纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英习近平为中国女性设立的目标结婚生子照顾家庭

At China’s top political gathering for women, it was mostly a man who was seen and heard.

在中国最高级别的女性政治会议上，人们看到和听到的大多是男性。

Xi Jinping, the country’s leader, sat center stage at the opening of the National Women’s Congress. A close-up of him at the Congress was splashed on the front page of the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper the next day. From the head of a large round table, Mr. Xi lectured female delegates at the closing meeting on Monday.

国家领导人习近平坐在中国妇女第十三次全国代表大会开幕式主席台的正中央。中共党报第二天在头版刊登了他出席妇女大会的特写照片。大会本周一闭幕时，习近平坐在大型圆桌的上首对全国妇联新一届领导班子成员发表讲话。

“We should actively foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture,” he said in a speech, adding that it was the role of party officials to influence young people’s views on “love and marriage, fertility and family.”

“要积极培育新型婚育文化”，习近平在讲话中说。他还表示，中共官员有责任“加强对年轻人婚恋观、生育观、家庭观的引导”。

The Women’s Congress, held every five years, has long been a forum for the ruling Communist Party to demonstrate its commitment to women. The gesture, while mostly symbolic, has taken on more significance than ever this year, the first time in two decades that there are no women in the party’s executive policymaking body.

每五年举行一次的中国妇女全国代表大会长期以来一直是执政的中共向女性展示承诺的平台。虽然这个姿态主要是象征性的，但今年比以往任何时候都更能说明问题，中共的最高权力机构中20年来第一次没有女性成员。

What was notable was how officials downplayed gender equality. They focused instead on using the gathering to press Mr. Xi’s goal for Chinese women: get married and have babies. In the past, officials had touched on the role women play at home as well as in the work force. But in this year’s address, Mr. Xi made no mention of women at work.

值得注意的是官员们已在淡化性别平等问题，而是将注意力放在用妇女大会来推行习近平为中国女性设立的目标上：结婚生子。以前，官员们曾触及女性在家庭和劳动大军中的作用。但在今年的讲话中，习近平没有提职场女性。

The party desperately needs women to have more babies. China has been thrust into a demographic crisis as its birthrate has plummeted, causing its population to shrink for the first time since the 1960s. The authorities are scrambling to undo what experts have said is an irreversible trend, trying one initiative after another, such as cash handouts and tax benefits to encourage more births.

中共迫切需要女性生更多孩子。由于出生率大幅下降，中国已陷入一场人口危机，人口自20世纪60年代以来首次出现了萎缩。当局正在想方设法扭转被专家们称为不可逆转的趋势，尝试了一个又一个方案，例如为鼓励生育发放现金、提供税收优惠。

Faced with a demographic crisis, a slowing economy and what it views as a stubborn rise of feminism, the party has chosen to push women back into the home, calling on them to rear the young and care for the old. The work, in the words of Mr. Xi, is essential for “China’s path to modernization.”

在人口危机、经济发展放缓，以及当局认为的女权主义执拗增长面前，中共的选择是把女性推回家庭，叫她们养儿育女、照管老人。用习近平的话说，这项工作“是中国式现代化的重要内容”。

But to some, his vision sounds more like a worrying regression.

但对有些人来说，习近平的愿景听上去更像是令人担忧的倒退。

“Women in China have been alarmed by the trend and have been fighting back over the years,” said Yaqiu Wang, the research director for Hong Kong, China and Taiwan at Freedom House, a nonprofit based in Washington. “Many women in China are empowered and united in their fight against the twin repressions in China: the authoritarian government and the patriarchal society.”

“这个趋势已让中国女性担心，她们多年来一直在奋力抵抗，”华盛顿非营利组织“自由之家”中国、香港和台湾议题的研究主任王亚秋说。“中国的许多女性已主动掌握自己的命运，并团结起来反抗中国的双重压迫：威权主义政府和父权社会。”

The party has failed to address many concerns, viewing some issues raised by women as a direct challenge to its leadership. Bursts of discussion over sexual harassment, gender violence and discrimination are silenced on social media. Support for victims is often extinguished. Feminists and outspoken advocates have been jailed, and a #MeToo movement that briefly flourished in 2018 has been pushed underground.

中共没能解决女性担心的许多问题，还把女性提出的一些问题视为对中共领导层的直接挑战。中国社交媒体上有关性骚扰、性暴力和性歧视的激烈讨论遭到政府的噤声。援助受害者的做法常常被压制。女权主义者和直言不讳地倡导女性利益的人已被监禁，曾在2018年取得短暂繁荣的“我也是”运动已被迫进入地下。

The language used by senior officials at the Women’s Congress in Beijing was another glimpse of how the party sees the role of women. Mr. Xi has pushed a hard-line agenda to advance his vision of a stronger China that includes a revival of what he considers traditional values. At the congress, he encouraged female leaders to “tell good stories about family traditions and guide women to play their unique role in carrying forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation.”

高级官员在北京举行的全国妇女代表大会上使用的语言又一次让人们了解中共如何看待女性的角色。习近平在推动一个强硬议程，以推进他对更强大中国的愿景，其中包括让他眼里的传统价值观再度盛行。他在妇女大会上鼓励女领导们“讲好家风故事，引导广大妇女发挥在弘扬中华民族传统美德、树立良好家风方面的独特作用”。

In a departure from a two-decade tradition, Mr. Xi’s deputy, Ding Xuexiang, failed to mention in an opening address at the congress a standard phrase: that gender equality is a basic national policy.

习近平的副手丁薛祥在妇女大会上致开幕辞时打破了20年来的传统，没有提及男女平等是促进社会发展的一项基本国策这个标准说法。

And even as Mr. Xi did nod to gender equality, he spent most of his speech elaborating on family, parenting and fertility.

尽管习近平确实认可性别平等的概念，但他把讲话的大部分篇幅花在详尽阐述家庭、抚养和生育子女上。

This stands in stark contrast to a decade ago, when top officials stressed the importance of both equality and women’s self-realization, said Hanzhang Liu, a political studies professor at Pitzer College who has examined speeches by senior officials at several congresses over the past two decades.

这与十年前形成鲜明的对比，当时高层官员强调的是男女平等、女性自我实现的重要性，匹泽学院研究中国政治的教授刘涵章（音）说。她仔细研究过高级官员在过去20年的历届妇女大会上的讲话。

“Women’s work was once about women for themselves, women for women’s sake,” said Ms. Liu, referring to the party’s jargon for gender issues. “Now what they are saying is that women’s rightful place in society — where they can do the most meaningful work — is at home with the family.”

“妇女工作曾是为了妇女本身，是女性为女性的工作，”刘涵章说。“妇女工作”是中共对性别问题使用的说法。“现在他们说，女性在社会中的应有位置是待在家里，她们能做的最有意义工作是照顾家庭。”

But the Women’s Congress is not where the battle for their rights is being fought. Organized by the All-China Women’s Federation, a group that works to promote party policies and is funded by the party, it tends to represent the political status quo.

但妇女大会并不是为女性争取权利的地方。它由中华全国妇女联合会组织召开，这是一个致力于宣传中共政策、由中共提供资金的团体，代表的往往是政治现状。

As a result, much of the discussion this year was focused on encouraging party leaders to promote traditional family values. The language reveals the calculus that officials have made: that extolling the virtues of China’s past will inspire women to focus on family. This, they hope, will help with demographics.

因此，今年会上的大部分讨论都集中在鼓励中共领导人提倡的传统家庭价值观上。这种语言揭示了官员们的盘算：颂扬中国的传统美德将激励女性关注家庭。他们希望这将对人口统计数据有帮助。

Sending women back to the home and out of the work force is also convenient at a time when China faces its biggest economic challenge in four decades and the government is under pressure to improve a social welfare system that is severely underdeveloped and unable to support a rapidly aging population.

在中国面临40年来最大的经济挑战，政府面临改善严重欠发达、无法支撑人口快速老化的社会福利体系的压力时，让女性重返家庭、退出劳动力市场，也是一种省事的做法。

“Women have always been viewed as an instrument of the state in one way or another,” said Minglu Chen, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney who studies gender and politics in China. “But now we have to think about China’s political economy. It benefits the party to emphasize women returning to the home, where they can care for children and for the elderly.”

“女性一直被视为国家用来达到这样或那样的目的的工具，”悉尼大学研究中国性别与政治的高级讲师陈明露（音）说。“但现在我们不得不考虑中国的政治经济。强调妇女重返家庭，让她们能照顾孩子和老人，对中共有好处。”

The trend of fewer marriages and births has been years in the making, however, and Mr. Xi is goading women into a role they have long rejected. Many young and educated women in China’s biggest cities have relished their financial independence and are wary of marriage because of the pressure on them to have children and give it all up.

但是，婚姻和生育减少的趋势有一个多年的形成过程，而习近平正在驱使女性承担她们早已拒绝的角色。中国大城市的许多年轻、受过高等教育的女性从经济独立中获得乐趣，对婚姻持谨慎态度，因为她们结婚后面临着生孩子和放弃经济独立的压力。

Young adults have expressed ambivalence about marrying and settling down, and they worry about the future as the economy slumps and unemployment soars. China is also among the most expensive countries in the world to raise a child.

年轻人对结婚和过安定日子表现出矛盾的态度。由于经济疲软、失业率高涨，他们对未来感到担忧。中国也是世界上抚养孩子成本最高的国家之一。

For all of Mr. Xi’s calls on women to take up the cause of having babies, the party’s efforts are unlikely to bolster the birthrate enough to reverse the country’s population decline. That is, unless it is willing to resort to more punitive measures to disadvantage or marginalize women who choose not to have children.

尽管习近平多次呼吁女性把生孩子作为己任，但中共的努力不太可能将出生率提高到足以扭转中国人口下降趋势的水平。除非中共愿意采取更多惩罚措施，让选择不生孩子的女性处于不利地位或被边缘化。

While unlikely, it is something that Fubing Su, a political science professor at Vassar College, said was not completely out of the question. During the “one-child” policy, the party resorted to fines, forced abortions and sterilizations in an attempt to slow population growth for decades until it ended the restrictions in 2015.

虽然这种可能性不大，但也并非完全不可能，瓦萨学院政治学教授苏福兵（音）说。在中国实行“独生子女”政策期间，中共为试图减缓人口增长，采取了罚款、强制堕胎和绝育等手段，长达数十年时间，直到2015年才结束该政策。

“If the party could sacrifice women’s body and birth rights for its one-child policy,” said Mr. Su, “they could impose their will on women again.

“如果说中共能够为独生子女政策牺牲女性的身体和生育权，中共也可能再次将其意志强加于女性，”苏先生说。