shocking aftermath of being exposed for manufacturing these balloons, the research institute later deleted all the information from its official website. Several Chinese companies associated with the “military-civil fusion” programme that was blacklisted by the US earlier this month over the ballooning controversy have ties to this effort.

The six companies include Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology Co.; China Electronics Technology Group Corporation’s 48th Research Institute; and Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology Co.
The other three are Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co.; Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology Co.; and Shanxi Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co.

The Chinese state-owned media deploys its propaganda tactics, insisting that the balloon was a “civilian airship” used for research, mainly for meteorological purposes, that deviated from its original trajectory. After the balloons were shot down, China expressed detestation towards America’s unnecessary hyping “spy” drama. And to no surprise, they were quick to push controversial claims about the US military spying on the Chinese.

The timing of these events unfolding seemed strategically planned; right before U.S. top diplomat Antony Blinken was set to meet China’s top diplomats to further assess their bilateral relations, it was postponed after the balloons were sighted. Apart from collecting data, the spy balloon sends a strong political message to the world about China’s PLA capabilities and progress in the technological realm. The espionage could have been a trial run to test the efficacy of AI-powered balloons in foreign airspace. Either way, there is a new threat to reckon with globally. (ANI)