Did Hillary Clinton accidentally insult Chinese women?

Hillary Clinton recently said something I found rather strange.

Pressed in a CNN interview this week for specific examples of foreign policy experience that has prepared her for an international crisis, Clinton claimed that she “helped to bring peace” to Northern Ireland and negotiated with Macedonia to open up its border to refugees from Kosovo. She also cited “standing up” to the Chinese government on women’s rights and a one-day visit she made to Bosnia following the Dayton peace accords.

Now I’m not saying that Chinese women have no problems, but the position of women here is probably better than anywhere else with similar economic stature. Partially due to traditional Chinese cultural things, and partially due to the Communist government being somewhat forward looking in this regard - though shortsightedly so. Roberta Lipson in my interview with her for our just published magazine mentioned that in the 80s everyone thought it was great that women could get tons of time off for pregnancy, and even menstruation, but noted that made it next to impossible for women to get good jobs.

Anyways what exactly Hillary “stood up for” I’m not entirely sure. Women in China seem quite capable of standing up for themselves, as any American who has gone up against Wu Yi can tell you.

This reminds me of a conversation we had around the office one day. We were talking about white guys who had a thing for asian women, and the “submissive” stereotype a lot of these attractions are based in, which led our former editor Gwynn to shout:

“Oh my God, could you imagine some guy going to China thinking he was going to find a submissive women! Poor man.”

Addendum: For our readers who don’t know about inter-asian sexual stereotypes. The Mother of my Korean-American ex-girlfriend used to say that Japanese women were too submissive, Chinese woman too dominating, and Korean women… of course… were just perfect. Though I’m sure Chinese and Japanese say different, its somewhat reflected in their labor laws, Japan has a number of laws making it easier for women to stay home, and making part-time labor inconvenient (for instance a spouse can get health care coverage if she is not working but not if she is working part-time). Whereas the Chinese Government has for a long time advocated full employment (with Grandparents often taking care of the kids). Pornography laws paint a similar picture, the industry being illegal in China, and rampant in Japan.