INFLUX OF ACTIVIST WOMEN IGNITES FEARS IN CHINA

by Tony Walker

(The Financial Times, 24 August 1995)

The story may be apocryphal, but among many curious

reports circulating in Beijing about preparations for a forthcoming international women's gathering is the one that police have been issued with white bed sheets to shield potential streakers from the gaze of the Chinese masses. Among the authorities' fears, it is said, is that radical women among approximately 30,000 delegates to a forum of non-governmental organisations will stage protests by removing their clothes in the streets of Beijing, or worse, on the city's central Tiananmen square - hallowed ground for China's communist rulers.

"They seem obsessed with nudity as a form of protest," said a western official who has been liaising closely with China's Women's Federation and other official organisations involved in arrangements for the NGO, or unofficial, forum which begins late this month as a curtain-raiser to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in September.

While the spectre of women parading nude through the streets of Beijing may remain a figment of the imagination of Chinese officials, there is also no doubt that the influx of tens of thousands of activist women promoting a multitude of causes from lesbian rights to Tibet is turning into something of a nightmare for Beijing.

In the weeks leading up to the NGO forum, the Chinese have had difficulty, it seems, coming to terms with the complex requirements for a gathering that by its nature will be freewheeling. There is nothing that makes Chinese officials more nervous than the unexpected.

Caught between a desire to appear welcoming to women of many different nationalities and fear of disorder, the authorities have dithered. Invitations to delegates have dribbled out, visas have been promised and have not materialised, and accommodation arrangements remain up in the air, to the frustration of many.

Western officials whose task it has been to make representations to the authorities on behalf of their nationals are despairing. "The question of visas is extremely problematic... as with many things here, the goalposts move all the time," said one exasperated official.

While China insists, as the foreign ministry spokesman repeated this week, that "only a few" applicants for visas had been refused, evidence is accumulating that a fairly large number have been turned down, including representatives of human rights groups like Amnesty International.

Arguments about China's somewhat heavy-handed approach to weeding out those whom it regards as "unfriendly" seems likely to cloud early proceedings of the NGO forum which is being held in "quarantine" at a dusty township 90 minutes from Beijing.

Exactly why it was necessary to hold the NGO meeting at Huairou is one of those questions that Chinese officials are adept at avoiding, but cynics suggest it is because the town is far fromthe centre of Be~, and delegates there can be "contained".

Indeed, an open field is reported to have been set aside for protests, with the stern message that demonstrations elsewhere in the city will not be tolerated. The quick arrest and deportation of Greenpeace protesters on Tiananmen square earlier this month may be regarded as a warning to women activists who will be streaming into the Chinese capital from early next week.

Delegates, among the approximately 10,000 expected actually to live at Huairou in primitive accommodation, including makeshift shelters, are also likely to be unhappy about the "boarding school rules" that are being mooted. Moves are afoot, it is said, to ban alcohol from the area and to impose an, 11pm curfew.

"If this is true, it's outrageous," said the western official. "They're proposing to treat grown-up women as children and denegerates."

While Beijing might be faulted for somewhat chaotic preparations, it has spared little effort in seeking to try to ensure that the city presents its best face. Official newspapers have urged the citizenry to be more polite, street pedlars have been told to remove their wares from footpaths, and the Beijing government has issued a regulation on Maintaining Neatness of Street-Facing Balconies: "As the women's conference approaches, no work unit or individual should hang indecent things on their balconies," says the announcement.

In an effort to alleviate congestion on Beijing's roads and also to reduce the number of car accidents, the authorities have banned drivers with probationary licences from the streets. Only "old and experienced drivers" are allowed to drive during this period.

At the same time, China has launched a propaganda campaign to persuade the world that women in Chinese society are cherished and that China's controversial familyplanning programmes are both necessary and well-managed. This is just one of a multitude of sensitive issues that Chinese officials will be obliged to deal with in the next few weeks.

It would be surprising if they were not already regretting their decision to bid for the right to stage the women's gathering. This will not simply be a case of east meeting west, but of different worlds colliding.