One morning we drove far into the countryside to visit a brand-new police academy. We were entertained by cleverly trained dogs running through their paces, then were taken to a small fake town, like a movie set, where the police staged a sting on some phony bad guys. Members of the squadron sneaked behind walls, broke down doors and shot off blanks.
What next, am I supposed to buy a bulletproof vest?
In China the hard sell is de rigueur. On the street, sellers would chase after us and I'd find myself running away to hide. In the supermarket, I picked up a jar of face cream and instantly a salesgirl was beside me pushing a pricier item.
Mei-Xing led us away from the buying quotient of the tour and to the big sites. High on the list: Tiananmen Square. The site is the size of ninety football fields — the entire area monitored by security cameras, with stern military guards strutting in formation in front of billboards of Mao and the current Chairman. The Chinese are wary of another incident like that of the celebrated protest there in 1989.
As I wandered among thousands of people in May Day celebrations, I saw a round-faced girl of about seven, crying. Her shoulders heaved and tears ran down her cheeks. Two guards stared at her with impassive faces. She appeared to be telling one of these hard-asses she couldn't find her mommy.
A universal moment. We could have been anywhere in the world. Women tore away from their families and formed a semi-circle near the girl. These other mothers fretted for the child, but official intimidation was at play and not one of them could get close enough to whisper It'll be okay, we'll find your mommy.
Eventually another cop sauntered over, got the girl's story and corralled her toward a police van. No one ever touched her. Not once did a hand pat her shoulder, not once did anyone kneel beside her, not once was she given a reassuring hug.
There was longing in the face every woman who watched. Not once was it possible.
China has a population of 1.3 billion people and the one-child-per-family law still exists...unless you're rich and ignore the rule because you can afford to pay the fine.
William and I heard a story from a pair of British film crew members. They told us of being in a Shanghai night market where they found themselves surrounded by desperate parents shoving baby girls into their arms. Even as China spins itself into supreme modernism with architecture, technology and commerce, many ancient judgments persist — none more so than the strong preference for sons.
Boys to carry on the family name. Boys to labor in rural communities. Boys to prosper in careers and care for older parents.
Baby boys: good.
Baby girls: not so much.
Sex-selective abortions are illegal but the practice remains widespread. In China many toilets are flushable holes in the ground. They have become common depositories for baby girls. As the practice of infanticide continues, millions have been lost or deliberately abandoned in what some describe as a Holocaust of female babies.
Thus: Studies have determined that by the year 2020, forty million Chinese men will not be able to find wives.
With tears in their eyes, our friends in Shanghai pushed away from the crowd and the babies held out to them. They were trapped in a horrible Catch-22 because even if they had wanted to, they couldn't have taken an infant out of China without complicated legal reprisals.
What would I do if a baby were thrust into my arms? A terrible scenario, to be sure. And with these thoughts our bus pulled up to our next big site.
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