This week, Chinese President Xi Jinping will present his new leadership team to the world on stage in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Carrie Lam took office as first female leader in Hong Kong, a former British territory now part of China, in July. in Taiwan, a self-governing island China views as a breakaway province, Tsai Ing-wen was elected as its first female president in early 2016. The founding father of the People's Republic, Mao Zedong, famously proclaimed that "women hold up half the sky," so why, four decades after his death, are there still so few high-level female politicians in China? "The government has no intention of doing anything substantive to improve female political representation," said Leta Hong Fincher, author of the upcoming book "Betraying Big Brother: China's Feminist Resistance."

Source: CNN October 22, 2017 04:41 UTC