Ethical+Issues+in+China

Often times when Westerners hear of factory conditions, medical practices, mass abortions, government corruption, or the view of Tibet in China they are appalled at what they learn. The differences in ethical practices are obvious but not always understood. Sometimes what Westerners perceive as inhumane or unethical is merely a difference between Western thought and Asian, specifically Chinese, thought. In Chinese culture “respect for life is conditional”—based primarily on status, which is probably why many injustices affect farmers, and migrant workers (Koehn and Leung, 485). The government built the Daxihaizi Dam over the Traim River and relocated the Caohu people living there to another area. Just a few years after the dam was completed, the river beyond the dam is all but dried up and what little water there is is too polluted to use even for agriculture. In China too, material wealth is essential to a person to maintain their dignity, which may be why China is industrializing at such an alarming rate. Industry means wealth and wealth brings power and status, which in turn bring dignity. What Westerners may perceive as an injustice may just be a way of life; to intervene and impose western standards may actually do more harm than good. For example, reducing a Chinese factory worker’s week from sixty hours to forty may mean that he can no longer provide for himself or his family because workers are often paid piecemeal. While some Chinese ethical or medicinal practices may be better understood by this explanation, there are others which may never be. For instance, when there is a disaster or accident that causes loss of life, such as the AIDS epidemic in the Henan province, the government often does little to help because “there are too many Chinese people” (Gifford, 191).
 * Introduction**: **Ethical Issues in China**


 * Government Corruption**

Title: Chinese Fairytale Artist: Tang Zhigang Date: 2004 Dimensions: 150 X 80cm Medium: Oil on Canvas
 * Artwork Identification**

The problem of [|political corruption] is very prevalent in all areas of the Chinese Communist Party government. By their own admission, corrupt governmental officials are known to use numerous methods of personal gain such as [|bribery, racketeering, graft, extortion, smuggling,] and [|nepotism]. The rural expanses of the country seem to offer district officials even more room to practice these ventures than the big cities. “In some cases district heads are found to have built up their own mini-feifdoms, imposing illegal taxes on local farmers and business out of sight of Beijing’s gaze.” (Havely, 2000) In 2008 prosecuters from Beijing investigated over 11,000 people for corruption. In 2009, almost 9,500 of those investigated were found guilty of misusing power mainly by bribery.

The highest officials are sacrificing Communist Party members with lower seniority to save face and for the so called good of the CCP. If attention is drawn away from the senior officials corruption can continue. The party members with less seniority are being accused, put to trial, and convicted of various forms of corruption. These trials usually end with the party member being sentenced to the death penalty. The trials are usually kept secret from the public until after the sentence has been issued. In june 2008,Beijing officials declared a zero-tolerance ant-corruption policy. Many feel this is necessary for "the popularity and survival of the communist party." (AsiaNewsit.com, 2009) Currently, corruption is the number one enemy of China's communist government.

//Chinese Fairytale// by Tang Zhigang shows young children dressed up like Communist Party members. Three young party members are standing by and watching as another party member gets beaten and attacked. Seemingly, they are watching without much emotion. None of the children appear to be intervening. This could be the artist’s way of showing anger towards the society in which he lives. Bad things happen to people and no one has the courage to stand up for the ones who are being attacked. Many artists who lived through the Cultural Revolution have suppressed anger towards society for letting so many awful things to happen without trying to stop it.

Bioethics
Title: Block SARS, Defend the Homeland Artist: Zhao Bandi Date: 2003 Dimensions: 96cmx119cm Medium: Photograph
 * Artwork Identification**

Chinese medical morality practices are “an unbalanced combination of Maoism-[|Marxism]-[|Leninism], [|Confucianism], Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism” (Nie, 247). It stands to reason then that Chinese medical practices may not always be in accord with Western ethics. For example, in Chinese medical practice, it is typical not to tell a patient directly about a terminal medical condition as it may do more harm than good. Instead, a doctor will tell close family members and let the family decide whether or not to tell the patient. American bioethics ideas appeared in China after the [|Cultural Revolution] ended in the late 1970s. Chinese scientists and researchers seem accepting of Western bioethical standards and concerns. There are however, a few problems: the quality and effect of some academic researches need to be improved, facilities in western China are not as developed, and the Chinese healthcare system still needs to be improved and regulated. There is also the issue of maintaining the “Chineseness” of Chinese medical practices. Researchers and scholars are concerned about medical practices becoming too Westernized. They recognize the importance of the issue of bioethics but want to maintain Chinese traditions.  //Block SARS, Defend the Homeland// by Zhao Bandi shows a man and toy panda who have barricaded themselves against SARS. They sit back to back behind a pile of sandbags, armed with toy guns, and medical masks covering thier mouths. Zhao Bandi adds humor to authoritarian government run campaigns warning against drug use, guarding against SARS infection, encouraging safe-sex and personal hygiene practices by using a plush toy panda. While his images seem to encourage these modern propaganda posters, they often subversively ridicule and rebel against the government trying to tell the people what to do.


 * Tibet**

Title: Three-Legged Buddha Artist: Zhang Huan Date: 2007 Dimension: 339 x 504 x 272 inches Medium: Steel and Copper
 * Artwork Identification**

In 1951, The People's Republic of China (PRC) forcibly took control of Tibet, which led to an attempted Tibetan uprising against China in 1959 (China Terrorizes, 2008). Since the time of the takeover, the Chinese government has made efforts to repress the Tibetan culture by destroying thousands of Buddhist monasteries and arresting Buddhist monks and nuns. The Han Chinese population is pushed in great numbers into Tibetan areas, diluting the traditions and cultures of the Tibetan people into near extinction (Dalai Lama, 2008). Tibetans are often beaten and abused during arrest despite the fact that the protests are peaceful and the protesters rarely fight back during their arrest. Even after securely detaining the so-called offenders, the Chinese authorities will continue to bludgeon their incapacitated captives. When in captivity, these prisoners are tortured, raped, and kept from sufficient medical treatment. They remain in captivity for exorbitant amounts of time and under false accusations, for which the authorities try to extract confessions without any presence of lawyers and through extreme abuse (Freetibet.org). The Chinese government has gone to great lengths in order to keep the stories of Tibetan abuse out of the media. Any person caught attempting to reveal any information, is considered dangerous and formally accused of trying to leak important government information, punishable by long prison terms (Human Rights Situation, 2008). Foreigners are barred from entering the area all together. Fortunately, technological advances have made it easier to reveal the abuses the Tibetan people experience.

In 2008, China hosted the [|Beijing Olympics]. The year also marked the the 49th anniversary of the original Tibetan uprising, which provided a catalyst for the spontaneous spread of protests in the region during the Olympics. Chinese authorities responded violently. Videos and photographs of the incident reached the outside world, through cell phones and the Internet, faster than the government could stop them. One [|video] in particular shows protesters tied up, half-conscious, being dragged across the asphalt and repeatedly beaten with billy clubs by authorities (Human Rights Situation, 2008). Other video evidence shows a protester beaten, burned with cigarettes, and left in jail with poor medical treatment. His wounds festered, eating away at massive amounts of his flesh. By the time he was released and given proper medical attention, his level of infection and overall deterioration in health was too severe to be reversed, and he died an agonizing death (Human Rights Situation, 2008). Roughly 200 Tibetans died that day, with thousands more imprisoned and many missing altogether (Human Rights Situation, 2008). With this proof of human rights violation, China could no longer deny the behavior, but they don't seem to be making any improvements either. The Tibetan protests ended in such a human rights catastrophe, that China’s new and improved human rights status seemed like a joke.

The environment has become so full of fear that the [|Dalai Lama], the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, described it as “hell on earth” (Wong, 2009). As a direct response to the destruction of religious architecture and sculpture, and the overall human rights crisis in Tibet, artists have created works in reaction to the situation. Chinese artist Zhang Huan began making sculptures such as the //Three-Legged Buddha//. This massive work of copper and steel builds upon a found torso of a destroyed sculpture of Buddha in Tibet (Holmes, 2008). The artist used this relic as inspiration for the completed piece and incorporated it into the work. Finished, Zhang Huan gives the viewer a headless, three-legged figure resting its third foot upon the top of a partial head. This represents a power struggle that describes China’s history. It also suggests a mythical figure with a third leg that the artist calls, “the origin of life” pressing down upon someone rising from hell (Holmes, 2008). Essentially, the work uses contemporary Chinese issues as symbols of good versus evil; it is unfortunate that this so easily applies. Other Chinese artists are creating similar work, Zhang Huan is using his artistic ability to comment on the inhumanity and abuse experienced by Tibetans, at the hands of the Chinese government.

TItle:  Yi Fan No.2 Artist: Zhang Peng Date: 2006 Dimensions:120x120 cm Medium:Photograph
 * Abortion and Sex Ratio**
 * Artwork Identification**

One of the countless aftershocks of the [|Cultural Revolution], was the establishing of the one-child rule in China. Due to China’s gross overpopulation, the government implemented a series of reforms over the past three decades to try and combat the rising population. In the first set of reforms, in the late 1970’s early 1980’s, women were giving mandatory IUD insertions after one child, and couples with two children were forced to be completely sterilized (Johansson, 87). As in many cultures, the Chinese in general value the birth of a son more than a daughter. During this first phase of the [|one-child policy], reported abortions reached 14 million (87). In the late 1980’s, families in rural areas were permitted to have a second child, if their first child born was female. With new medical technology available, women could determine the sex of their baby early on in pregnancy, which caused many aborted female fetuses. Occurrences of infanticide, late-term abortion, and abandonment of female babies were common.

By 1995, statistics show there were 27 abortions per 100 pregnancies in China (88). In recent years, the preference for boys over girls in China, has led to a massive shortage of women in China. According to Zheijing University Professors, Wei Xing Zhu and Li Lu, and University College London's Professor Therese Hesketh, "This large reduction in the fertility rate, whether by choice or by coercion, has inevitably increased the male to female ratio because of the preference for sons and the availability of contraception and sex selective measures” (Timeinmoments.com, 1). What they are referring to when they say “coercion,” is government established reform groups, who force women to have abortions if they already have one child. This is an under reported issue in China, due to the government’s control over its media and borders, but is a most apparent and concerning issue.

The consequences of this situation are severe. The discrimination against girls, has led to many children being abandoned, sold on the black market, or even killed by their own families. This problem will see long term effects socially, because the ratio of women to men is unbalanced, which will changed family structure, traditions, and could have severe psychological problems for the majority of China’s people (Johansson, 89). The “coercion” by some government reformist groups, that force women to have abortions, is damaging in that it installs fear in society, primarily in the rural areas (TImeinmoments.com, 1).

Artist [|Zhang Peng], confronts some of these issues in his, //Yi Fan No.2//. This staged photograph shows a field of dolls that look like young Chinese girls, with their heads covered in plastic bags. All of the dolls are identical, zombie-like, and vacant looking. Some of the dolls have plastic bags tied over their heads, some are tying the bags over other dolls heads, and some are putting the plastic bags over their own heads. He portrays the dolls this way to reference dislocation the China has in its general feelings that girls are dispensable. Some of the dolls put plastic bags on other dolls heads, which indicates the loss of worthiness that women themselves have developed by choosing to abort their female babies. It is not just men who are creating this sexism, and in some ways genocide, it is the society as a whole.

Art can showcase the zietgiest of a generation, and this generation of Chinese are searching for their identity, in a world that they are much a part of now. China has never been in this much control, on a global spectrum, and the art coming out of China reflects this confusion of identity. China is becoming great and powerful, but the people of China are still oppressed. Contemporary Chinese art generally contains an element of the sick and twisted, because the mentality of its people is different than that of the west. Events that westerners would consider horrific are a part of daily life in parts of China. This is a country that has to deal with the constant appearance of horrific disease, an oppressive government, overpopulation, pollution, coerced abortions by government reformists all brought on by China's hyperspeed modernization.
 * Conclusion**

Bernama (2009) [] //Nearly 10,000 prosecuted for corruption in China -//a short article about prosecuted village heads in rural areas of China
 * Resources**

Berque, Augustin. (2005). A Basis for Environmental Ethics, //Diogenes//, 207, 3-12. DOI: 10.1177/0392192105055165. -an article relating the global issues of environmental ethics siting one example in China.

//China Terrorizes Tibet//. The New York Times. March 18, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/opinion/18tue3.html?_r=1. -article about the tragedy that occurred during the protests in 2008

//China to curb nepotism by investigating cadres' families//( 2007, January 23) []

Dalai Lama. //An Appeal to the Chinese People//. The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. March 27, 2008. http://www.dalailama.com/news.220.htm. -Dalai Lama’s statement regarding his hopes for common ground with the People’s Republic of China

Gifford, Robert. (2007). //China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power//. London: Bloomsbury. -a book relating the first hand accounts of a British news correspondent during his journey across China

//Government Officials Arrested: Beijing Powerless Against Corruption//( 2009, April 20) [] //-//an article about China's Beijing government trying to curb corrruption

Havely, Joe (2000, September 13). Corruption: End of China's Party? //BBC News.// Retrieved from [] A website that focuses on issues from the UK as well as the rest of the world.,

Holmes, Pamela. //Beyond Buddha, A Conversation with Zhang Huan//. Zhang Huan Studio. ZhangHuan.com. 2008. http://www.zhanghuan.com/ShowText.asp?id=36&sClassID=3. -interview with the artist, primarily discussing the sculpture the //Three-Legged Buddha//

//Human Rights//. Free Tibet Campaign. FreeTibet.org. http://www.freetibet.org/about/human-rights. -website dedicated to the campaign for the rights of the Tibetan people

//Human Rights Situation in Tibet: Annual Report 2008//. Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy(TCHRD). 2008. http://www.tchrd.org/publications/annual_reports/2008/ar_2008.pdf. -an annual report of the human rights situation in Tibet, created by an organization founded by Tibetans in exile in india

Johansson, A., & Lofstedt, P., & Shusheng, L. (2004). Abortion Patterns and Reported Sex Ratios at Birth in Rural Yunnan, China. //Reproductive Health Matters//, 12(24), 86-95. Retrieved from JSTOR database. -An article that explores the abortion rates and sex ratios through a study of the Yunnan Province in China.

Jing-Bao Nie (2000, September). The Plurality of Chinese and American Medical Moralities: Toward an Interpretive Cross-Cultural Bioethics, //Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal//, 10(3), 239-260. Retrieved 15 Apr 2009. - an article that explains and attempts to rectify the differences between Western and Chinese bioethics

Koehn, Daryl; Leung, Alicia (2008, December). Dignity in Western versus in Chinese Cultures: Theoretical Overview and Practical Illustrations, //Business and Society Review//, 113(4), 477-504. Retrieved from __General OneFile__ Gale. EMU. 15 Apr 2009 -an article explaining the fundamental differences between Western dignity and ethics and Chinese dignity and ethics.

Li En-Chang (2008). Bioethics in China, //Bioethics//, 22(8), 448-454. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8519.2008.00643.x -an article describing the development of bioethics in China and the issues involved

Lund-Thomsen, Peter (2008, November). The Global Sourcing and Codes of Conduct Debate: Five Myths and Five Recommendations, //Development and Change//, 39(6), 1005-1018. Retrieved from Academic OneFile 15 Apr 2009. -an article explaining the problem of integrating Western standards into Eastern industry.

Powazek, D. (2009, April 12). // Sex Ratio in //// China //// as Boys Outnumber Girls by 35 million .// // Message posted to // []. (2009, April 12). Moments In Time Blog. -A blog discussing the current alarming sex ratio in China.

Wong, Edward. //Dalai Lama Says China has Turned Tibet into a “Hell on Earth.”// The New York Times. March 11, 2009. []. -article about the current situation in Tibet, referencing the Dalai Lama’s own words