Xinyi Zhou, a graduate student in business and administration from Changchun, China, says she remembers how her grandmother had to act while she lived in a country that was unfair to women.

She was supposed to stay home and take care of the family and couldn’t work outside, she said. Chinese women could not even show their teeth while they laughed, even though men could.

But Zhou said times have changed and conditions for women have become better. She said, this is why, Beijing, China was a good choice for the location of the United Nations Conference on Women.

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The logic behind choosing China as the location has been criticised by many world leaders.

China, a country that has one-fifth of the world’s population, and as many women as North America has people, has been under fire for low standards of human rights.

China’s policies on one birth per family, forced abortions and rumors of the killing of newborn females have drawn criticism from human rights activist around the world, including first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Tuesday, Clinton spoke at the women’s conference. She criticized many countries, including China, on their treatment of women.

Kitty Trescott, a member of the US-China Peoples Friendship Association, said she commends the focus that Mrs. Clinton has taken at the conference.

It isn’t just China that is known for the treatment of women that we would consider inhuman, she said. China probably treats their women better than many countries, especially those in the third world.

Zhou said though she does not agree with these Chinese policies, there is not much more the country can do about overpopulation.

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It is the only way to control the population, she said. I don’t agree, but right now there is no other way.

Zhou said this period in Chinese history is proving to be important because of the economic and social reform going on in China.

China is now trying to develop western policies, she said. I am glad we are getting to show the world the improvement we are making.

Though having the conference in China has been questioned, Beverly Stitt, coordinator of women’s studies, said choosing this location for the conference may have been wise.

At the least it is drawing a lot of attention to the conference, Stitt said. If you looked hard enough you could find human rights issues in any country.

Stitt said denying China the privilege of hosting the conference would not help the human rights issues there, but in fact would let them otherwise go unnoticed.

Americans sometime are amazed at the lack of free movement outside our country, Stitt said. It wouldn’t make it any better by ignoring these issues.