International Day of the Girl Child: “Unwanted” Second Daughter Saved from Gendercide

Baby GirlThis Sunday, October 11, is the International Day of the Girl Child.  As we celebrate the beloved women and girls in our lives, let us also remember the 200 million girls worldwide who have been the victims of sex-selective abortion — girls like “ZhenZhen,” who was almost aborted, but whose life was saved by our “Save a Girl” campaign.

ZhenZhen’s mother was already seven months pregnant when she went to the doctor for an ultrasound to determine whether she was carrying a boy or a girl.  Since she already had a three-year-old daughter, her husband and his parents desperately wanted this second child to be a boy.  When they were told that the baby was a girl, they were extremely disappointed.  Her husband’s parents tried to pressure Zhenzhen’s mother into aborting her by telling her that they are old and want to see their grandson before they die.  Her husband started treating her differently as well.  Even people in their village began looking down on her.

ZhenZhen’s mother did not know what to do.  On one hand, she felt her daughter growing within her every day.  On the other hand, she was afraid that no one would welcome her daughter – that she would be rejected even by her own father and her grandparents.

Zhenzhen’s mother did not want to abort her daughter.  She wanted to give her life, and to raise her up.  Fortunately for Zhenzhen and her mother, a “Save a Girl” campaign fieldworker learned about the situation through our extensive network and intervened.  She traveled to Zhenzhen’s village, knocked on the door of their humble home and offered hope.   She told ZhenZhen’s mother that girls are just as precious as boys.  She offered  Zhenzhen’s mother a monthly stipend for a year to empower her to keep her daughter.  Zhenzhen’s mother gratefully accepted our offer of help.  She gave birth to ZhenZhen, a beautiful and healthy baby girl, and is delighted with her new daughter.

Will you help us save women and girls in China? Become a “GirlSaver”!

In honor of the International Day of the Girl Child, won’t you help us save more girls like ZhenZhen?  So far, we have saved almost 200 girls, and yet there are millions more who are being aborted just because they are girls.  Each one of these girls is infinitely precious.  Please help us save them by donating to our “Save a Girl” Campaign.

Learn more about how you can help to save girls here: http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=give

For $25 per month, or $300 per year, our GirlSavers have helped WRWF save at-risk babies in China, babies like ZhenZhen, who would likely not be alive if one of our undercover fieldworkers had not met her mother and assured her that little girls are as special as boys. We put our money where our mouth is, offering practical assistance to empower these mothers to keep their daughters.

 

 

Posted in China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, gendercide, human dignity, Human Rights, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Save a Girl, sex selective abortion, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on International Day of the Girl Child: “Unwanted” Second Daughter Saved from Gendercide

China’s One Child Policy Turns 35 — Open Letter to Xi Jinping

Open Letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping:

September 25 marks the 35th anniversary of the official institution of China’s barbaric One Child Policy, which has caused incalculable suffering to hundreds of millions of women and families of China. On this somber anniversary, you are in Washington D.C. on an official state visit.

It is time for the coercive enforcement of the One Child Policy to end. It will not work to replace it by a ‘two-child policy’ as some of your advisors have suggested. Rather, official, state-sponsored forced abortion under the One Child Policy should be eradicated from the face of the earth, because it has caused more violence toward women and girls than any other official policy on earth, and any other official policy in the history of the world. Your government has boasted that it has “prevented” more than 400 million births through this policy. These births have been prevented through forced abortions, involuntary sterilizations, confiscatory “terror fines,” gendercide and infanticide – all in violation of international human rights law.

The One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth.

It is China’s war on women. Any discussion of women’s rights, or human rights, would be a charade if forced abortion in China is not front and center. It does not matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue. No one supports forced abortion, because it is not a choice. A video exists in which former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, strongly condemns coercive family planning in China.

In the past year there has been much suffering caused by the One Child Policy. We are aware that the cases that make it to the West are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. For every family that posts their experience of heartbreak on the internet – and thereby risks persecution by the Chinese Communist Party — there are thousands or millions who suffer silently. A perusal of headlines over the past year will convey the scope of the suffering:

Gendercide: Baby Girl Rescued after She Was Flushed Down Toilet 8/6/15
http://www.charismanews.com/world/50903-gendercide-baby-girl-rescued-after-she-was-flushed-down-toilet

Guizhou teacher almost forcibly aborted at 5 months – showing forced abortion still exists in China (in Chinese)
http://hk-epochtimes.com/index.php/china/china/6807-2015-07-08-00-04-19
English Translation: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-TW&u=http://hk-epochtimes.com/index.php/china/china/6807-2015-07-08-00-04-19&prev=search

Population Control Has China Headed for Demographic Disaster Edward Pentin 5/19/15
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/population-control-has-china-headed-for-demographic-disaster/#view-comments

“Why gendercide is the real ‘war on women’” by Reggie Littlejohn 11/14/14
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/14/opinion/littlejohn-gendercide-women/

“Chinese firm planned to punish employees who had unscheduled children.” 7/3/15
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Chinese-firm-planned-to-punish-employees-who-had-unscheduled-children-34676.html

“Xinran – China’s 1CP breeds little emperors with skewed values.” 5/25/15
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-25/chinas-one-child-policy-creates-ruthless-children-writer-says/6495666

“Chinese Officials Forced to Meet Monthly ‘Abortion Quotas’” 6/12/15
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/kathleen-brown/chinese-officials-forced-meet-monthly-abortion-quotas

“Why No One Wants to Talk About China’s Female Suicide Rate” 5/24/15
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/why-no-one-wants-to-talk-about-chinas-female-suicide-problem-91872/

“China’s One Child Woes Being Felt Around Region” (Congressional Hearing 4/30/15)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/30/chinas-one-child-population-woes-being-felt-around/

“U.N. Complicit in Worldwide War on Women” 3/21/14

U.N. complicit in worldwide war on women

“The Ghost Children: In the wake of China’s one-child policy, a generation is lost” 3/13/15
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-ghost-children-in-the-wake-of-chinas-one-child-policy-a-generation-is-lost/article23454402/

“Activists: One-Child Policy Drives Some Chinese to US ‘Maternity Hotels’” 3/4/15
http://www.voanews.com/content/activists-say-china/2668426.html

“Chinese Men Outnumber Women by 33 Million After Decades of Gender Bias” 1/22/15
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/gender-01222015125826.html

“Chinese Mom Has Abortion Because Her Only Child Threatened Suicide If She Had Another Baby” 1/21/15

Chinese Mom Has Abortion Because Her Only Child Threatened Suicide if She Had Another Baby

“Baby Girl Saved from Forced Abortion; Mom Hid from Chinese Officials for Months” 11/24/14

Baby Girl Saved From Forced Abortion, Mom Hid From Chinese Officials for Months

“They will kill your baby in your face” – Chinese Activist Chen Guangcheng 11/4/14

“They will kill your baby in your face” – Chinese Activist Chen Guangcheng

Cong. Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng, Reggie Littlejohn Unite to Fight Forced Abortion and Gendercide in China – WRWF and Heritage Event 10/17/14

Cong. Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng and Reggie Littlejohn Unite to Fight Forced Abortion and Gendercide in China – Heritage and WRWF Event

400 Million Lives “Prevented” through the One Child Policy, Chinese Offical Says 10/10/14
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/400-million-lives-prevented-through-one-child-policy-chinese-official-says

Human Rights Activist: China’s Regime ‘More Dangerous’ Than ISIS (exclusive interview with Chen) 10/10/14

Human Rights Activist: China’s Regime ‘More Dangerous’ Than ISIS

Rep. Smith: Obama Gave 227M to UNFPA Implementing Forced Abortion in China (Includes video of Smith’s testimony) 10/10/15
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/rep-smith-obama-gave-227m-unfpa-implementing-forced-abortion-china

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and Marco Rubio Address China’s One Child Policy 9/29/14
https://liveactionnews.org/womens-rights-without-frontiers-and-marco-rubio-address-chinas-one-child-policy-2/

China’s One Child Policy Causes Sexual Slavery

Gendercide under the One Child Policy has created a gender imbalance in which there are 37 to 40 million more men living in China than women. The One Child Policy is the driving force behind human trafficking and sexual slavery within China and throughout Asia and beyond.

Earlier this year, the United States Department of State issued its annual Trafficking in Persons (“TIP”) report, ranking China on the Tier 2 Watch List because it is a “source, destination and transit country” for trafficked persons, and because the Chinese government, “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking . . .” The TIP report heavily implicates China’s One Child Policy in connection with China’s rampant sexual slavery problem:

“The Chinese government’s birth limitation policy and a cultural preference for sons create a skewed sex ratio of 117 boys to 100 girls in China, which may serve to increase the demand for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for Chinese men – both of which may be procured by force or coercion. Women and girls are recruited through marriage brokers and transported to China, where some are subjected to forced prostitution or forced labor.”

The TIP report describes the far reach of sex trafficking in China: “Women and children from neighboring Asian countries, including Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as from Africa and the Americas, are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in China.”

The TIP report recommends that the Chinese government “investigate, prosecute, and impose prison sentences on government officials who facilitate or are complicit in trafficking.”

The TIP report also raises concerns about the fact that “Chinese authorities continued to forcibly repatriate North Korean refugees by treating them as illegal economic migrants – despite reports that many North Korean female refugees in China were trafficking victims . . . [these repatriated refugees] may face severe punishment, even death.”

Why does the Chinese government turn a blind eye to officials who are complicit with or facilitate human trafficking and sexual slavery? Do they believe that sexual slavery is necessary because of the extreme gender imbalance they have created through the One Child Policy? Young women and girls escape the violent brutality of North Korea by slipping across the Chinese border, only to find themselves snapped up in the sex slave trade. These women and girls are utterly helpless. They can be beaten, raped and sold as prostitutes or forced brides, but there is nothing they can do about it. If they are able to escape from their captors and report their mistreatment to the Chinese authorities, they will be repatriated to North Korea, where they may be accused of treason and executed.

September 25, 2015 marks the 35th anniversary of China’s brutal One Child Policy: Congressional Hearing

To commemorate this somber event, on April 30, 2015, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing entitled, “Population Control in China: State-Sponsored Violence Against Women and Children. Witnesses included celebrated blind activist Chen Guangcheng and notable demographer Nicholas Eberstadt. I also was humbled to testify, asked to comment upon “China’s insistence on keeping the One-Child Policy, despite looming demographic concerns.”
China has not “eased,” “relaxed” or “abandoned” the One-Child Policy, Despite Reports

China periodically tweaks its One Child Policy. These minor modifications are routinely exaggerated. For example, under the misleading headline, “China to Ease One-Child Policy,” Xinhua News Agency reported that China would lift the ban on a second child, if either parent is an only child, beginning on January 1, 2014. It was already the case that couples could have a second child if both parents were themselves only children. This minor adjustment did not “ease” the One Child Policy. It merely tweaked it.

Indeed, in apparent response to quell overly optimistic speculation that this small change represents a major reform, Xinhua ran another report soon after the original announcement: “Birth Policy Changes Are No Big Deal.” In this second article Xinhua states that Wang Pei’an, deputy director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), told Xinhua that “the number of couples covered by the new policy is not very large across the country.”

The minor modification of the policy that took place on January 1, 2014: 1) did not affect a large percentage of couples in China; 2) was not subject to a timetable in which to implement it; 3) retained the dreaded “birth intervals” between children (if a woman gets pregnant before the interval has lapsed, she risks forced abortion); and 4) makes no promise to end the coercive enforcement of the Policy.

Noticeably absent from the Chinese Communist party’s announcement is any mention of human rights. Even though it will now allow some couples to have a second child, China has not promised to end forced abortion, forced sterilization, or forced contraception. The coercive enforcement of China’s one-child policy is its core. Instituting a two-child policy in certain, limited circumstances will not end forced abortion or forced sterilization.

The problem with the one-child policy is not the number of children “allowed.” Rather, it is the fact that the CCP is telling women how many children they can have and then enforcing that limit through forced abortion and forced sterilization. Even if all couples were allowed two children, there is no guarantee that the CCP will cease their appalling methods of enforcement. Regardless of the number of children allowed, women who get pregnant without permission will still be dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables, and forced to abort babies that they want.

Further, instituting a two-child policy will not end gendercide. Indeed, areas in which two children currently are allowed are especially vulnerable to gendercide. According to the 2009 British Medical Journal study of data from the 2005 national census, in nine provinces, for “second order births” where the first child is a girl, 160 boys were born for every 100 girls. In two provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui, for the second child, there were 190 boys for every hundred girls born. This study stated, “sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males.”
To say that China has “relaxed” or “eased” its One Child Policy under these circumstances is entirely unwarranted. Because of this gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million Chinese men who will never marry because their future wives were terminated before they were born. This gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery, not only in China, but in neighboring nations as well. Millions of baby girls all over China are at risk of abortion or abandonment, simply because they are girls.

In China, there are currently 117-118 boys born for every 100 girls born – the worst gender ratio in the world. Nor will the tweaking of the One Child Policy have a significant impact on gendercide. This message was at the core of my presentation at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March, 2014.
Furthermore, all the reasons the Chinese government has given for this adjustment are economic or demographic: China’s dwindling labor force, the country’s growing elderly population, and the severe gender imbalance. The adjustment is a tacit acknowledgement that continuation of the one-child policy will lead to economic and demographic disaster. The policy was originally instituted for economic reasons. It is ironic that through this very policy, China has written its own economic, demographic death sentence.

Even if China were to completely abandon the One Child Policy and all population control now, demographers worry that it might be too little, too late to avert the demographic disaster it has caused. As one researcher stated, “Even if the family- planning policy were terminated today, it would be too late to solve our rapidly ageing population, the drastic shrinkage of the labour force and the gaping hole in social-security funds that the country has already begun struggling with.”

Despite the demographic pressure to end the policy, the Chinese government recently denied that it has plans to implement a two-child policy in the near future.

Continuing the One Child Policy makes no demographic sense. China’s population problem is not that it has too many people, but too few young people and too few women. Limiting births can no longer justify the policy.

The One Child Policy turne 35 today, September 25, 2015. The fertility rate has fallen to approximately 1.5 children per woman, far below the replacement level of 2.1. These birth rates are dangerously low.

In addition, the most recent modification of the One Child Policy has failed to produce the expected number of births, as couples are self-limiting the size of their families. Why, then, does the Chinese Communist Party keep the One Child Policy?

1) In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party will never abolish the One- Child Policy, because the government is exploiting the One Child Policy as social control, masquerading as population control.

The One Child Policy was formally instituted on September 25, 1980 in response to the population explosion under the Mao era, when the average fertility was 5.9 children per woman. The One Child Policy began as a means to control the population, however brutal and misguided. The terror of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization was a by-product of the Policy.

Now that keeping the Policy makes no demographic sense, I believe that terror is the purpose of the Policy. Forced abortion continues in China, terrifying both women and men. Some of these forced abortions have been so violent that the women themselves sometimes have died along with their full term babies. Forced abortion is so terrifying that victims have succumbed to mental illness and China’s female suicide rate is epidemic and increasing.

Men also are terrorized. Some have been killed or maimed for life. Others have lost control and murdered family planning officials. Some men have resorted to suicide in protest over the excessive fines imposed by the government. The spirit of the Cultural Revolution lives on in the family planning police, who have been able to steal, intimidate, torture and kill with relative impunity.

The Chinese Communist Party is a brutal, totalitarian regime. It has many human rights abuses: the detention and torture of human rights lawyers, activists and journalists; religious persecution, the execution of prisoners to harvest their organs for transplant. However egregious, each of these abuses touches only a sliver of Chinese society. The One Child Policy is unique in that it touches everyone.

2) The One Child Policy Is Enormously Profitable for the Chinese Communist Party.

The One Child Policy’s system of fees and fines is an important source of revenue for the Chinese Communist Party. These fines are arbitrary and inconsistently applied throughout China, but may be as much as ten times a person’s annual salary. Very few can afford to pay these “terror fines.” In high profile cases, the fines may run in the millions of dollars.

It has been estimated that the Chinese Communist Party has received as much as $314 billion in family planning fines since 1980. The use of these fines is not subject to accountability, so they may be used simply to line the pockets of the family planning officials or to fund other government projects under the table. This system (or lack thereof) provides a strong incentive to keep the Policy in place.

3) The One Child Policy’s Infrastructure of Coercion Can Be Turned to Crush Dissent of Any Kind

There is growing unrest inside China. “[I]nternal Chinese law enforcement data on so- called “mass incidents” – a wide variety of protests ranging from sit-ins to strikes, marches and rallies, and even genuine riots – indicated that China has seen a sustained, rapid increase in those incidents from 8,700 in 1993 to nearly 60,000 in 2003, to more than 120,000 in 2008. Meanwhile, there are as many as 1 million Family Planning Officials. This army of Family Planning Officials can be turned in any direction to crush dissent of any sort. Does the Chinese Communist Party regard this army as necessary to maintain control in a tinder-box situation?

4) The One Child Policy Breaks Bonds of Trust, Discouraging Dissent

In addition to official Family Planning Police, the One Child Policy employs a system of paid informants – “womb police.” Anyone can inform on an illegally pregnant women – her neighbors, friends, co-workers, people in the village who watch women’s abdomens to see who might be pregnant. On May 15, 2012, I testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, together with Mei Shunping, a victim of five forced abortions. She described the way her factory enforced the One Child Policy. “If one worker violated the rules, all would be punished. Workers monitored each other.” The women became informed on one another. Predictably, friendships were destroyed.
In addition, if an illegally pregnant women runs away to escape a forced abortion, members of her extended family may be detained and tortured. This puts enormous pressure on the woman to give herself up for an abortion. The system of paid informants and the persecution of family members and neighbors rupture the natural bonds of love and trust in Chinese society. People feel that there is no one they can trust.

Could the Chinese Communist Party be exploiting this rupture in relationship to divide and conquer? If people cannot trust anyone, they cannot organize for democracy.

The “Agreed Conclusions” of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) Condemn Coercive Family Planning

The UNCSW’s topic for 2013 was “Elimination and Prevention of All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls.” There is no greater violence against women than forced abortion, up to the ninth month of pregnancy. Women themselves sometimes die as a result of these violent procedures. There is no greater violence against girls than gendercide, which has claimed up to 200 million lives of girls selected for abortion solely because they are girls.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers was honored to make four presentations about forced abortion and gendercide in China at the UNCSW in March of last year. We commend the following language from 2013’s “Agreed Conclusions”:

34. The Commission urges government, at all levels, and as appropriate, with the relevant entities of the United Nations system, international and regional organizations . . . to take the following actions:
. . . .
(aaa) Condemn and take action to prevent violence against women and girls in health-care settings, including . . . forced medical procedures, or those conducted without informed consent, and which may be irreversible, such as forced hysterectomy, forced caesarean section, forced sterilization, forced abortion, and forced use of contraceptives . . .

These Agreed Conclusions represent an acknowledgement that forced medical procedures are a form of violence against women and call for an international condemnation of such procedures. WRWF feels that the voices of hundreds of millions of suffering Chinese women and girls were heard by the UNCSW, and for this we are grateful.

Forced Abortion in China Is Linked to Breast Cancer in Women and Low Birth Weight, Increased Chance of Death in Subsequent Pregnancies.
A medical study from Tianjin, China has revealed an additional way in which women are victimized by the One-Child Policy: significantly increased risk of breast cancer.
Researchers in China have found that the dramatic rise in breast cancer in China is associated with the prevalence of induced abortions (IA) under the One-Child Policy. The study, conducted by a team of epidemiologists from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital, analyzed data from over 36 different studies in both the United States and China. Their conclusion:
“IA [is] significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer among Chinese females, and the risk of breast cancer increases as the number of IA increases.” Specifically, the study found that one IA increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 44 percent, two by 76 percent, and three by 89 percent.
The study notes that historically, China has had low breast cancer rates when compared with Western nations, but “the incidence of breast cancer in China ha[s] increased at an alarming rate over the past two decades.” The study notes that this rise “was paralleled to the one-child-per-family policy.”
In our view, the strong association of abortion and breast cancer established by this study brings the women’s rights violations under the One Child Policy to a new level: a woman pregnant in China without a birth permit is subjected to both government imposed forced abortion, and also breast cancer as a result of it. Where abortion is forced, the subsequent development of breast cancer becomes a violation of women’s rights in itself.

“China:One-Child Policy Linked to Breast Cancer – Study.” http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1428. 12/2/13

Forced Abortion in China Correlates with Low Birth Weight, Increased Chance of Death in Subsequent Pregnancies

A 2012 dissertation submitted to the University of Hong Kong found that children in China are more likely to face serious health complications, including death, if their mothers have had multiple induced abortions. The study concluded that having more than one abortion increases the risk of low birth weight in subsequent pregnancies. Indeed, women who have had three or more induced abortions are at five times the risk of preterm birth in a subsequent pregnancy.
The study, conducted by Cui Limin, explained that nearly two thirds of neonatal deaths are related to low birth weight. For children surviving infancy, LBW increases the risk of neuron-developmental problems, respiratory tract infections, and behavioral problems. According to the study, those with very LBW suffer from conditions including cerebral palsy, blindness, impaired hearing and learning disabilities. Besides harming the child, these health problems put extra financial strain on parents, the study noted.
Women in China are forced into induced-labor abortions, up to the ninth month of pregnancy. In our view, this is a violation of women’s rights of the first degree. We are now learning that these forced abortions also put their future children at risk for respiratory complications, cerebral palsy, and even death related to low birth weight. They also may damage a woman’s future reproductive and general health. This is a violation of the women’s rights and the rights of their future children. Forced abortion must be stopped, and families should be compensated if their children experience health problems caused by previous induced labor forced abortions.
According to the study, 14.37 million induced abortions were performed in 2012 – one quarter of the abortions in the world — many of which were repeat abortions. The study credited the One-Child Policy as “one of the most important factors for the increased induced abortion rate,” and cited the prevalence of forced and sex-selective abortions in China.”

Conclusion

The Chinese forced abortion policy is systematic, institutionalized violence against women. Because of the sheer numbers involved, it is the most massive women’s rights issue in the world today, and it must be stopped. Forced abortion is official government rape.

In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party will not relinquish coercive population control because 1) it enables them to exert social control through terror; 2) it is a lucrative profit center; 3) it provides an infrastructure of coercion that can be used to crush dissent of any sort; and 4) it ruptures relationships of trust, so that people cannot organize for change. I believe that the Chinese Communist Party is maintaining its grip on power by shedding the blood of the innocent women and babies of China.

China’s One Child Policy is the largest and most disastrous social experiment in the history of the world. Through it, the Chinese Communist Party boasts that it has “prevented” 400 million births. This is the hallmark of Communist regimes – the peacetime killing of their own citizens. Now China faces demographic disaster. Ironically, the Chinese Communist Party instituted the One Child Policy for economic reasons, but through it, it has written its own economic death sentence.

Policy Recommendations:

We respectfully request that the Chinese government:

*Abolish forced abortion and all forms of coercive population control;

*Offer incentives for couples to have girls;

*Offer pensions to couples who do not have a son, ensuring that parents of girls will not become impoverished in their old age; and

*Abolish the hukou system, so that all children will have access to healthcare and education

President Xi Jinping, you are uniquely positioned to end the greatest human rights atrocity on earth today. Since you are able to accomplish this, you are morally obligated to do so. Let this be the legacy of your presidency: to transform Chinese law and culture so that women can truly “hold up half the sky.”

Sincerely,

Reggie Littlejohn, President
Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

Posted in Breast Cancer, cerebral palsy, China's One Child Policy, Chinese Communist Party, coerced abortion, communism, communist, female suicide, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, human trafficking, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, sex selective abortion, sexual slavery, Uncategorized, UNCSW, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on China’s One Child Policy Turns 35 — Open Letter to Xi Jinping

Chinese Woman Resists Both Forced Abortion and Gendercide To Give Birth to her Daughter

One Month Old

One Month Old

CHINA. This beautiful baby, “Eu-Meh” might never have had the chance to draw breath on this earth, just because she is a girl. She comes from a very poor farming family in the Chinese countryside, where life is harsh.

Eu-Meh’s parents did not have a birth permit, so her mother’s pregnancy was illegal. Her mother hid from the family planning police. If she were caught, her mother would have to pay a huge fine or face forced abortion.

But the main danger to Eu-Meh’s life was not the Family Planning Police. It was her own grandparents on her father’s side.

Eu-Meh’s grandparents told Eu-Meh’s mother to abort her, when they found out that she was pregnant with a girl. They told Eu-Meh’s mother that this little girl would consume milk and food that should go to her grandparents. They would have been happy, however, to keep a baby boy.

When Women’s Rights Without Frontiers learned about Eu-Meh, our undercover fieldworker went to her mother with a strong message of hope. We told her that girls are just as precious as boys, and encouraged Eu-Meh’s mother not to abort her. Through our “Save a Girl” campaign, we offered her monthly stipends for a year, to empower her to give life to Eu-Meh and care for her. It took Eu-Meh’s mother time to finally decide not to abort Eu-Meh, because she was afraid of her mother-in-law.

One Year OId

One Year Old

After Eu-Meh was born, with tears in her eyes, her mother told our fieldworker that she did not realize how much she would love her daughter before she saw her. Her mother-in-law did not want Eu-Meh’s mother to breastfeed her, so that she could go to Shanghai to work soon after Eu-Meh was born. With financial support from WRWF, Eu-Meh’s mother was able to resist this pressure from her mother-in-law. She was grateful to be able to stay home with Eu-Meh, breastfeed her and spend time just loving her precious, new daughter, who is now a healthy and happy 1-year-old!

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated, “It is an honor to support brave women like Eu-Meh’s mother, who was able to resist both the Family Planning Police and her own mother-in-law. Women like this deserve our help, and so do their precious daughters. Please help us be a voice for the voiceless!”

Will you help us save women and girls in China? Become a “GirlSaver”!

For $25 per month, or $300 per year, our GirlSavers have helped WRWF save at-risk babies in China, babies like Eu-Meh, who would likely not be alive if one of our undercover fieldworkers had not met her mother and assured her that little girls are as special as boys. We put our money where our mouth is, offering practical assistance to empower these mothers to keep their daughters.

Learn more about how you can help to save girls here: http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=give

Posted in Forced Abortion, gendercide, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, Save a Girl, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on Chinese Woman Resists Both Forced Abortion and Gendercide To Give Birth to her Daughter

WRWF Files Complaint Against Chinas at the United Nations

September 25, 2015 marks the 35th anniversary of China’s brutal One Child Policy.  Coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy continues to this day.  As blind activist Chen Guangcheng stated, Family Planning Officials “will kill your baby in your face.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has filed a Complaint with the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) against the Chinese Government for the coercive enforcement of China’s One Child Policy.

The full Complaint can be read here: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=2043

The Complaint chronicles the history of savagely cruel and profoundly disturbing reports emerging from China over the past year, including reports that Chinese officials were forced to meet monthly abortion quotas, that a Chinese firm planned to punish employees who had unscheduled children, and that Chinese women are increasingly resorting to overseas “maternity hotels” to give birth to their children.

The Complaint provides evidence that the Chinese Communist Party will never abolish the One Child Policy, because the government is exploiting this Policy as social control, masquerading as population control.

The Complaint argues that the recent “reform” – really, a minor modification – of the One Child Policy has done little or nothing to end coercive population control or gendercide.

The Complaint discusses the connection between China’s One Child Policy and sexual slavery.

The Complaint also discusses a recent finding that multiple abortions lead to a greatly increased risk of breast cancer.

The Complaint acknowledges the UNCSW for its “Agreed Conclusions” condemning forced abortion, sterilization and contraception.  It nevertheless challenges the UNCSW to investigate the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund), which was found to be complicit with coercive family planning by former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

WRWF President Reggie Littlejohn stated:  “The United Nations should urge the Chinese government to abolish the One Child Policy and all forms of coercive population control and investigate UNFPA. The One Child Policy does not need to be modified.  It needs to be eliminated.”

Learn more about our campaign to save girls in China:
http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Sign a petition against forced abortion in China:
www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

Watch a four-minute video, “Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women”:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

 

Posted in Breast Cancer, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, communism, corruption, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, hukou, human trafficking, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, Save a Girl, sex selective abortion, sexual slavery, two child policy, Uncategorized, UNCSW, UNFPA, war on women, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on WRWF Files Complaint Against Chinas at the United Nations

China: Baby Girl Flushed Down Toilet, Rescued

BEIJING.  A newborn baby girl was discovered flushed down a public toilet in Beijing, according to CNN and the Beijing Times.  Beijing police rescued the tiny girl, wedged face down in the toilet pipe, when residents reported the sound of an infant crying.

“Her head was upside down and her body was falling into the drain.  We could only vaguely see her feet from the side,” Qian Feng, the local police chief, told the Beijing Times.  At first the police wanted to dismantle the toilet, but then worried there would not be enough time.  “She just kept crying.  I looked again, and thought we should try to pull her out even if the possibility [of her survival] might be slim.” 

The baby is reportedly in stable condition, and police are trying to find her mother.  A young woman was seen walking away from the public toilets just before the infant was heard crying.  No one recognized the woman or knows where to find her.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated:  “It breaks my heart that this precious little girl was stuffed down a dirty, public toilet, and I’m grateful that she has been rescued.  Who knows what unique contribution she will make with her days upon this earth?  When girls are selectively aborted or abandoned, this conveys the message that females do not deserve to live.  Gendercide is the most violent form of discrimination against women and girls.”

Littlejohn continued:  “Meanwhile, this incident powerfully demonstrates that gendercide still exists in China, despite the so-called ‘relaxation’ of the One Child Policy.  Even under the newest exception to the Policy (which allows a second child to couples with one parent who is an only child), it is still illegal for an unmarried woman to have a baby.  If they won’t agree to an elective abortion, these women may be forcibly aborted.  Perhaps the woman who abandoned her daughter was unmarried and fell into desperation, thinking she had no alternative.  Unfortunately, we may never know.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is ending gendercide, one baby girl at a time.  We have saved nearly 200 baby girls.  Learn more about our campaign here: http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Read the original CNN report:  Newborn baby pulled alive from toilet in Beijing
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/04/asia/china-baby-toilet-beijing/index.html

Posted in China, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, gendercide, One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, sex selective abortion, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on China: Baby Girl Flushed Down Toilet, Rescued

United Nations: Complaint Concerning Coercive Population Control in China

August 1, 2015

VIA EMAIL cp-csw@unwomen.org
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW)
CSW Communications Procedure
Human Rights Section
UN Women
220 East 42nd Street, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10017

Re:  Complaint Concerning Coercive Population Control in China

To the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW):

I am the founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, a non-profit, non-partisan international coalition to combat forced abortion, gendercide and sexual slavery in China.  I write to complain about coercive family planning in China.

As you know, WRWF has submitted Complaints for the past four years.  While the UNCSW acknowledged receipt of these Complaints, China has never responded to them.  We believe that, given the international outrage generated by forced abortion and gendercide in China, it behooves China to respond to our official Complaints.

The One Child Policy causes more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth.

It is China’s war on women.   Any discussion of women’s rights, or human rights, would be a charade if forced abortion in China is not front and center.  It does not matter whether you are pro-life or pro-choice on this issue.  No one supports forced abortion, because it is not a choice.  A video exists in which former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, strongly condemns coercive family planning in China.[1]

In the past year there has been much suffering caused by the One Child Policy.  We are aware that the cases that make it to the West are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg.  For every family that posts their experience of heartbreak on the internet – and thereby risks persecution by the Chinese Communist Party — there are thousands or millions who suffer silently.   A perusal of headlines over the past year will convey the scope of the suffering:

“Why gendercide is the real ‘war on women’” by Reggie Littlejohn 11/14/14
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/14/opinion/littlejohn-gendercide-women/

“Chinese firm planned to punish employees who had unscheduled children.” 7/3/15

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Chinese-firm-planned-to-punish-employees-who-had-unscheduled-children-34676.html

“Xinran – China’s 1CP breeds little emperors with skewed values.” 5/25/15

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-25/chinas-one-child-policy-creates-ruthless-children-writer-says/6495666

“Chinese Officials Forced to Meet Monthly ‘Abortion Quotas'” 6/12/15

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/kathleen-brown/chinese-officials-forced-meet-monthly-abortion-quotas

“Why No One Wants to Talk About China’s Female Suicide Rate” 5/24/15

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/why-no-one-wants-to-talk-about-chinas-female-suicide-problem-91872/

“China’s One Child Woes Being Felt Around Region” (Congressional Hearing 4/30/15)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/30/chinas-one-child-population-woes-being-felt-around/

“U.N. Complicit in Worldwide War on Women” 3/21/14

http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/u-n-complicit-in-worldwide-war-on-women/

“The Ghost Children:  In the wake of China’s one-child policy, a generation is lost” 3/13/15

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-ghost-children-in-the-wake-of-chinas-one-child-policy-a-generation-is-lost/article23454402/

“Activists:  One-Child Policy Drives Some Chinese to US ‘Maternity Hotels’” 3/4/15

http://www.voanews.com/content/activists-say-china/2668426.html

“Chinese Men Outnumber Women by 33 Million After Decades of Gender Bias” 1/22/15

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/gender-01222015125826.html

“Chinese Mom Has Abortion Because Her Only Child Threatened Suicide If She Had Another Baby” 1/21/15

http://www.lifenews.com/2015/01/21/chinese-mom-has-abortion-because-her-only-child-threatened-suicide-if-she-had-another-baby/

“Baby Girl Saved from Forced Abortion; Mom Hid from Chinese Officials for Months” 11/24/14

http://www.lifenews.com/2014/11/24/baby-girl-saved-from-forced-abortion-mom-hid-from-chinese-officials-for-months/

“They will kill your baby in your face” – Chinese Activist Chen Guangcheng 11/4/14
http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1863

Cong. Chris Smith, Chen Guangcheng, Reggie Littlejohn Unite to Fight Forced Abortion and Gendercide in China – WRWF and Heritage Event 10/17/14
http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1838

400 Million Lives “Prevented” through the One Child Policy, Chinese Official Says 10/10/14

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/400-million-lives-prevented-through-one-child-policy-chinese-official-says

Human Rights Activist:  China’s Regime ‘More Dangerous’ Than ISIS (exclusive interview with Chen) 10/10/14
http://dailysignal.com/2014/10/09/human-rights-activist-chinas-regime-dangerous-isis/

Rep. Smith: Obama gave 227M to UNFPA Implementing Forced Abortion in China (includes video of Smith’s testimony) 10/10/15

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/rep-smith-obama-gave-227m-unfpa-implementing-forced-abortion-china

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and Marco Rubio Address China’s One Child Policy 9/29/14

https://liveactionnews.org/womens-rights-without-frontiers-and-marco-rubio-address-chinas-one-child-policy-2/

U.N. Documents should reflect the fact that China’s One Child Policy Causes Sexual Slavery

One year ago this week, the United Nations established the annual World Day against Trafficking in Persons.  In an official statement to commemorate this occasion, UN Women wrote:

“To prevent trafficking, we must address its root causes and the factors that increase individual’s vulnerability to trafficking, including poverty, unemployment, poor access to education and continued gender inequality.”[2]

Glaringly absent from this list of the ‘root causes’ of human trafficking is China’s One Child Policy.  Gendercide under the One Child Policy has created a gender imbalance in which there are 37 to 40 million more men living in China than women.  The One Child Policy is the driving force behind human trafficking and sexual slavery within China and throughout Asia and beyond.

Earlier this month, the United States Department of State issued its annual Trafficking in Persons (“TIP”) report, ranking China on the Tier 2 Watch List because it is a “source, destination and transit country” for trafficked persons, and because the Chinese government, “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking . . .”  The TIP report heavily implicates China’s One Child Policy in connection with China’s rampant sexual slavery problem:

“The Chinese government’s birth limitation policy and a cultural preference for sons create a skewed sex ratio of 117 boys to 100 girls in China, which may serve to increase the demand for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for Chinese men – both of which may be procured by force or coercion.  Women and girls are recruited through marriage brokers and transported to China, where some are subjected to forced prostitution or forced labor.”[3]

The TIP report describes the far reach of sex trafficking in China:  “Women and children from neighboring Asian countries, including Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as from Africa and the Americas, are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in China.”

The TIP report recommends that the Chinese government “investigate, prosecute, and impose prison sentences on government officials who facilitate or are complicit in trafficking.”

The TIP report also raises concerns about the fact that “Chinese authorities continued to forcibly repatriate North Korean refugees by treating them as illegal economic migrants – despite reports that many North Korean female refugees in China were trafficking victims . . . [these repatriated refugees] may face severe punishment, even death.”

Why does the Chinese government turn a blind eye to officials who are complicit with or facilitate human trafficking and sexual slavery?  Do they believe that sexual slavery is necessary because of the extreme gender imbalance they have created through the One Child Policy?  Young women and girls escape the violent brutality of North Korea by slipping across the Chinese border, only to find themselves snapped up in the sex slave trade.  These women and girls are utterly helpless.  They can be beaten, raped and sold as prostitutes or forced brides, but there is nothing they can do about it.  If they are able to escape from their captors and report their mistreatment to the Chinese authorities, they will be repatriated to North Korea, where they may be accused of treason and executed.  Both China’s One Child Policy, and the unique plight of North Korean refugees in China, should be front and center in any discussion of human trafficking and sexual slavery, especially by the U.N.

September 25, 2015 marks the 35th anniversary of China’s brutal One Child Policy:  Congressional Hearing 

To commemorate this somber event, on April 30, 2015, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China held a hearing entitled, “Population Control in China:  State-Sponsored Violence Against Women and Children. [4] Witnesses included celebrated blind activist Chen Guangcheng and notable demographer Nicholas Eberstadt.  I also was humbled to testify, asked to comment upon “China’s insistence on keeping the One-Child Policy, despite looming demographic concerns.”

China has not “eased,” “relaxed” or “abandoned” the One-Child Policy, Despite Reports

China periodically tweaks its One Child Policy. These minor modifications are routinely exaggerated. For example, under the misleading headline, “China to Ease One-Child Policy,” Xinhua News Agency reported that China would lift the ban on a second child, if either parent is an only child, beginning on January 1, 2014. It was already the case that couples could have a second child if both parents were themselves only children. This minor adjustment did not “ease” the One Child Policy. It merely tweaked it.

Indeed, in apparent response to quell overly optimistic speculation that this small change represents a major reform, Xinhua ran another report soon after the original announcement: “Birth Policy Changes Are No Big Deal.” In this second article Xinhua states that Wang Pei’an, deputy director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), told Xinhua that “the number of couples covered by the new policy is not very large across the country.”[5]

The minor modification of the policy that took place on January 1, 2014: 1) did not affect a large percentage of couples in China; 2) was not subject to a timetable in which to implement it; 3) retained the dreaded “birth intervals” between children (if a woman gets pregnant before the interval has lapsed, she risks forced abortion); and 4) makes no promise to end the coercive enforcement of the Policy.

Noticeably absent from the Chinese Communist party’s announcement is any mention of human rights. Even though it will now allow some couples to have a second child, China has not promised to end forced abortion, forced sterilization, or forced contraception. The coercive enforcement of China’s one-child policy is its core. Instituting a two-child policy in certain, limited circumstances will not end forced abortion or forced sterilization.

The problem with the one-child policy is not the number of children “allowed.” Rather, it is the fact that the CCP is telling women how many children they can have and then enforcing that limit through forced abortion and forced sterilization. Even if all couples were allowed two children, there is no guarantee that the CCP will cease their appalling methods of enforcement. Regardless of the number of children allowed, women who get pregnant without permission will still be dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables, and forced to abort babies that they want.

Further, instituting a two-child policy will not end gendercide. Indeed, areas in which two children currently are allowed are especially vulnerable to gendercide. According to the 2009 British Medical Journal study of data from the 2005 national census, in nine provinces, for “second order births” where the first child is a girl, 160 boys were born for every 100 girls. In two provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui, for the second child, there were 190 boys for every hundred girls born. This study stated, “sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males.”

To say that China has “relaxed” or “eased” its One Child Policy under these circumstances is entirely unwarranted.[6]Because of this gendercide, there are an estimated 37 million Chinese men who will never marry because their future wives were terminated before they were born. This gender imbalance is a powerful, driving force behind trafficking in women and sexual slavery, not only in China, but in neighboring nations as well.

In China, there are currently 117-118 boys born for every 100 girls born – the worst gender ratio in the world.  Nor will the tweaking of the One Child Policy have a significant impact on gendercide.[7]  This message was at the core of my presentation at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March, 2014.[8]

Furthermore, all the reasons the Chinese government has given for this adjustment are economic or demographic: China’s dwindling labor force, the country’s growing elderly population, and the severe gender imbalance. The adjustment is a tacit acknowledgement that continuation of the one-child policy will lead to economic and demographic disaster. The policy was originally instituted for economic reasons. It is ironic that through this very policy, China has written its own economic, demographic death sentence.

Even if China were to completely abandon the One Child Policy and all population control now, demographers worry that it might be too little, too late to avert the demographic disaster it has caused. As one researcher stated, “Even if the family- planning policy were terminated today, it would be too late to solve our rapidly ageing population, the drastic shrinkage of the labour force and the gaping hole in social-security funds that the country has already begun struggling with.”[9]

Despite the demographic pressure to end the policy, the Chinese government recently denied that it has plans to implement a two-child policy in the near future.[10]

Continuing the One Child Policy makes no demographic sense. China’s population problem is not that it has too many people, but too few young people and too few women. Limiting births can no longer justify the policy.

The One Child Policy will turn 35 on September 25, 2015. The fertility rate has fallen to approximately 1.5 children per woman, far below the replacement level of 2.1. These birth rates are dangerously low.

In addition, the most recent modification of the One Child Policy has failed to produce the expected number of births, as couples are self-limiting the size of their families.[11]Why, then, does the Chinese Communist Party keep the One Child Policy?

1)     In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party will never abolish the One- Child Policy, because the government is exploiting the One Child Policy as social control, masquerading as population control.

The One Child Policy was formally instituted on September 25, 1980 in response to the population explosion under the Mao era, when the average fertility was 5.9 children per woman. The One Child Policy began as a means to control the population, however brutal and misguided. The terror of forced abortion and involuntary sterilization was a by-product of the Policy.

Now that keeping the Policy makes no demographic sense, I believe that terror is the purpose of the Policy. Forced abortion continues in China, terrifying both women and men.[12]Some of these forced abortions have been so violent that the women themselves sometimes have died along with their full term babies.[13]   Forced abortion is so terrifying that victims have succumbed to mental illness and China’s female suicide rate is epidemic and increasing.[14]

Men also are terrorized. Some have been killed or maimed for life.[15]Others have lost control and murdered family planning officials.[16]  Some men have resorted to suicide in protest over the excessive fines imposed by the government.[17]  The spirit of the Cultural Revolution lives on in the family planning police, who have been able to steal, intimidate, torture and kill with relative impunity.

The Chinese Communist Party is a brutal, totalitarian regime. It has many human rights abuses: the detention and torture of human rights lawyers, activists and journalists; religious persecution, the execution of prisoners to harvest their organs for transplant. However egregious, each of these abuses touches only a sliver of Chinese society. The One Child Policy is unique in that it touches everyone.

2) The One Child Policy Is Enormously Profitable for the Chinese Communist Party.

The One Child Policy’s system of fees and fines is an important source of revenue for the Chinese Communist Party. These fines are arbitrary and inconsistently applied throughout China, but may be as much as ten times a person’s annual salary. Very few can afford to pay these “terror fines.” In high profile cases, the fines may run in the millions of dollars.[18]

It has been estimated that the Chinese Communist Party has received as much as $314 billion in family planning fines since 1980.[19]  The use of these fines is not subject to accountability, so they may be used simply to line the pockets of the family planning officials or to fund other government projects under the table. This system (or lack thereof) provides a strong incentive to keep the Policy in place.[20]

3) The One Child Policy’s Infrastructure of Coercion Can Be Turned to Crush Dissent of Any Kind

There is growing unrest inside China. “[I]nternal Chinese law enforcement data on so- called “mass incidents” – a wide variety of protests ranging from sit-ins to strikes, marches and rallies, and even genuine riots – indicated that China has seen a sustained, rapid increase in those incidents from 8,700 in 1993 to nearly 60,000 in 2003, to more than 120,000 in 2008.[21]Meanwhile, there are as many as 1 million Family Planning Officials.[22]  This army of Family Planning Officials can be turned in any direction to crush dissent of any sort. Does the Chinese Communist Party regard this army as necessary to maintain control in a tinder-box situation?

4) The One Child Policy Breaks Bonds of Trust, Discouraging Dissent

In addition to official Family Planning Police, the One Child Policy employs a system of paid informants – “womb police.” Anyone can inform on an illegally pregnant women – her neighbors, friends, co-workers, people in the village who watch women’s abdomens to see who might be pregnant. On May 15, 2012, I testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights, together with Mei Shunping, a victim of five forced abortions. She described the way her factory enforced the One Child Policy. “If one worker violated the rules, all would be punished. Workers monitored each other.” The women became informed on one another. Predictably, friendships were destroyed.[23]

In addition, if an illegally pregnant women runs away to escape a forced abortion, members of her extended family may be detained and tortured.[24]This puts enormous pressure on the woman to give herself up for an abortion. The system of paid informants and the persecution of family members and neighbors rupture the natural bonds of love and trust in Chinese society. People feel that there is no one they can trust.

Could the Chinese Communist Party be exploiting this rupture in relationship to divide and conquer? If people cannot trust anyone, they cannot organize for democracy.

UNCSW’s  “Agreed Conclusions” Condemn Coercive Family Planning But Should Also Condemn Gendercide, The Sex-Selective Abortion or Abandonment of Baby Girls

The UNCSW’s topic for 2013 was “Elimination and Prevention of All Forms of Violence Against Women and Girls.”  There is no greater violence against women than forced abortion, up to the ninth month of pregnancy.  Women themselves sometimes die as a result of these violent procedures.  There is no greater violence against girls than gendercide, which has claimed up to 200 million lives of girls selected for abortion solely because they are girls.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers was honored to make four presentations about forced abortion and gendercide in China at the UNCSW in March of last year.   We commend the following language from 2013’s “Agreed Conclusions”:

34.  The Commission urges government, at all levels, and as appropriate, with the relevant entities of the United Nations system, international and regional organizations . . . to take the following actions:

. . . .

(aaa) Condemn and take action to prevent violence against women and girls in health-care settings, including . . . forced medical procedures, or those conducted without informed consent, and which may be irreversible, such as forced hysterectomy, forced caesarean section, forced sterilization, forced abortion, and forced use of contraceptives . . .[25]

These Agreed Conclusions represent an acknowledgement that forced medical procedures are a form of violence against women and call for an international condemnation of such procedures.  WRWF feels that the voices of hundreds of millions of suffering Chinese women and girls were heard by the UNCSW, and for this we are grateful.

The Chinese government, moreover, is the major perpetrator in the world of  “forced medical procedures” of the kind set forth in the UNCSW Agreed Conclusions.  The UNCSW should put teeth into its Agreed Conclusions by presenting this Complaint to the Chinese government and requiring a response.

At the same time, these Agreed Conclusions are but the first step to end this form of gender violence.  While the Agreed Conclusions condemn coercive family planning in the form of forced medical procedures, they take no stand on gendercide, the sex-selective abortion, abandonment and fatal neglect of baby girls.  If the UNCSW stands for women’s rights, it must take a stand against the selective abortion of up to 200 million baby girls.  Millions of baby girls all over China are at risk of abortion or abandonment, simply because they are girls.[26]

WRWF Calls for an Investigation of UNFPA

The UNCSW, moreover, should follow its own advice to “condemn and take action to prevent violence against women . . .” by thoroughly investigating the activities of the UNFPA in China.  Former Secretary of State Colin Powell found the UNFPA to be complicit with coercive family planning in China.  WRWF believes that any independent investigation of the UNFPA’s current practices would arrive at the same conclusion.

The UNCSW would not be the first to undertake such an investigation.  In a striking blow against China’s One Child Policy, the European Parliament passed a resolution strongly condemning forced abortion and involuntary sterilization in China and globally, citing Feng Jianmei, who was forcibly aborted at seven months in June, 2012. Specifically, the resolution, 2012/2712 (RSP)  “strongly condemns the decision to force Ms. Feng to have an abortion and condemns the practice of forced abortions and sterilizations globally, especially in the context of the one-child policy.”  The resolution further states that “the EU has provided, and still provides, funds for organizations involved in family planning policies in China,” and “urges the Commission to ensure that its funding of projects does not breach” the European Parliament’s commitment against coercive population control.

It is significant that the European Parliament has acknowledged that it provides funding for family planning in China and has urged the Commission to ensure that this funding is not associated with coercion.  For decades, the UNFPA has worked hand in hand with the Chinese population control machine, which is coercive.  We have no doubt that any unbiased investigation by the European Parliament, the United Nations, or any other governmental body will reveal that UNFPA is complicit with coercive family planning in China.  The UNCSW should likewise undertake such an investigation.

We have called for an investigation of UNFPA repeatedly in the past.  This call has been ignored.  The time to investigate UNFPA is now.

Forced Abortion in China Is Linked to Breast Cancer in Women and Low Birth Weight, Increased Chance of Death in Subsequent Pregnancies.

A medical study from Tianjin, China has revealed an additional way in which women are victimized by the One-Child Policy: significantly increased risk of breast cancer.

Researchers in China have found that the dramatic rise in breast cancer in China is associated with the prevalence of induced abortions (IA) under the One-Child Policy. The study, conducted by a team of epidemiologists from Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital, analyzed data from over 36 different studies in both the United States and China. Their conclusion:

“IA [is] significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer among Chinese females, and the risk of breast cancer increases as the number of IA increases.” Specifically, the study found that one IA increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer by 44 percent, two by 76 percent, and three by 89 percent.

The study notes that historically, China has had low breast cancer rates when compared with Western nations, but “the incidence of breast cancer in China ha[s] increased at an alarming rate over the past two decades.” The study notes that this rise “was paralleled to the one-child-per-family policy.”

In our view, the strong association of abortion and breast cancer established by this study brings the women’s rights violations under the One Child Policy to a new level:  a woman pregnant in China without a birth permit is subjected to both government imposed forced abortion, and also breast cancer as a result of it. Where abortion is forced, the subsequent development of breast cancer becomes a violation of women’s rights in itself.  “China:  One-Child Policy Linked to Breast Cancer – Study.”   http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1428.  12/2/13

Forced Abortion in China Correlates with Low Birth Weight, Increased Chance of Death in Subsequent Pregnancies

A 2012 dissertation submitted to the University of Hong Kong found that children in China are more likely to face serious health complications, including death, if their mothers have had multiple induced abortions. The study concluded that having more than one abortion increases the risk of low birth weight in subsequent pregnancies. Indeed, women who have had three or more induced abortions are at five times the risk of preterm birth in a subsequent pregnancy.

The study, conducted by Cui Limin, explained that nearly two thirds of neonatal deaths are related to low birth weight. For children surviving infancy, LBW increases the risk of neuron-developmental problems, respiratory tract infections, and behavioral problems.[27] According to the study, those with very LBW suffer from conditions including cerebral palsy, blindness, impaired hearing and learning disabilities. Besides harming the child, these health problems put extra financial strain on parents, the study noted.

Women in China are forced into induced-labor abortions, up to the ninth month of pregnancy. In our view, this is a violation of women’s rights of the first degree. We are now learning that these forced abortions also put their future children at risk for respiratory complications, cerebral palsy, and even death related to low birth weight. They also may damage a woman’s future reproductive and general health. This is a violation of the women’s rights and the rights of their future children.  Forced abortion must be stopped, and families should be compensated if their children experience health problems caused by previous induced labor forced abortions.

According to the study, 14.37 million induced abortions were performed in 2012 – one quarter of the abortions in the world — many of which were repeat abortions. The study credited the One-Child Policy as “one of the most important factors for the increased induced abortion rate,” and cited the prevalence of forced and sex-selective abortions in China.”

Conclusion

The Chinese forced abortion policy is systematic, institutionalized violence against women.  Because of the sheer numbers involved, it is the most massive women’s rights issue in the world today, and it must be stopped. Forced abortion is official government rape.

In my opinion, the Chinese Communist Party will not relinquish coercive population control because 1) it enables them to exert social control through terror; 2) it is a lucrative profit center; 3) it provides an infrastructure of coercion that can be used to crush dissent of any sort; and 4) it ruptures relationships of trust, so that people cannot organize for change. I believe that the Chinese Communist Party is maintaining its grip on power by shedding the blood of the innocent women and babies of China.

China’s One Child Policy is the largest and most disastrous social experiment in the history of the world. Through it, the Chinese Communist Party boasts that it has “prevented” 400 million births. This is the hallmark of Communist regimes – the peacetime killing of their own citizens. Now China faces demographic disaster. Ironically, the Chinese Communist Party instituted the One Child Policy for economic reasons, but through it, it has written its own economic death sentence.

Policy Recommendations:

We respectfully request that the United Nations urge the Chinese government to:

*Abolish the One Child Policy and all forms of coercive population control;

*Offer incentives for couples to have girls;[28]

*Offer pensions to couples who do not have a son, ensuring that parents of girls will not become impoverished in their old age; and

*Abolish the hukou system, so that all children will have access to healthcare and education

We also ask the United nations to defund UNFPA, unless and until UNFPA stops supporting or participating in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization in China, in violation of the 1985 Kemp-Kasten Amendment.

I hope to work with you to help end this extremely serious violation of the rights of women and girls in China.  Please feel free to contact me should you require any further information.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

Very truly yours,

Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn, President

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org

Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

 

[1]http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=hillary_clinton

[2] UN Women statement on the occasion of the first World Day against Trafficking in Persons 7/30/14

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/7/statement-for-world-day-against-trafficking-in-personssee also UN Women: World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 7/30/2015

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2015/7/world-day-against-trafficking

[3] Trafficking in Persons Report 2015

http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2015/index.htm

[4] http://www.cecc.gov/events/hearings/population-control-in-china-state-sponsored-violence-against-women-and-children

[5]“Birth policy changes are no big deal.” http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2013-11/16/c_132893477.htm. 11/16/13.

[6]“China’s One-Child Policy ‘Reform’ Won’t End Abuses: US Group.” http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/policy- 07232014161119.html. 7/23/14; “China Hasn’t ‘Eased’ Its One-Child Policy.” http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/364200/china- hasnt-eased-its-one-child-policy-reggie-littlejohn. 11/18/13; “China Not Easing One Child Policy, Says Campaigner.” http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/china-not-easing-one-child-policy-says-campaigner. 11/22/13; “Little Change in Practice for China’s One Child Family Policy.” http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/24/little-change-in-practice-for-chinas-one-child- fam/?page=all. 11/24/13.

[7]“Will the end of China’s One-Child Policy Shift its Boy-Girl Ratio?”  http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/11/15/will-the-end-of-chinas-one-child-policy-shift-its-boy-girl-ratio/.  11/15/13; “One-Child Policy is One Big Problem for China.” http://www.newsweek.com/2014/01/24/one-child-policy-one-big-problem-china-245118.html.  1/24/14; “China’s Revised One Child Policy Still Enables Discrimination Against Girls.”
http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1394011/chinas-revised-one-child-policy-still-enables-discrimination.  12/31/13

[8]“China 1-Child Policy Warning Taken to U.N.” http://www.wnd.com/2014/03/china-1-child-policy-warning-taken-to-u-n/.  3/22/14.

[9]“Critic of One Child Policy in from Cold.” http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1224885/critic-one-child-policy-cold 4/28/13; “Easing One Child Policy May Be Too Late.” http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/easing-one-child-policy-may-be-too-late. 1/7/14.

[10]“China denies full implementation of ‘two-child policy.” http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-04/10/content_20407560.htm. 4/10/15.

[11]“Why China’s New Family Planning Policy Hasn’t Worked.” http://thediplomat.com/2015/04/why-chinas-new-family-planning- policy-hasnt-worked/. 4/20/15.

[12]“China Couple Speak of ‘Forced Abortion.’” http://news.sky.com/story/1150016/china-couple-speak-of-forced-abortion 10/4/13; “Four Uyghur Women Forced to Abort Their Babies in Zinjiang.” http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/abortion- 12302013050902.html; “Xinjiang authorities try to force six women to abort for violating one-child policy.” http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Xinjiang-authorities-try-to-force-six-women-to-abort-for-violating-one-child-policy-29925.html. 12/30/13

[13] “China: Woman Dies of Forced Abortion, Six Months Pregnant.”  http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=429 10/17/11; The Case of “Liu Dan – Woman Dies of Forced Abortion at Nine Months.” http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=cases&nav2=liu-dan#anchor 2/28/09

[14] China:  Woman forced to abort at seven month says, “I feel like a walking corpse.”   http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=1494   1/10/14;  The U.S. State Department’s 2012 Human Rights Report on China stated that the rate of female suicide in China has gone up from 500 to 590 per day. The report noted that the suicide rate among China’s women is three times the suicide rate among the country’s men. Two of the factors cited include “the traditional preference for male children, [and] birth limitation policies.”

[15]“China: Family Planning Official Stabs Man to Death,” http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=147. 4/5/11.

[16]“Crazed Chinese father-of-four stabs two government officials to death over one child policy.” .” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2376771/Chinese-father-kills-1-child-policy-officials-registering-4th-child.html 7/24/13.

[17]“Chinese father of four commits suicide over one-child policy fines so his children can go to school.” http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/chinese-father-of-four-commits-suicide-over-one-child-policy-fines-so-his-c. 5/26/14; “Farmer drinks poison after being fined for violations of family planning policy.” http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/830847.shtml 12/8/13

[18]“Zhang Yimou’s children spark one-child policy debate.” http://en.people.cn/90782/8236414.html. 8/8/13. 13 “The Brutal Truth: A shocking case of forced abortion fuels resentment against China’s one-child policy.”

http://www.economist.com/node/21557369. 6/23/12.

[19] “Huge Fines for Violators of One-Child Policy, but Little Accounting.” http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/huge- fines-for-violators-of-one-child-policy-but-little-accounting/. 12/12/13; “Population Control Is Called Big Revenue Source in China.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/world/asia/chinese-provinces-collected-billions-in-family-planning-fines-lawyer-says.html. 6/26/13; “China has collected $3.1 billion from one-child policy violators so far this year.” http://qz.com/154079/china-has-collected- 3-1-billion-from-one-child-policy-violators-so-far-this-year/. 12/5/13; “Chinese Family Planning Officials Misappropriated $260 Million in Fines.” http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/293660-chinese-family-planning-officials-misappropriated-260-million-in- fines/. 9/20/13.

[20]“The Brutal Truth: A shocking case of forced abortion fuels resentment against China’s one-child policy.” http://www.economist.com/node/21557369. 6/23/12.

[21]“China’s Social Unrest Problem – Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.” Murray Scott Tanner, Ph.D. http://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Tanner_Written%20Testimony.pdf. 5/15/14; see also, “Rising Protests in China.” http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2012/02/rising-protests-in-china/100247/. 2/17/12.

[22]“Family Planning: Enforcing with a smile.” http://www.economist.com/news/china/21638131-enforcers-chinas-one-child-policy- are-trying-new-gentler-approach-enforcing-smile. 1/10/15. If China’s Family Planning Officials were an army, they would tie with North Korea as the sixth largest army in the world. “World’s Largest Armies.” http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/armies.htm.

[23]“Testimony of Mei Shunping, Victim of Five Forced Abortions in China.” http://archives.republicans.foreignaffairs.house.gov/112/HHRG-112-FA16-WState-ShunpingM-20120515.pdf. 5/15/12.

[24]Testimony of “Wujian,” Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, 11/10/09. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=cases&nav2=wujian#anchor

[25] Agreed conclusions on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls, UNCSW 2013, pp. 5, 14.   http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw57/CSW57_Agreed_Conclusions_%28CSW_report_excerpt%29.pdf

[26]“Twin Girls Saved from Abortion in China, Husband’s Family Only Wanted Boys.” http://www.lifenews.com/2014/05/30/twin-girls-saved-from-abortion-in-china-husband-family-told-wife-they-only-wanted-boys/ 5/30/14

[27] Read the Study: The Effect of Induced Abortion on the Risk of Low Birth Weight, Cui Limin http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/183648/1/FullText.pdf?accept=1

[28]We have found in our “Save a Girl” campaign that the encouragement of modest monetary support is enough to make the difference between life and death to a baby girl. “Twin Girls Saved from Abortion in China, Husband’s Family Only Wanted Boys.” http://www.lifenews.com/2014/05/30/twin-girls-saved-from-abortion-in-china-husband-family-told-wife-they-only-wanted-boys/ 5/30/14.

Posted in abortion, Breast Cancer, China, China's One Child Policy, Chinese Communist Party, coerced abortion, communism, corruption, female suicide, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, hukou, human dignity, Human Rights, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, Save a Girl, sex selective abortion, sexual slavery, Trafficking in Persons Report, two child policy, Uncategorized, UNCSW, UNFPA, United Nations, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on United Nations: Complaint Concerning Coercive Population Control in China

State Department Trafficking Report Blames China’s “Previous” One Child Policy

Last week, the United States Department of State issued its annual Trafficking in Persons (“TIP”) report, ranking China on the Tier 2 Watch List because it is a “source, destination and transit country” for trafficked persons, and because the Chinese government, “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking . . .”  On one hand,  the TIP report heavily implicates China’s One Child Policy in connection with China’s rampant sexual slavery problem:

“The Chinese government’s birth limitation policy and a cultural preference for sons create a skewed sex ratio of 117 boys to 100 girls in China, which may serve to increase the demand for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for Chinese men – both of which may be procured by forced or coercion.  Women and girls are recruited through marriage brokers and transported to China, where some are subjected to forced prostitution or forced labor.”

On the other hand, the TIP Report mistakenly describes the One Child Policy as a thing of the past.  Referencing a 2014 modification of the Policy, under which the Chinese government allowed couples with one parent who is an only child to have a second child, the Report states:

Academics noted the gender imbalance, due to the previous one child policy, could contribute to crimes of human trafficking in China.  The government’s modification of the birth limitation policy may affect future demands for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for Chinese men.

Long a vocal critic of China’s One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated:  “There is nothing ‘previous’ about the One Child Policy, which is a present, terrifying reality to the women and families of China.  The fact that the Chinese government tweaked the One Child Policy in 2014 merely allows a relatively small number of additional families to have a second child.  This will not end forced abortion or gendercide in China.  The selective abortion and abandonment of baby girls is most prevalent in the countryside, where couples already can have a second child if the first child is a girl.

“Further, the Report’s statement that this minor modification ‘may affect future demands for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for Chinese men’ is misleading.  Even if the most recent modification were significantly to improve gender ratios at birth – which it will not — the impact on sexual slavery would not be felt for decades to come.  What about all the women and girls who are being trafficked now?  The TIP Report does not cite any effective new initiatives by the CCP to help current victims of sexual slavery.”

The Report describes the far reach of sex trafficking in China:  “Women and children from neighboring Asian countries, including Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as from Africa and the Americas, are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in China.”

The Report also recommends that the Chinese government “investigate, prosecute, and impose prison sentences on government officials who facilitate or are complicit in trafficking.”  Littlejohn added:  “Why does the Chinese government turn a blind eye to officials who are complicit with human trafficking and sexual slavery?  Do they believe that sexual slavery is necessary because of the extreme gender imbalance they have created through the One Child Policy?  This is an abandonment of women who are trafficked as sex slaves in China.”

The Report also raises concerns about the fact that “Chinese authorities continued to forcibly repatriate North Korean refugees by treating them as illegal economic migrants – despite reports that many North Korean female refugees in China were trafficking victims . . . [these repatriated refugees] may face severe punishment, even death.”

“My heart breaks for the young women and girls who escape the violent brutality of North Korea by slipping across the Chinese border, only to find themselves snapped up in the sex slave trade.” Littlejohn continued.  “These women and girls are utterly helpless.  They can be beaten, raped and sold as prostitutes or forced brides, but there is nothing they can do about it.  If they are able to escape from their captors and report their mistreatment to the Chinese authorities, they may be repatriated to North Korea, where they may be accused of treason, sent to hell-hole forced labor camps, and possibly executed.

“China was listed as a Tier 3 nation in 2013 – a status it shared with Iran, Sudan and North Korea.  The Chinese government has not significantly improved its record since that time.  China should return to Tier 3 status immediately.

“Women’s Rights Without Frontiers’ ‘Save a Girl’ campaign has undercover fieldworkers on the ground in China, saving girls from gendercide empowering women to keep their daughters.  This is the most effective way to combat son preference and restore gender ratios in China.”

Learn more about WRWF’s “Save a Girl” campaign: http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Read the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report 2015: http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2015/index.htm

Posted in China's One Child Policy, gendercide, human trafficking, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, sexual slavery, Trafficking in Persons Report, Uncategorized | Comments Off on State Department Trafficking Report Blames China’s “Previous” One Child Policy

China’s One Child Policy Drives Sexual Slavery — World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

One year ago today, the United Nations established the annual World Day against Trafficking in Persons.  In an official statement to commemorate this occasion, UN Women wrote:

“To prevent trafficking, we must address its root causes and the factors that increase individual’s vulnerability to trafficking, including poverty, unemployment, poor access to education and continued gender inequality.”

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated, “Glaringly absent from this list of the ‘root causes’ of human trafficking is China’s One Child Policy.  Gendercide under the One Child Policy has created a gender imbalance in which there are 37 to 40 million more men living in China than women.  The One Child Policy is the driving force behind human trafficking and sexual slavery within China and throughout Asia and beyond.” 

Earlier this month, the United States Department of State recently issued its annual Trafficking in Persons (“TIP”) report, ranking China on the Tier 2 Watch List because it is a “source, destination and transit country” for trafficked persons, and because the Chinese government, “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking . . .”  The TIP report heavily implicates China’s One Child Policy in connection with China’s rampant sexual slavery problem:

“The Chinese government’s birth limitation policy and a cultural preference for sons create a skewed sex ratio of 117 boys to 100 girls in China, which may serve to increase the demand for prostitution and for foreign women as brides for Chinese men – both of which may be procured by forced or coercion.  Women and girls are recruited through marriage brokers and transported to China, where some are subjected to forced prostitution or forced labor.”

The TIP report describes the far reach of sex trafficking in China:  “Women and children from neighboring Asian countries, including Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Mongolia, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as from Africa and the Americas, are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking in China.”

The TIP report recommends that the Chinese government “investigate, prosecute, and impose prison sentences on government officials who facilitate or are complicit in trafficking.”

The TIP report also raises concerns about the fact that “Chinese authorities continued to forcibly repatriate North Korean refugees by treating them as illegal economic migrants – despite reports that many North Korean female refugees in China were trafficking victims . . . [these repatriated refugees] may face severe punishment, even death.”

Littlejohn concluded, “Why does the Chinese government turn a blind eye to officials who are complicit with or facilitate human trafficking and sexual slavery?  Do they believe that sexual slavery is necessary because of the extreme gender imbalance they have created through the One Child Policy?  My heart breaks for the young women and girls who escape the violent brutality of North Korea by slipping across the Chinese border, only to find themselves snapped up in the sex slave trade.  These women and girls are utterly helpless.  They can be beaten, raped and sold as prostitutes or forced brides, but there is nothing they can do about it.  If they are able to escape from their captors and report their mistreatment to the Chinese authorities, they will be repatriated to North Korea, where they may be accused of treason and executed.  Both China’s One Child Policy, and the unique plight of North Korean refugees in China, should be front and center in any discussion of human trafficking and sexual slavery, especially by the U.N. Women on World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers’ “Save a Girl” campaign has undercover fieldworkers on the ground in China, saving girls from gendercide empowering women to keep their daughters.  Learn more about this campaign here:

http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=end-gendercide-and-forced-abortion

Related Links

UN Women statement on the occasion of the first World Day against Trafficking in Persons 7/30/14

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/7/statement-for-world-day-against-trafficking-in-persons

UN Women: World Day Against Trafficking in Persons 7/30/2015

http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2015/7/world-day-against-trafficking

Trafficking in Persons Report 2015

http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2015/index.htm

Posted in China's One Child Policy, gendercide, human trafficking, sex selective abortion, sexual slavery, war on women, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Tagged | Comments Off on China’s One Child Policy Drives Sexual Slavery — World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

China: Girl Saved from Sex-Selective Abortion at 6 months

girlThis adorable three-week-old baby girl is “Lian” (her name has been changed to protect her identity) – and she will never know how hard her brave mother fought to keep her alive. Lian’s mother wept as she told our undercover fieldworker her story.

When Lian’s mother was six months pregnant, she and Lian’s paternal grandmother went to the hospital together for an ultrasound to determine the baby’s gender. Lian’s mother told us that as soon as the doctor announced the baby was a girl, her mother-in-law’s expression changed from expectation to disappointment. Because Lian’s father is the only son in his family, her paternal grandparents wanted a grandson intensely. They felt they had lost this grandson when they received the news that Lian is a girl. When Lian’s grandmother thought that Lian was a boy, she had taken tender care of Lian’s mother, cooking her delicious meals. When Lian’s grandmother learned that Lian is a girl, her attitude changed completely: she began pressuring Lian’s mother to abort Lian. Lian’s mother courageously refused to abort her daughter.

After Lian’s birth, without her mother’s consent, the grandmother even found a childless couple who wanted to adopt Lian. Lian’s mother refused to give her daughter up for adoption. She loves Lian and is determined to raise her.

Our fieldworker stepped into this heartbreaking situation with a message of hope and support. We told Lian’s mother that of course, girls are as valuable as boys – something women rarely or never hear in rural China. We also offered her a monthly stipend for a year, to empower her to keep her daughter. Our encouragement and support are a light in the darkness for Lian’s mother. It is our joy and privilege to extend a helping hand to brave women like Lian’s mother, who are fighting for the lives of their daughters in situations that seem hopeless.

Will you help us save women and girls in China? Become a “GirlSaver”!

For $25 per month, or $300 per year, our GirlSavers have helped WRWF save at-risk babies in China, babies like Lian, who might not be alive if one of our undercover fieldworkers had not met her mother and assured her that little girls are as special as boys. We put our money where our mouth is, offering practical assistance to empower these mothers to keep their daughters.

If you want your donation to go to the Save a Girl campaign, write “Save a Girl” in the memo line. Otherwise, the donation will go where most needed.

Posted in China's One Child Policy, gendercide, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, reproductive rights, Save a Girl, sex selective abortion, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on China: Girl Saved from Sex-Selective Abortion at 6 months

Chinese father of four commits suicide over one-child policy fines so his children can go to school

View original article on lifesitenews.com: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/chinese-father-of-four-commits-suicide-over-one-child-policy-fines-so-his-c/

By Thaddeus Baklinski

(LifeSiteNews.com) – A farmer and father of four in southwest China’s Guizhou province killed himself after family planning officials fined him the equivalent of almost 3,500 USD when he tried to enroll his children in school, according to British news sources.

Wang Guangrong, 37, had defied the country’s harsh one-child-policy regime, which, though less strictly enforced in poor rural areas, still imposes often-impossible financial penalties, and forced abortion or sterilization.

Wang’s widow told the Daily Express that as they were unable to pay the fine, her husband decided to kill himself in hopes of forcing local authorities into paying his family compensation.

“He couldn’t take it,” said his widow, Wu Jinmin, 36, according to the paper. “He said to me before he cut his wrists, ‘What did we bring them into the world for, to be as dumb as cattle? I cannot see my children grow up uneducated.'”

Daily Express reports that out of embarrassment local officials have since given the family the equivalent of 34,000 USD, and have said they will provide them a new house.

“I wish my husband were still with me, but I think he would be happy where he is knowing that our family will be educated after all, even if we are not,” Wu said. “[Authorities] said after his death that extra births, although not encouraged, should not stop the children being educated.”

“The children miss him the most. They are all very sad,” she added.

Reggie Littlejohn of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers said that suicide in China due to the one-child policy is both rampant and poorly understood by most westerners.

“People in the west are sometimes told that people in China are free to have more children if they are willing to pay a fine,” Littlejohn told LifeSiteNews.

“What they are not told is that this fine can be ten times a person’s annual salary – or even more. The vast majority of people cannot afford to pay these crushing fines on an emergency basis to maintain a pregnancy.”

“If a couple cannot pay this fine, they may be subject to forced abortion, or they may hide and have their child illegally. Such ‘illegal children’ are not given hukou – household registration. They have no official existence and are not eligible for health care or an education. They become ‘illegal aliens’ in their own land,” Littlejohn explained.

“This was the case of the Wang’s children. He could not endure the fact that his children would grow up without an education, so he cut his wrists to call attention to this injustice.”

Littlejohn pointed out that forced abortion is not the only human rights violation caused by China’s one-child policy.

“Impossible fines for breaking the policy can drive people to suicide. These ‘terror fines’ amount to coercion and are a human rights violation in themselves, while denying a child essential health care and education is state-sponsored child abuse,” she said.

“Our hearts go out to the family of Wang Guangrong. We can only imagine his anguish and desperation as he took his own life because he could not pay the One Child Policy fine, leaving his family bereft. Women’s Rights Without Frontiers urges the Chinese government to cease its discrimination against so-called illegal children,” Littlejohn said.

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has launched a petition, containing over 32,000 signatures to date, calling on the Chinese government to stop the brutal practice of forcibly aborting women to enforce coercive birth limits in connection with the one child policy.

Posted in hukou, One Child Policy, suicide, Uncategorized | Comments Off on Chinese father of four commits suicide over one-child policy fines so his children can go to school