The Suicide Plague

Stories abound about the high suicide rate in China. Yet there are many other countries of the world with much higher rates of suicide. Understandably, given the fact that the immense country has reversed its heritage and traditions, a fundamental transition from rural to urban life has taken place and with it the gradual disappearance of traditional values. In urban China there is a steady upsurge of wealth, while in rural China there is stagnation and poverty reigns.

It is claimed that in China greater numbers of women commit suicide than men. Yet with the one-child-per-family policy, men outnumber women, and it is men who face a lifetime alone, not women; theoretically, in any event. Rural suicides appear to outnumber urban events. Stress and depression seems the causation of 70 to 80% of urban area suicides, where the most popular method is to jump off buildings to achieve death, according to the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center.

What has been in the news of late is what is termed a stream of suicides taking place in a huge campus serving as the world's largest electronic manufacturer. Foxconn Technology, which supplies global companies like Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard employs a whopping 800,000 people in its several installations. That is an enormous labour pool. Ten consecutive suicides have taken place at its plants, with young men jumping off the buildings and committing suicide.

Delivering a message? Surely they are; that they find their lives wearily non-worthy of further commitment. Ten out of almost a million? Nothing like jumping to alarmed conclusions with slight reason. The company's labour practises are being questioned, with employees claiming that they are over-worked, to the extent that they must account for every moment they're on duty at the factory. On the other hand, they are well-remunerated, with wages above the average for the country.

And since China has a large and unhappy and restless demographic of unemployed, those with well-paying jobs would be thought to be satisfied to have them. So perhaps it is not the company and its labour practises at fault, but rather that the matter is a reflection of a society finding itself newly rootless, in its expansion into a huge global economy, with old values taking second place to China-style capitalism.

Perhaps all the attention the world media is placing on Foxconn Technology is misplaced.

Since statistics appear to demonstrate a far greater number of women suicides in rural areas, with the method of self-destruction to imbibe pesticides. Those who try to understand the whys and wherefores point to restricted social communication, familial disarray, low levels of education and presumably allied with that, lack of opportunity to realize aspirations. This is all in the realm of educated guesswork; theory.

Suicide in China is now ranked fifth in death-prevalence, after cerebro-vascular diseases, bronchitis, chronic emphysema, liver cancer, and pneumonia. It ranks, however, as the leading cause of death for those between 15 and 34 years of age. And claims are made that the traditional family and clan structure has undergone a massive alteration, placing people under stress they cannot fathom nor surmount; and this has occurred during the space of a single generation.

That, in fact, parents with a sole offspring placing undue expectations on the success of that child is thought to be an intolerable burden for a single child. To be successful now in the new one-child China is to become wealthy. In a newly sibling-less society, there are fewer opportunities for young people to discuss in depth problems they may feel afflict them, leading to social alienation and despair.

Where once several generations lived together and the elderly among them were cherished, that is now gone. Often enough rural people migrant to the city to find work, and they leave their children behind, to be raised by their grandparents.

The world average for suicide per country is about 100, per million. China's rate now stands at 2.3 times that. The Beijing Youth Daily writes that "suicide and psychological crises have become important public health problems in China"; well, they are that everywhere in the world.

That the media is highlighting China for high suicide rates seems a little out of whack with reality. Given that there are so many countries where suicides are far more prevalent, greater in number than China with its astounding population base. The World Health Organization lists many other countries with far greater rates of suicide than China.

Take, for example, Belarus, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary and Japan, all with higher suicide rates. So the problem appears to be perception and the wish to find fault in a society where none particularly exists; not in that particular vein, in any event.

The simple fact of the matter is, suicide prevention is an imperative in many countries of the world, where authorities are very well aware that people from disadvantaged backgrounds finding no comfort in their life seek to destroy themselves.

Canada has a distinct problem in high rates of suicide among the country's aboriginal population. Male suicides in Canada are greater in number than in China. Just a little perspection and introspection.

	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
	Both sexes
	number of suicides
All ages1	3,692	3,650	3,765	3,613	3,743
10 to 14	27	35	27	28	43
15 to 19	207	215	216	210	213
20 to 24	296	277	306	270	296
25 to 29	288	265	245	275	228
30 to 34	326	325	295	316	283
35 to 39	441	415	434	390	381
40 to 44	452	432	463	409	495
45 to 49	457	437	454	446	476
50 to 54	389	378	404	393	407
55 to 59	258	267	292	275	294
60 to 64	154	174	187	174	166
65 to 69	104	121	142	121	138
70 to 74	125	115	105	108	99
75 to 79	91	83	85	88	113
80 to 84	36	58	53	63	66
85 to 89	30	37	34	36	31
90 and older	11	16	23	11	13
1. "All ages" includes suicides of children under age 10 and suicides of persons of unknown age. Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM, table 102-0551 and Catalogue no. 84F0209X. Last modified: 2010-01-05.