X Close

China’s war against the family

Uighur women protest in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Credit: Getty

October 19, 2020 - 5:00pm

The nuclear family is often portrayed as oppressive. And yet when people are free to choose their living arrangements, what most of us still go for is… the nuclear family. We don’t always succeed, but there’s no doubt as to the ideal. In liberal societies there is a greater acceptance of variations, like one-parent families and same-sex couples; but whatever its form the model of a private home in which parents are the primary caregivers to their children remains the freely-chosen norm.

Moreover, there are many examples in which the nuclear family is not the source of oppression, but its target.

For those who would instrumentalise their fellow human beings, families have always been an inconvenience. Just look at the history of slavery and its callous disregard for the ties of partnership and parenthood.

For the early communists, the traditional family was a vestige of the old order, an obstacle to the power of the state and a refuge for bourgeois notions of privacy. In practice though, regimes like the Soviet Union found that phasing out this most basic of social support structures was more easily theorised about than implemented.

As governments of all kinds know, substituting for one parent is expensive, but the cost of replacing both is prohibitive. It’s not that collective child rearing is unheard of, but it is largely confined to the care system, British public schools, hippy communes and the pages of Brave New World.

Certainly, the totalitarian dream of complete collectivisation has never been realised. At least, not until now. A disturbing report in The Economist reveals a deeply ominous trend in the Chinese province of Xinjiang. In the last few years there’s been a massive expansion in boarding school dormitories. While the rate of growth is low and declining in the rest of China it is accelerating in Xinjiang. That’s because the mass internment of Uyghur adults is effectively orphaning Uyghur children and thus leaving them as wards of the Chinese state.

The Communist authorities are attacking the fundamentals of family life in other ways too. For instance, there’s the abusive practice of billeting men from the majority Han Chinese majority in Uyghur homes. And, of course, there’s that old PRC favourite — forced abortion and sterilisation. The impact of this system of oppression can be seen in the rapid collapse in Uyghur birth rates.

China’s family policy in Xinjiang will come at a terrible cost, both financial and human. But then its purpose is not to create a new society, but to destroy an old one.


Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.

peterfranklin_

Join the discussion


Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber


To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.

Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.

Subscribe
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

10 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Derek M
Derek M
3 years ago

They did this in Tibet and Inner Mongolia before Xinjiang

namelsss me
namelsss me
3 years ago
Reply to  Derek M

And are still doing that sort of thing in Inner Mongolia. Recall the recent story about the exhibition on the Mongol Empire at Nantes, arranged by the French in cooperation with the inner mongolian provincial government. The CCP intervened and insisted on the right to vet the catalogue and all the blurbs, and that the exhibtion should not mention Genghis Khan! The French cancelled the exhibition.

cft-rlucas
cft-rlucas
3 years ago

Comments that do not condemn what the Chinese Government are doing because it is ok to intern those with different beliefs signal very clearly that they would then, agree to any government taking over the welfare and full time care of children who come from backgrounds not thought worthy,or doing it in an acceptable state way.

This looks like the first steps by those who do not want to understand, although fear what the real differences are or care to find out – a dangerous situation and one that is growing by those who seemingly feel superior to others and wish to keep a status quo hich is changing anyway, day by day.

So sad that people cannot let others live as they wish, whilst doing no harm to others and being persecuted for their very existence.

Fraser Bailey
Fraser Bailey
3 years ago

An utterly misleading headline more suited to the Guardian. We have known for some time that the Chinese are doing this to the Uighurs. If they were doing it to the Han Chinese it would be a story.

Brigitte Lechner
Brigitte Lechner
3 years ago

Wonder if they learnt from us; Australia comes to mind.

Eddie Ventley
Eddie Ventley
3 years ago

I believe the CCP has always acted to control its own Han population growth, for their own reasons (eg one-child policy).
How do you draw a parallel with Australia? Being a long-time resident, and abhorring abortion, I can only conclude it is a mass-belief of life-goal selfishness when it comes to individuals willingly wanting to control pregnancy by any means, that results in a very small rate of population growth by natural reproduction; aided and abetted by the same ‘progressive’ culture inculcated in media and academia.

Jeremy Smith
Jeremy Smith
3 years ago

Not many people care much (if at all) about Uighurs – they are Muslim after all. And if we are truly honest it is better for everyone (including the Uighurs) if Uighurs just became Chinese.

Alex S
Alex S
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeremy Smith

It would be better for everyone if the English simply became European or Muslim or why not Irish or Scottish.

Darren Parker
Darren Parker
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeremy Smith

Why should they? When did Cultural Genocide become okay? Would you accept it if it came from a far right regime? I find your comment astounding.

Sharon Peters
Sharon Peters
3 years ago
Reply to  Jeremy Smith

Why?