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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsShould we be worried about the Chinese eugenics program?
http://www.edge.org/response-detail/23838"China has been running the world's largest and most successful eugenics program for more than thirty years, driving China's ever-faster rise as the global superpower. I worry that this poses some existential threat to Western civilization. Yet the most likely result is that America and Europe linger around a few hundred more years as also-rans on the world-historical stage, nursing our anti-hereditarian political correctness to the bitter end.
When I learned about Chinese eugenics this summer, I was astonished that its population policies had received so little attention. China makes no secret of its eugenic ambitions, in either its cultural history or its government policies.
For generations, Chinese intellectuals have emphasized close ties between the state (guojia), the nation (minzu), the population (renkou), the Han race (zhongzu), and, more recently, the Chinese gene-pool (jiyinku). Traditional Chinese medicine focused on preventing birth defects, promoting maternal health and "fetal education" (taijiao) during pregnancy, and nourishing the father's semen (yangjing) and mother's blood (pingxue) to produce bright, healthy babies (see Frank Dikötter's book Imperfect Conceptions). Many scientists and reformers of Republican China (1912-1949) were ardent Darwinians and Galtonians. They worried about racial extinction (miezhong) and "the science of deformed fetuses" (jitaixue), and saw eugenics as a way to restore China's rightful place as the world's leading civilization after a century of humiliation by European colonialism. The Communist revolution kept these eugenic ideals from having much policy impact for a few decades though. Mao Zedong was too obsessed with promoting military and manufacturing power, and too terrified of peasant revolt, to interfere with traditional Chinese reproductive practices."
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Ganja Ninja
(15,953 posts)From what I understand it's the males that are prized.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)At the end of the article the author is more worried about the West's response to Chinese eugenics more than the programs themselves. Probably with good reason considering the way we respond to any perceived threat.
JustAnotherGen
(31,849 posts)He closes with this:
He left out what part of that criticism would include - in the Western Hemisphere - there is a little thing called slavery (not just in the USA) and a little thing called the genocide of Native Americans (North, Central, and South). Yes I have a mother of European descent, but my father was Black, Cherokee, and Irish.
If we can learn from them and not play 'race' games - beautiful - but the author doesn't reassure me of that. My parents were married 2 years after loving v. virginia. So I'm on the cusp generation that truly understands just how tender and young being a 'full human being' in the eyes of America it is for black people in America.
I wonder though - does China have an IQ level where they force sterilization? What is their next step? Is that it?
I don't expect you - the OP - to have the answers to those questions - you are just posting an article. But I'm not sure if it's a concept I feel comfortable adopting in the US. China doesn't share our history and doesn't have the racial and ethnic diversity of the US to be able to tell us they hold the key to our future.
Then again - I can be pretty heartless towards the country of China in general.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)The CCP is just another dynasty in that way. (ie, it looks out for the interests of their own ethnicity. The Han have had quite enough of the manchu and mongols are their leaders)
SO, CCP very much plays race games. They have no concept of racism in the western sense - not that they are ignorant of the concept but that they don't acknowledge that it is bad.
JustAnotherGen
(31,849 posts)For America to import . . . we have to much of an *ugly* history if you know what I mean. We are just one generation away from whites only drinking fountains.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)There are between 120 and 130 men born for every 100 women, leaving China today short of about 35 million women. This will continue to cause problems.
I don't see anything wrong with the country trying to achieve a 1 baby policy. They recognize the problem of over population. To do so without initiating changes so that the society reveres women equally is the disaster.
http://www.prb.org/Educators/TeachersGuides/HumanPopulation/Women.aspx
sadbear
(4,340 posts)Can you imagine the response from the religious right of this country?
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Around here that is big no-no. In fact it probably means you should not be on this site.
AnnieBW
(10,449 posts)Become of marriageable age and start getting offers to go back to the Motherland. Can you imagine the fun when a group of Western-raised women start shaking things up over there?
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)When Mrs. AA was about twenty a bunch of his cousins came over and started inquiries about marriage. All he could do is laugh at them. Never told Mrs AA about it until years later.
The thought of Mrs AA being a quiet little wife of an army general in Pakistan is amusing, tho.
HughGrigg
(1 post)Miller's article is completely wrong on so many points, far more than I can summarise here. It really annoyed me how he made little to no effort to back up the wild and varied claims he makes there - he just chucks them out with no evidence. I've written up my response to it in full here: http://eastasiastudent.net/china/edge-org-chinese-eugenics-rubbish/
muriel_volestrangler
(101,347 posts)I can't help noticing you've also just joined "Politics Forum", where I also occasionally post (as "Prosthetic Conscience" - I might as well let you know the name). And I'm glad to see you post here, and read your rebuttal of the Miller piece (I don't have enough knowledge of China to be able to contribute anything on this, but that article did 'smell off', to me - it seems to end saying we should be considering eugenics in the West), because that indicates you won't fall for the 'consider fascism' reply you got there - that guy really means it.
