Policy memo: Shanghai sexual harassment regulation

March , 2020

Re: Policy adoption

Date: 7 March, 2020

The policy adoption within the legislative history of Shanghai sexual harassment regulation can be divided into two stages. First is the adoption of the proposal, which involved SMPC delegates raised the proposal during standing committee meeting in 2006 and the Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee deliberated and selected the proposal. Second is the adoption of policy alternatives, which mainly occurs during the drafting and deliberation of the bill. The decision criteria and decision-making style of the first stage were organization value and persuasion style. For second stage, deference, rules and norms, bargaining styles were prevailing.

Analysis

In the proposal adoption stage, organization value and persuasion style were utilized. As the record shows, Yankun Meng, along with 11 delegates, submitted a motion on revising the Shanghai implement measure of Law of Women during the fourth meeting of 12th SMPC standing committee meeting and asked for a “more detailed regulation to protect women rights”. Meng is the chairman of Shanghai Women Federation, an organization promoting and representing women’s rights , so it’s not surprising to see that she decided on raise this motion out of other proposals during the meeting because of her organization value. The motion from Meng was submitted to the Internal and Judicial Affairs for deliberation. They are not in hierarchal order, and the decision-making more like a negotiation style. Meng certainly chose a good timing to raise this motion. Because just few months ago in 2005, the National People’s Congress passed the latest revision of Law of Women, and the sexual harassment term first appeared at Chinese law. Meng argued the importance to update Shanghai local regulation on Women’s rights accordingly and the Judicial Affairs agreed on this, thus the drafting started.

Criteria and decision-making styles used in the first stage are appropriate, considering the roles of actors involved, as well as the successful adoption of the proposal. Meng, as delegates of SMPC, represented the needs of Shanghai women and suggested an important motion at the right timing based on her organization value. For the Internal and Judicial Affairs committee, as their organization rules stated, researched, discussed and drafted relevant proposals, following a negotiation style . All of them used proper criteria and styles which enables a policy problem to be raised promptly and considered carefully.

During the second stage, deference, rules and norms were criteria used by decision makers. When adopting the alternatives, bargaining style was also observed. Xiquan Hui, in her explanation in October 2006, explicitly stated that they have consulted 21 members of SMPC and 10 + experts’ opinion. They also organized 20+ seminars to ask for relevant bureaus’ suggestions, such as Women Federation, Labor Union, and Civil Affairs bureau . The style of deference was clearly shown in Hui’s leadership. When the formed bill went through deliberation at SMPC standing committee meeting, several delegates demanded for a specific definition of sexual harassment in order to make the new measure more practical, along with some other suggestions. The Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee, after several public hearings and researches, adopted the rest of delegates’ suggestions but decided not to give a definition. They then submitted the revised bill to standing committee. The decision style shown here is closer to bargaining, where two bodies have inconsistent opinion, and reached a compromised result that was mutually agreed upon. Guoming Shen, associate director of the Legislative Affairs Commission, is one of the key decision makers on this alternative. He gave reasons on not specifying what is sexual harassment in a report, stating that the national law didn’t give a concrete meaning and as local legislatives, they should avoid misinterpretation . His explanation reflected rules and norms criteria.

In the second stage, the decision-making style is appropriate, while the criteria used by Shen is debatable. Incremental revision on laws and regulation is indeed a common practice. However, on a matter like sexual harassment, radical reform has to be made in order to fundamentally address the problem. Now, 13 years after the Measure 2007 was passed, the legal practice of sexual harassment is still weak and insufficient because the “grey area” of the regulation. Back in 2007, if Shen and other decision makers could make a bolder move instead of following the rules and norms criteria, the situation might differ.

Conclusion

In the policy adoption of Measure 2007, several decision criteria and styles were utilized, including value, deference, rules and norms, negotiation and bargaining. The standing committee, although technically in a superior order than Inter and Judicial Affairs committee and legislative affairs commission, was mostly taken suggesting role rather than commands. The stand committee was acting like a voter and supervisor, the Affairs commission were heavily involved in the drafting process and had more professional say in the matter, which justifies the negotiation and bargaining styles shown through the process.

Re: Policy implementation of Measure 2007

Date: 14 March, 2020

This memo discusses about the public officials involved in the implementation of Measure 2007, and examines what techniques of control they used and how the implementation was impacted by other actors. Public officials from 6 departments were mainly tasked with the implementation. They used benefits, directive power, services and sanctions as techniques of control. Media, citizens, and several delegates at SMPC also took a role in shaping the implementation.

Policy Attempt:

Measure 2007 attempted to prevent sexual harassment on women in Shanghai. It’s worth mentioning that this policy is designed to focus on raising awareness of women to protect themselves, as well as enterprises to prevent this behavior from happening, according to a news report from SMPC (Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress) .

Public officials tasked to implement:

In order to accomplish the policy attempt, multiple public officials have been involved, including those from municipal and district governments, people’s courts (in all levels), public security organs(in all levels), Shanghai Women Federation (led by the party), Shanghai Municipality Trade Union (led by the party), and Shanghai Rule of Law Advertising Office.

Techniques of control:

During implementation, public officials have adopted the following techniques of control: benefits, directive power, services and sanctions. Examples are as follows: Shanghai Women Federation and Shanghai Rule of Law Advertising Office cohosted an internet knowledge quiz about Measure 2007 in 2007, as a way to “advertise the new policy and empower the women of legal rights” . They set up monetary rewards for excellent participants and units, using benefits as a technique of control. The municipal government, on the other hand, used their directive power to urge companies to establish sexual harassment prevention measures and clarify the employers’ responsibilities . Shanghai Municipality Trade Union, in their sixth five-year plan announcement, mentioned that they provide “16840999” hotlines for female employee to seek for consulting or help regarding their rights , as a service technique of control. Lastly, as stipulated by the original policy, people’s courts and public security organs can issue sanctions on the harasser when the accusation is confirmed .

Politics of implementation:

The policy implementation is shaped by several actors both inside and outside the government. A famous case initiated by non-government participants took place in 2012. Two girls started a behavioral art in Shanghai metro, holding a slogan says “I can be sexy but you cannot harass”, after a Weibo post from Shanghai metro official that openly criticized a lady wearing too less outfit and said “no wonder harassment would happen” .This event soon triggered debate across the nation and raised public’s attention over this issue. Media has also been featuring sexual harassment cases in Shanghai and revealing the fact that the success rate of harassed women in law suits are very low and many of them turned into silent . The non-government actors not only contributed to raising awareness among the public, but also informed the government of the weakness of the current policy system. In 2019, Yu and 12 other delegates of SMPC raised the proposal of strengthen the Shanghai measure and the proposal was recognized by the committee who soon mapped out 4 ways to further implement the policy.

Conclusion:

To conclude, Shanghai has taken a top-down holistic approach to implement Measure 2007 which involved public officials from six different departments using four various techniques of control. However, since the attempt of the policy is more about awareness-raising, the actual implementation effect in lower levels is hard to be measured. The best way to raise awareness might need the government to take more straight forward movements in the future.