International Law

Racial Preferences in China: Not Just an American Issue

By Stan

Lots of online chatter this week regarding the plight of a Chongqing student:

In the latest development of a case that has received quite a bit of attention over the past week, the admissions office of Peking University announced yesterday that it would not accept the application of He Chuanyang to study at the university’s Guanghua School of Management.

He had the highest score on the college entrance exam, the gaokao, in Chongqing this year. However, along with thirty other Chongqing students, He was found to have faked his ethnic minority status, which awards 20 bonus points on the gaokao. [Danwei]

If you’re into U.S. politics or constitutional law, you might find this story interesting, seeing as how it is being discussed contemporaneously with the ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Ricci v. DeStefano. Ricci involved the promotion process used by the city of New Haven, Connecticut and to the extent racial details of applicants could be used — I am oversimplifying, the facts of the case were a bit complicated.

China’s racial preferences arguably have little to do with past discrimination (as compared to the situation in the U.S.) and were put into place to promote the government’s image as an egalitarian institution. Also unlike the U.S., the system here is not controversial and will probably not be subject to any legal challenges in the near term.

This is somewhat surprising if there really are a lot of kids out there who are faking their ethnic status to get a leg up on university admissions. The system is so incredibly competitive here, given the numbers involved, that one would expect some discouraged kids to launch legal challenges. They would lose the cases, but that never stopped a disgruntled parent before.

Something to look forward to, perhaps. If you’re into contentious litigation, that is.

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Full post as published by China Hearsay on July 03, 2009 (boomark / email).