China will only benefit by welcoming women into high-level politics

China’s respectable track record on incorporating women into the workforce falls short when it comes to the top echelons of politics
Restricting the pool of talent at the top to half the population weakens badly needed competition and tells Chinese girls a career in politics is not for them

Andrei Lungu

Published: 5:30am, 8 Mar 2024

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Today, China joins the world in celebrating International Women’s Day. Mao Zedong once famously said that women hold up half the sky. According to World Bank data, China’s female labour force participation rate of more than 61 per cent is higher than many developed economies.

Chinese women work alongside men and contribute in almost every domain and at almost every level. All of China reaps the benefits of this participation and representation.

Unfortunately, one glaring exception is arguably the most important – high-level politics. Women have represented only a small percentage of the full members of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee, with no clear upward trend and only slight fluctuations in this figure.

The past two decades represented the pinnacle of female representation in the Politburo, with one woman present among 25 members and even two between 2012 and 2017. But this is no longer the case, as the current Politburo includes only 24 men.

This contrasts with the National People’s Congress, where women represent more than a quarter of members, up from 20 per cent two decades ago. But that body lacks the power and influence of the Politburo or the Central Committee. The higher you move up the political ladder in China, the fewer women there are, until they become completely absent.

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This isn’t just a problem of representation but a problem of efficient use of human resources. It’s a matter of concern not just for Chinese women but for the whole country. Women gaining greater access and representation in almost every domain creates more human resources, which in turn increases competition and delivers better results for the country.

Excluding an entire category of citizens from a certain field, especially a category that accounts for half of the population, vastly reduces the pool of available talent and competition among existing candidates. High-level officials should be selected from among the best of China’s citizens, whether men or women.

But, in recent decades, women have been passed over for promotions at the highest levels of power. Consider that only a handful of China’s current provincial party secretaries and governors are women. Restricting the pool of candidates inevitably means that some politicians end up in positions of power even though they wouldn’t have been considered amid greater competition.

Worse still, after so many decades in which women’s representation at the highest levels of power in China has been restricted, a system of pernicious incentives has developed. A political career has become an illogical choice for smart, hard-working and ambitious girls in China as, unlike a boy with similar qualities, they can expect to be passed over in favour of less-competent male colleagues.

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Pursuing a career in science, business or even looking for work overseas would be a more logical choice for such young women. Thus, not only is the pool of competent candidates for political office reduced, some of the women who do choose a career in politics might not necessarily the best as those women probably chose a career in a different field, one without such a daunting glass ceiling.

While China benefits from wide female participation in the workforce, this is no longer true in politics. This is arguably the most important domain and one where competition should be the most intense.

The Communist Party says it wants to attract the best talent among the country’s youth. To do this, it needs to show Chinese girls and women that they would be appreciated at their true value, regardless of gender, and that a career in politics could also lead them to the highest levels.

China will benefit from all of its human resources only when girls, like boys, can dream that one day they can become president. This will only be possible when they see other women – not just one woman – in the highest positions of power. Being paramount leader might not be possible for now, but at least women can hold seats in the Politburo and its Standing Committee.

Shen Yiqin, former Communist Party chief of southern Guizhou province, was appointed one of China’s five state councillors last year, becoming the most senior woman official in the leadership. Shen was widely expected to be promoted to the Politburo after the departure of Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan, but instead she remained part of the Central Committee, a rung down in the party hierarchy where women account for just 5 per cent of the 205 full members. Photo: Weibo

It is natural that addressing this shortcoming is a gradual, long-term process, but the sooner it starts, the better. Since the Politburo has only 24 members, the Communist Party leadership could begin by promoting a female member of the Central Committee at the next plenum.

At a time when China’s population is shrinking, the country’s political and governance systems are tapping just half of the available human resources. Sending a clear signal that women are welcome at the highest levels of power would almost double that pool of talent, increasing the diversity of perspectives and improving governance.

Attracting the most talented Chinese people to politics and then promoting officials based on their abilities and competence, regardless of gender, isn’t about feminism or equal representation. It is about China’s national interest, assuring the best leadership possible for the country, improving national governance and securing the future of the nation.

As China celebrates the latest International Women’s Day, the greatest gift Beijing can provide not just to Chinese women but to all of the country would be to allow them to truly hold up half the sky and remove the glass ceiling that has prevented them from touching that sky until now.

Andrei Lungu is president of the Romanian Institute for the Study of the Asia-Pacific. His research interests focus on China’s foreign policy and its internal politics