VZCZCXRO3439
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHGZ #0766/01 1860850
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 050850Z JUL 07
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6223
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0457
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000766 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD, WINTER, ROSENBERG, KARESH 
LABOR FOR ILAB LI ZHAO, SCHOEFFLE 
TREASURY FOR OASIA/ISA-CUSHMAN 
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN 
GENEVA FOR CHAMBERLIN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PHUM SOCI SCUL PGOV CH
SUBJECT: Gender, Age, Beauty and "Unlucky Name" Discrimination 
 
 
Ref: Beijing 4467 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: Students, officials and professors at several South 
Chinese universities lamented the failure of China's new Labor 
Contract Law (ref) to eliminate discrimination based on gender, age, 
and, of all things, beauty, the latter a requirement that usually 
includes a minimum height.  The female students in particular were 
offended by hiring practices that excluded them from "male only" 
jobs, such as middle and high school science and math teachers. 
Several students thought it nonsensical that in 2007 the Guangdong 
courts had upheld employers' rights to terminate employees with 
"unlucky" names.  Discrimination in employment, sometimes for 
reasons that totally elude us, remains common in China.   Beijing 
plans to address this through an Employment Promotion Law, currently 
under consideration by the National People's Congress, but even with 
a new law, it will take a considerable amount of education and 
persuasion to eliminate certain forms of discrimination. .  End 
Summary 
 
Gender Discrimination - Completely Absurd 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. In informal discussions with PAO, a number of students, officials 
and professors at local universities lamented the failure of the 
recently passed Labor Contract Law (ref) to outlaw discrimination 
based on gender, age and beauty.  (Note: discrimination based on 
ethnicity, gender, race and religion is already illegal under the 
1994 Labor Law.  End note.)  Our interlocutors argued that people 
should be allowed to decide for themselves what jobs were suitable - 
or not.  A number of the women stated that the designation  "male 
only" made it difficult - if not impossible - for them to find jobs 
in fields requiring a science background, as with middle and high 
school teaching jobs reserved for men at a recent job fair.  Asked 
why companies and schools adopted "male only" policies, our contacts 
offered a number of reasons, including traditional views and 
employers fear that women would leave after they had a baby.  With 
regard to the latter, women can retain their jobs for up to six 
months after giving birth; we have no statistical information on how 
many do not return. 
 
Age Discrimination - Some Merit 
------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Women believed that they were most disadvantaged by age 
discrimination.  Reportedly if a woman was too young and not yet 
married, employers would be concerned that she would leave after 
getting married and having a child.  On the other hand, if she was 
in her mid-thirties and already had a husband and child, employers 
believed that she would be taking time off to care for her family. 
Several of the professors pointed out that because they worked at a 
university they were not forced to retire at the current mandatory 
retirement age - men age 60 and women age 55.  Not unexpectedly, the 
young people we spoke with believed that a mandatory retirement age 
made sense, because if people never left there would be few jobs for 
new hires. 
 
Beauty Discrimination - Worth Considering 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. For both men and women, the most onerous aspect of the beauty 
qualification was that employers were free to stipulate a minimum 
height.  The minimum height had nothing to do with the requirements 
of the job; it was simply a component of beauty.  As for other 
elements of beauty, there was a consensus that "everyone" knew who 
was and was not good-looking.  Somewhat surprisingly, our 
interlocutors seemed to accept this type of discrimination.  One 
student stated that it was a scientific fact that students learned 
more from good-looking teachers than from those who were beauty 
challenged and therefore good-looks was a reasonable requirement.  A 
female student said that it was commonsense that an ugly person 
could not deal with the public - potential customers would not 
respond well. 
 
"Unlucky Name" Discrimination - Now that's Nonsensical 
----------------------------- ------------------------ 
 
¶5. In line with the discussions of what types of discrimination were 
rational, several business students roundly criticized the practice 
of "unlucky name" discrimination.  Recently the Guangdong courts had 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000766  002 OF 002 
 
 
upheld an employer's right to fire an employee with the name Xiong, 
one pronunciation of which means bear.  The employer believed that 
this employee had caused him to lose money in the stock market (bear 
versus bull market) and therefore had to go.  In another case, a 
long time employee was let go because his name was pei, one 
pronunciation of which means to lose money.  The students pointed 
out that in Guangdong employees had their names looked at from both 
a Mandarin and Cantonese perspective.  All agreed that these court 
rulings were nonsensical but there was no way for the fired 
employees to appeal the court's decision. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶6.  Discrimination in employment remains common in China, even based 
on attributes forbidden by the 1994 Labor Law.  In a recent 10-city 
survey published by Beijing's China University of Politics and Law, 
85 percent of respondents said discrimination existed in the 
workplace, with over 50 percent acknowledging "serious 
discrimination."  China hopes to address the discrimination problem 
(in keeping with its December 2006 ratification of ILO Convention 
111 on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation) through an 
Employment Promotion Law (EPL), which is now under consideration by 
the National People's Congress.  The EPL would expand the definition 
of discrimination to outlaw discrimination based on age and bodily 
disfigurement.  Academics are also agitating to cover such 
characteristics as place of origin and physical appearance as well. 
The prevalence today of forms of discrimination that are already 
illegal, however, suggests that even when China passes the EPL, 
creating a non-discriminatory labor market will require greater 
enforcement efforts, as well a public education campaign to change 
the thinking and practices of employers. 
 
¶7.  (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Beijing's Labor 
Attache. 
 
GOLDBERG