commune. . . if there is a crime we report it to the Wuhsi public security bureau. It sends people to investigate and prosecute. We don't have a jail or police station in the commune. There is no dope, just philosophical disputes. We had a swindler who stole more than 10,000 yuan [$5,700] and tried to educate him. We were unable to re-educate him." Presumably this person is now in prison.

Religion. In Yangchow we visited the Fa-ching Monastery. This Zen (Ch'na) Buddhist monastery, founded over 1200 years ago in the T'ang Dynasty, is maintained by subsidies from the State. We saw an exhibition room commemorating Chien Chang, who had gone to Japan in 743 at the invitation of the Japanese. He was responsible, we were told, for disseminating Chinese culture in Japan. There was a new memorial hall to Chien Chang, built in the manner of the T'ang but constructed only in 1973 at State expense. We spoke to two older monks of the seven in the monastery. There are some 200 believers in Yangchow, which has a total population of 200,000. The monks range in age from 40 to 76. They said they have good relations with the State, and the State provides them with money as well as guaranteeing their rights of religion.

There is no Christian church in Yangchow; the monastery, therefore, is the only practicing religious institution in that city. We learned that there exists only vestigial remains of Christianity in China. There is a regular, sparcely-attended Christian church service in Peking, and Prof. Tink Kuang-hsun, a Union Theological Seminary (New York) Graduate of 1948, teaches Christian theology to a few dozen students at Nanking University. The number of students is dwindling and even these are being trained to serve the State. Professor Ting is also a delegate to the National People's Congress as representative of Chinese Christians. Only a few cities other than Peking are known to have regular Christian church services, and these on a small scale. Christianity continues to be practiced in some homes but to practice this or any religion is incompatible with Communist Party membership.

VIII. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: WOMEN, THE FAMILY, AND

EDUCATION

The Role of Women.-In modern China nowhere is the Great Leap Forward more evident than the new role of women in its society. The equality between men and women guaranteed by Chairman Mao has been translated into a consciousness of women's rights throughout the country; although the Chinese do not claim that full job equality has been achieved, this consciousness seems to have been implemented in the work force through job assignments and reinforced in the family by domestic labor sharing between husband and wife. Women appear to have been freed to make their individual contributions to their country. Within the context of communism, where individual freedom of choice does not exist in most areas, the woman's options appear to be equal to the man's.

An appropriate backdrop for understanding the woman's place in modern China is provided by a member of the women's federation at the Tan-shan Brigade near Tsingtao. Shantung when she says, "In the old days feudalism and imperialism oppressed women. Women in China suffered from them deeply and also from male chauvinism. They

were looked down upon by men and waged a protracted struggle over many years for the emancipation of women. Many times in the past our efforts failed, but finally, we succeeded at the time of liberation. Now we fully enjoy equal rights with men." This statement expressed the view frequently repeated by both men and women throughout our tour whenever the subject was broached.

In China equality is not mere rhetoric. It is embodied in one of the PRC's earliest laws, the Marriage Law of 1950, which equalized the rights and obligations of men and women in marriage and divorce. It expresses both the national principle and the national priority. The advocacy of one's equality and the abolition of male chauvinism, like all other ideological doctrines, have been the subject of extensive discussion and debate at all levels of Chinese society.

That this issue was clearly understood could best be illustrated by the ideas and arguments presented during a divorce proceeding which we witnessed in the Peking Intermediate Court. The court session was held in the factory where the husband was employed. The Elementary Court had rejected the wife's plea for a divorce, and since lawyers as a profession no longer play an active role in China, each party pleaded his or her own case. The basis for the wife's request for a divorce was that when she attended long evening sessions for political study in her factory, her husband objected to her absence, and beat and cursed her. She claimed that he was still under the influence of Confucius in his thinking, that he was a male chauvinist, and that he did not become involved or take part in similar studies or work in his factory. She contended that they were incompatible and requested a divorce.

The constant repetition of the charge of chauvinism by co-workers at the factory who were of similar backgrounds and educational levels as the parties to the divorce indicated a recognition of the woman's right to work and to observe and pursue issues of political study. All of the witnesses testified critically on the husband's role in the marriage's break-up. He confessed that he was responsible for this breakup and announced that he was determined to make a new start and showed signs of repentance for his poor treatment of his wife in the past. The witnesses moved to persuade the wife that the husband could correct his mistakes, and while they were critical of him, they ultimately recommend a reconciliation. For some time, the wife remained unconvinced but finally was presuaded by the confrontations of her colleagues and co-workers and the determination of the judge that the husband was acting on good faith and was willing to correct his mistakes. The wife then accepted the judgment of her colleagues. Equality.-Sexual equality in the productive process of the country is most visible, again, at the grass roots level. Women are participating visibly in the agricultural output of communes and brigades, working side by side with men. The same situation exists in the factories. There was no claim of discrimination in salaries, rather equal pay was asserted to be received for equal work. In rural areas, barefoot doctors provide most uncomplicated medical assistance, and 70 per cent of these barefoot doctors in the communes we visited are women. The overwhelming majority in communes and child care centers associated with factories also are women. In the factories women work beside men and are paid equally.

Although equality of opportunity has been achieved to a remarkable degree, we noted that this did not preclude 85 per cent of the total work force in an embroidery mill from being female and the same percentage of workers in a fish hatchery being male. Obviously, the goal of equality of opportunity applies to the total society, not to 'quotas" for single places.

Women mentioned the participation by a woman in the mountain climbing team which succeeded in reaching the summit of one of China's tallest peaks, citing this as an example of women's equality in China. We observed women doctors in the acupuncture clinics and regular hospital we visited, and noted a sense of equality between the sexes in these and other professional situations.

Equal rights carries with it equal responsibilities in China, and the role of women is particularly important in the commune. Under the leadership of the revolutionary committee of the commune and of the brigade, women's federations have also been organized. The purpose of the federation, which can exist on any level of society, is largely to disseminate political education among the women. Under the leadership of the revolutionary committee and within the policies and political guidelines of the Communist Party, the women's federation conducts political policy classes to increase the awareness of women of the commune on issues. In a commune at Wuhsi, the leader of the women's federation stressed the important role women played in class struggles. She stated that the federation had the responsibility of eliciting the women's views on production, as well as their demands and requests, and then transmitting this information to the revolutionary committee.

In one of the commune brigades, four of the nine members of the revolutionary committee are women. A great deal of attention is paid to the life of women in the brigade in order to help production teams, and consideration is given to all the needs of women-e.g., control of the day care center and its management and attention to the medical needs of women, including the assurance that they receive a check-up every year. In the production brigade, there is a woman director responsible for all women's affairs. There are thirty members of the women's organization in the commune of which nine are Party members. Of the thirty, one-third is comprised of each age segment: elderly, middle aged, and young. The youngest is 25 and the oldest is 60. The women's federation constitutes the sole formal organization or channel of communication between the women as workers in the factories or the communes and the revolutionary committee or the Communist Party.

Support Systems within the Family.-Since virtually all able-bodied women under the age of retirement-which is 55 for women (50 for those in manual pursuits) and 60 for men-are involved on a full-time basis in the productive processes, women's equality is translated into a sharing of household labor between husband and wife since both are generally full-time workers. In the three-generation household, a grandmother or grandfather provides extra assistance by helping with the child care or in the performance of other domestic responsibilities. It is quite common throughout China to see a grandparent holding the hand of a small child or strolling with a baby in a Chinese

style carriage or paring vegetables in the courtyard as children play nearby.

The integration of the older generation is not merely the result of the physical proximity within the living quarters of the younger couple, but more so of the general lifestyle of the people. In homes without grandparents, pre-school-aged children generally remain at the nursery or child care center until they are taken home at 4:30. In those homes the child care duties also are shared by both husband and wife. The recognition of the demands on a wife's time when she is a full time worker was underscored during a visit to a new village on the outskirts of Shanghai where we were invited to see, among others, the quarters of a couple of whom the man was a retired worker and the woman was still employed as a teacher. They enjoyed a threeroom apartment and shared a communal kitchen with three other families. It was stated that most household chores were performed by the husband since his wife worked full time. The traditional strengths of the family unit in Chinese society apparently continue to be a stabilizing and a more important force in the new China than most of our delegation had realized. Since the revolution, household responsibilities have been equalized, and the family provides an extra dimension of social support for the women's role in China.

By any standard women appeared to have made outstanding gains in the achievement of equality in China. The broad participation of women was revealed across the country. Many of the women whom we were privileged to meet hold important positions in the Chinese government. Women of great distinction whom we did not meet play extremely significant roles in society; however, the pinnacles of power in politics, at the highest levels of decision-making, are overwhelmingly held by men. Nonetheless, the record of achievement in China in this regard is outstanding among the nations of the world.

Family Planning. Although the exact size of China's population is unknown, the most recent official estimate places it at nearly 800,000,000. Western estimates, however, tend to raise that figure, some up to 940,000,000. A Chinese Vice Premier reportedly told a visiting foreign delegation in 1972 that Chinese officials then in charge of the food supply estimated the population at over 800,000,000 whereas officials in charge of agricultural equipment and material supply estimated it at less than that figure.

Whatever the actual number, Chinese leaders-despite some official statements to the contrary made at international conferences in 1973 and 1974-express concern about population expansion and encourage ever more stringent birth control measures. Every place we visited displayed signs promoting late marriages, and we were frequently given figures to demonstrate the effectiveness of family planning campaigns. A 23-year-old man told us: "I am too young to marry,' and added that the combined age of bride and groom should be at least 50. He mentioned that one effect of delayed marriages is that teenage dating is a romantic dead-end.

A municipal official in Shanghai gave us the most graphic account of the State's efforts toward zero population growth. He said that one of the city's most serious problems is that its populace is:

ever increasing-it is now over 10 million. If we don't pay attention we will grow very quickly. In the past the birth rate was 3 to 4 per cent. This would

mean an annual increase of 300,000 to 400,000. From 1958 we paid serious attention to this problem. After the Cultural Revolution the workers carried out family planning. Pills and contraceptives are free. We also have good medical workers among the masses. They see that housewives take the pill every night. We do the same in the countryside. Last year the natural birth rate was 0.6 per cent (or 60,000). We were commended by the State Council for this outstanding achievement. But we must do more. There are still old ideas everywhere. People want boys first. There is the example of an old cadre [official] on the Revolutionary Committee whose wife gave birth to 7 girls. He still was not satisfied. We said: "Seven girls is not your fault," and told him, "You can go to the masses and explain why you should keep families small. You can also explain why girls are good."

Education.-A key factor in the divorce case we witnessed was the couple's obligations to the general society in raising their two children: "These children are the successors to the revolution, and the husband and wife have a responsibility for bringing them up." As one indication of the priority given children, women in the Shanghai day care center received 75 per cent higher pay than those in the neighboring production shop. The Municipal Vice Chairman in Shanghai worried most about the ideological upbringing of the youth. Only education could innoculate the young against "rightist" ideas. Again the 1975 report by the Senate's Majority Leader relates the essential facts on education:

The People's Republic places great stress on basic education. China's leaders are well aware that literacy is essential both to effective political communication and to economic growth. . . . Education in China is directed to practical application, not to learning for the sake of learning. By all accounts, higher educational concepts are still unsettled.

One province we visited now has 11 million primary and middle school students out of a population of 50 million. Education in this province is now 10 years in the city and 7 years in the countryside. The goal is universal education at the city level. By contrast, the province's university student population is now 30,000 where it was only 10,000 in 1972; its peak was 38,000 before the universities were closed in 1966. The total university population in the PRC is now 400,000, a figure less than half the peak (955,000) reached in 1960 and less than one-half of 1 per cent of the current total population.

The decade-long debate about education is no longer referred to as "struggle, criticism, reformation." The watchword now is experimentation. Kiangsu Province, for example, has begun low-level agriculture colleges where students study agriculture, agricultural machinery, water construction, and fertilizers. The students are peasants and "those who will be helping to develop China's agriculture." The first enrollment in six such colleges came this year in the Province, and they now have 2,000 students. Kiangsu also has 30 agricultural middle schools with one-year courses. There were 3,000 students in these schools in 1975. In the four teachers' colleges in the province the emphasis is on ideology, subject matter, and then technique-a rather different approach than found in our own teacher training. One hundred and twenty workers' universities (kung-jen ta hsüeh) have also been set up and these now experiment with one-, two-, and three-year programs. "The educational revolution is a new thing; experimentation will go on and on and there will be new kinds of innovations," we were told.

The Vice Chancellor of Peking University, Chou P'ei-yüan, gave our delegation the most comprehensive view of higher education in