>From: "Nathan Newman" <nathan at newman.org>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: <lbo-Talk at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: China Fascism weeds out the "unfit" from higher education
>Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 08:38:15 -0400
>
>If this article's info on China's eugenics is accurate, China is moving
>from
>merely authoritarian capitalistism towards full-out fascism. Folks can
>dismiss this as enemy propaganda - which it may be - but given well
>documented reports of union leaders being sent to mental hospitals, the
>crushing of heterodox religionists, and the authoritian promotion of
>capitalists allied to the party hierarchy, it starts to look like any word
>other than "fascism" would be hard to apply to China
> -- Nathan Newman
>
>Only the 'medically fit' can go to college, China decrees
>Source: The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.)
>Published: 06/24/2001 Author: Damien McElroy
>
>STUDENTS wanting to attend university in China next term will have to pass
>stringent new examinations first: not to test their ability for the courses
>that they want to sit but to judge their medical suitability and physical
>fitness.
>
>Teenagers whose legs differ in length by more than two inches or whose
>spine
>is curved by 1.5 inches will be disbarred from courses as varied as
>geology,
>law and civil engineering. Anyone with colour blindness will be banned from
>sitting business administration courses, while those unfortunates diagnosed
>with cancer, epilepsy, high blood pressure or "mental disorder" will be
>prevented from enrolling altogether.
>
>The new medical examinations are an attempt to "engineer" a stronger,
>healthier population free from physical and mental handicaps. Last week,
>millions of teenagers across the country lined up at hospitals to be
>certified by a doctor as fit enough to make the leap from school to
>university.
>
>The new rules have forced many able and successful students who suffer from
>physical ailments to pull out of the education system in despair. Next
>month, the traditional Chinese period for entrance exams, is now being
>called "Black July" by disabled groups. The Chinese higher educational
>system is renowned for crushing the hopes and ambitions of more students
>than it elevates. There are university places for only about five per cent
>o
>f the student population, although some 20 per cent apply.
>
>The Chinese authorities claim that, in view of the level of competition to
>get into college, the system should weed out imperfect applicants. A doctor
>involved in administering the medical examinations said the physically
>impaired were generally unable to cope with the demands of the education
>system. "How could they have made it to secondary school?" she said. "How
>can they study?"
>
>Education officials have admitted that the new rules are designed to
>prevent
>the disabled from "clogging up" Chinese universities. "These days, no
>college is willing to take a disabled student," one university head told a
>Chinese newspaper. He said that allowing one disabled student in "only
>encourages more to apply".
>
>"Once a college gets one, the media will publicise it, and then there will
>be more disabled students applying next year," he said. "Of course, the
>school should bear certain social responsibilities, but it's not a welfare
>organisation."
>
>Even employees of the Chinese Disabled Persons' Federation concede that
>such
>viewpoints are understandable. "Universities have little experience in
>dealing with the disabled and hence have worries about educating them,"
>said
>Li Dongmei, a deputy director of the education division of the federation.
>"Many do not have the facilities."
>
>There have been few voices raised to object to restricting university entry
>to hale students. Chinese law requires the government to work actively to
>"raise the quality of the Chinese people". There is a continuing debate
>raging about how far the country should go towards removing the mentally
>deficient from the population.
>
>There has been widespread acceptance of the maternal and infant health care
>law, a notorious piece of legislation that instructs citizens to avoid
>having "idiotic" children. The prevention of new births of an inferior
>quality has become a national objective that involves invidious controls on
>reproduction.
>
>A nationwide screening process assesses the likelihood that pregnant women
>will give birth to retarded children. If medical tests determine that the
>risk is too high, officials will order an abortion that will often be
>forced
>on the pregnant woman. Li Peng, the former prime minister and the man
>behind
>the Tiananmen massacre, is known to be an enthusiastic proponent of the
>drive to limit the "inferior stock" among the country's 1.3 billion people.
>
>The need to rid the Chinese population of its weakest links has been
>described by foreign scientists as taking up where Adolf Hitler's eugenics
>policies left off. But scientists in China claim that measures are needed
>to
>curb irresponsible breeding by the poorly educated or impoverished
>residents
>of the hinterland.
>
>Whole villages, said Qiu Renzong, a professor of bioethics at the Chinese
>Academy of Social Sciences, are populated by mentally retarded people who
>are the product of inbreeding or iodine deficiency, which is a problem
>across the vast North China plain, home to 400 million people.
>
>
>Nathan Newman
>nathan at newman.org
>http://www.nathannewman.org
>
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