Hiring discrimination against new moms

Sixth Tone has a feature story about a rising trend of Chinese companies hiring fewer mothers to avoid maternity costs. The current law requires employers to provide a maternity allowance that varies based on salary, which was once seen as a huge leap in the country’s employment protections for new mothers, but more and more companies have adopted a series of preemptive tactics, such as being “more selective in hiring,” “grilling employees about their marital status and pregnancy plan,” and simply “giving preference to male applicants outright.”

• Foreign celebrities
  Stephen Hawking lauds Chinese pop star for space migration question / Reuters
  Bill Gates given one of China’s highest academic honors / SCMP
• Livestreaming
  Young woman with no arms becomes internet star by livestreaming about her everyday life / Shanghaiist
• Left-behind children
  Two Chinese boys traveled 80km in bus undercarriage / BBC