Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508280082
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: HUAIROU, CHINA LENGTH: Long
Authorities, already bracing for sharp criticism of their policies at the coming international women's conference, apparently are haunted by an even more daunting prospect: Foreigners running naked through public squares carrying placards clamoring for equality of the sexes.
As some 30,000 delegates converged this weekend in Beijing for the 4th United Nations Conference on Women and in this small farming town north of the capital for an associated women's forum of grass-roots activists, Chinese organizers gave police and taxi drivers a special course in how to deal with would-be streakers.
``Stop your cab and put on the handbrake,'' said the advisory to taxi drivers, who had to take the obligatory course. ``Then jump out and holler for a policeman.''
Police and hotel security staff were advised to prepare sheets and blankets and be ready to wrap them around bare protesters, for the sake of decency.
The measures to safeguard Chinese morals and the country's public order are symptomatic of official fear that Communist China's first experience in holding a major global meeting could become a stage for female activists eager to express solidarity with their Chinese sisters and determined to publicize their message to the world.
Such public exhibitions, the officials fear, might spark popular unrest in a country where history shows the masses are easily ignited.
Although Mao Tse-tung officially bestowed Chinese women with equality in the 1950s with the now-famous quip that ``women hold up half of heaven,'' women have serious grievances in China. On a U.N. scale of gender equality, China's women are rated only 122nd out of 185 nations.
China's paranoia has overshadowed a conference whose central aim touches on sensitive Chinese issues as delegates seek to map out strategies for women in their battle for equal rights and equal political opportunities around the world.
Conference delegates will oppose forced abortions, a measure encouraged in China to maintain its one-child policy. Governments like the communist regime in power in Beijing will be lambasted for virtually excluding women from senior posts.
The government stands to be embarrassed by discussions about the rights of prostitutes, now sent to labor camps without trial, in a country where the sex industry has become rampant.
China's handpicked delegates have been briefed by the State Family Planning Commission on how to respond to questions from inquisitive conference members. They are certain to be queried on birth control, abortion, reportedly widespread infanticide of girls, repression in the troubled Himalayan state of Tibet and the heavy-handed way China applies the one-family, one-child policy.
Within the conference, rifts also are expected as anti-abortion groups clash with abortion-rights groups, and conservative Vatican and Islamic delegates try to dilute liberal resolutions.
Half of Poland's delegation, for example, is sponsored by the government, the other half by the Catholic Church.
Conservative delegates arrived in Beijing last week with the song ``We Shall Overcome'' on their lips, while more radical elements quoted their philosopher, Rosi Braidotti, a university professor at Utrecht in Holland. ``Enough of Mama's moralist feminism,'' she wrote. ``Enough of the sweetened image of the creative maternal power.''
China always has paid lip service to women's aspirations. But its security apparatus now is afraid that such ambitions may spill over into demonstrations.
``People should respect the laws of the country they visit,'' said local county chief Zhao Yuhe. ``China's laws must be strictly obeyed. Any Chinese or foreigner who violates the law will be treated the same.''
China's government initially coveted the conference, but long ago concluded that it might be welcoming a Trojan horse. To thwart trouble, it moved the Women's Forum - a gathering of nongovernmental organizations notorious for their outspoken independence - from the capital to this dusty farming town 90 minutes to the north.
A bustling agrarian market town until a few weeks ago, Huairou now is a clean-swept ghost town, a kind of Chinese fantasy park, decorated with flower pots and hastily dabbed layers of white paint.
Its apartment blocks and simple guesthouses were converted into threadbare hotels with two cots to a room, along with one table and a mirror, suspended from the wall on a piece of wire.
Delegates are told Huairou is famous for its artificial lake, where tourists can fish for a fee. But most have no idea that just outside town are three army barracks and an air force missile unit.
The military bearing of the town has infected the ``official'' hostesses, most of whom are brusque and sharp.
``I was told, `This is my motherland China. That is all we can offer you. Take it or leave it,''' complained Annamaria Palermo, Italy's cultural attache in Beijing. She found her country's priceless women's art exhibits would be hung in the open, exposed to sun and rain.
The Women's Forum begins Wednesday and ends Sept. 8. It will serve as a think tank of sorts for the main U.N. conference, which will be held in Beijing's Asia Village from Sept. 4 to 15. Among the main speakers expected is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
``I love this quiet place, the trees and hills and how they blend into the universe. It's so peaceful here,'' mused Shirley Mae Springer Staten, the Alaskan singer who is organizing 200 live musical performances during the forum, all behind closed doors and off limits to the locals.
Springer Staten and the majority of the 20,000 nongovernmental organization delegates will be housed in the new apartments, which had already been sold to the local peasants before the government decided to shift the Forum from Beijing to Huairou.
``We had to convince the peasants to make the apartments available to the conference,'' a municipal official said. ``Now, they all support the idea.''
Paramilitary police stood at attention over the weekend throughout deserted Huairou, where the local security force has been increased sevenfold to 5,400 men. Police are allowing only authorized vehicles to enter the town, passing below a huge banner written in English and strung across the highway.
Its message reads ``Welcome to the tourist spot of Huairou. Expect everything to turn out as you wish.''
by CNB