ABSTRACT
The marriage of convenience between a market economy and the socialist state in China has borne many strange offspring, one of which is the revived and intensified degradation of women. The abduction and sale of women as sex slaves is another abuse that has reached monstrous proportions. The population problem was regarded as just one of China's many crises, and little regard was given, even in the much-acclaimed critical study Hills of China, to how the solutions to those crises affect women. Under certain circumstances, China's new affluence actually reduces the status of women and deprives them of choice. The most telling sign of gender inequality in the new era is the way women are "challenged" in the workplace. The suffering by women of forced abortions is another important subject in writing by women. "Women's Rights—a Casualty of Reform" is a recurring theme in present-day discourse; as one article put it, "With Focus on Profits, China Revives Bias Against Women".
