Threesday: 3 reasons why this week rocked for Chinese women

If the news this week is anything to go by, it's not too bad a week for women here in China. Sure, a UNDP report calculated that there were 96 million of us missing in East Asia - but we knew that already (and besides, at least in the cities, the gap seems to be narrowing). Anyway, here's three reasons why the last few days have been pretty stellar on the femme front.

1. China has been looking into a new guideline that will make it much easier to rescue teenage girls from the clutches of human traffickers - which will in turn lead to a 100% reduction in the possibility of incidents where a dad in China goes all Liam Neeson in Taken.

The new guideline will help "speed up the investigation and filing of cases involving girls between 14 and 18, who often fall through the cracks of anti-trafficking legislation," says China Daily.

What was wrong with the rules before? Seems like missing girls younger fall under the anti-trafficking law for children, but many feel the anti-trafficking law for women only relates to those older than 18. Those in between get kind of screwed.

2. Ladies and Gentlemen, we now have women in Space! China's newest generation of astronauts have been selected and two of the seven are women! While the identities of the two new astronautettes haven't been revealed, people suspect they may have been chosen from five Shandong Province girls out of the 15 possible female choices. Says China.org.cn:

Wang Yaping from Yantai City flew rescue missions during the Sichuan earthquake, and rain reduction missions for the Beijing Olympics. Xing Lei is the only straight-A student in the Air Force Academy, and Liu Lu is a skilled pilot who also studies literature and is an expert on the Chinese classic novel A Dream of Red Mansions. Cao Yanyan comes from an air force family. Her husband and mother-in-law are both pilots. Sun Jing lives for her flying.

Ok, some of those seem a little forced. But how exciting is it that the nation's first Sally Rides are about to take off?

3. It turns out that half the world's self-made lady billionaires procured their fortunes on the mainland. That's seven out of 14! That means they make up about 5% of the billionaire population, since according to the Hurun Rich list, there's about 130 in the country altogether. If you count it by Forbes standards, there's only 79 in China.

While it's a little sad that there are only 14 female billionaires on the planet, how cool is it that women are so able to pull ahead economically here? In comparison, the United States has 360 (by Forbes standards). Even if the rest of the world's female billionaires were from the States, that'd still be a pretty depressing ratio.

The seven and what they made their fortunes in: Wu Yajun (real estate), Xiu Li Hawken (shopping centers), Chu Lam Yiu (runs flavorings company Huabao International), Zhang Xin (runs Soho China), Yan Cheung (paper), Chan Laiwa (real estate), and Lei Jufang (runs Tibet Cheezheng Tibetan Medicine)