China: “Save a Girl” Campaign Launched on First International Day of the Girl Child

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA.  October 11 marks the first International Day of the Girl Child, as recognized by the UN General Assembly.  To coincide with this event, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers is launching its “Save a Girl” campaign to end gendercide in China.

Experts estimate that between 160 and 200 million women are missing in the world today because of the sex-selective abortion of baby girls.  Because of this gendercide, there are now 37 million more men living in China than women, which gender imbalance is driving human trafficking and sexual slavery not only in China but in many of the surrounding nations as well.

In response, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has launched its “Save a Girl” campaign to end gendercide.  According to WRWF President Reggie Littlejohn, “This campaign is a way that people can directly help save lives in China.”  The campaign is designed to:

Combat Gendercide. WRWF is giving monthly stipends for a year to mothers who are at risk of aborting or abandoning their baby girls.  This money helps the mother resist pressure to abort or abandon their baby girls.

Fight Forced Abortion: WRWF gives monthly stipends to help support women who are pregnant without a birth permit and are hiding or running to escape forced abortions.

Littlejohn stated, “We are defeating gendercide and forced abortion, one baby at a time.  It’s astonishing how little money it takes to save a life.  For example, one of our baby girls was born to poor farmers.  Her father wanted a son and was pressuring his wife to leave the baby out in the field to die.  A WRWF Field Worker called the mother, who said that if we would help her, she would keep the girl.  WRWF began giving her a small monthly stipend.  Her daughter has become an adorable girl and is now greatly loved by both her parents.  Her mother told WRWF: ‘You saved my daughter’s life.  Thanks to you and your organization.’”

The campaign also gives stipends to women who are fleeing forced abortions.

Find out more about the Save a Girl Campaign here:

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

Read the Resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly – International Day of the Girl Child here:

http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/document/a-res-66-170_535

Posted in China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, gendercide, International Day of the Girl Child, One Child Policy, Reggie Littlejohn, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on China: “Save a Girl” Campaign Launched on First International Day of the Girl Child

China Aid — Beware Naive Rumors: “The Chinese government has begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations”

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

This fine analysis was posted by my colleagues at the China Aid Association today.  Here’s the link to the original post.

Beware of Naive Rumors:  “The Chinese government has begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations”

http://www.chinaaid.org/2012/09/caa-beware-of-naive-rumors-chinese.html

CHINA AID ASSOCIATION 9/26/12

On September 12 and 13, 2012, All Girls Allowed, a US-based group that opposes China’s forced family planning policy and seeks to end it, sent out an English-language news release and a prayer letter saying that the Chinese government had begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations.  The response from many quarters after this news was released and picked up by media outlets was mostly expressions of doubt.  Some organizations and experts have already made targeted rebuttals, and ChinaAid has also engaged in-depth discussions with All Girls Allowed (AGA), making it clear that it held a different view.  In response, AGA’s founder and president Ms. Chai Ling made her case for insisting on the authenticity and accuracy of the news and the group’s investigations (see the links provided below to the news reports on this subject.)

ChinaAid believes that, although we look forward to the early end of the evil policy of forced family planning in China and although we respect and applaud Ms. Chai Ling’s important work and contributions in this endeavor, the tone of the AGA news release and the conclusion it draws lack the necessary and sufficient evidence; they are too naïve and jump to conclusions, and constitute an erroneous report that has seriously misguided and confused international opinion.  At the same time, AGA has unintentionally acted in concert with the Chinese government’s propaganda efforts, beautifying the image of the family planning commissions and their officials, which will hurt innumerable victims of the forced family planning policy and weaken their courage to pursue justice and protect the dignity of human life.

The evidence cited by AGA are mainly the following:

1. On July 12 of this year, China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission held its semi-annual work conference on national population and family planning work, and director  Ms. Wang Xia delivered a report in which she called [on family planning workers] “to guide the masses to practice family planning on their own initiative, [and] resolutely put an end to late-term induced labor [i.e. abortion]”

(See ChinaAid’s translation of excerpts of Ms. Wang Xia’s speech below. The Chinese version is available at http://www.chinapop.gov.cn/xwzx/zwyw/2012/201207/t20120719_391788.html ).

2. AGA telephoned a family planning official in the Chinese city of Chongqing to confirm this.  She (or he) responded affirmatively, saying:  the Chinese government has already issued a document to all family planning commissions banning forced abortions and forced sterilizations, which must be voluntarily decided upon by the parents themselves.

Hence, AGA’s analysis was, It’s clear that the July speech by Wang Xia, the head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, was not just empty talk.  A Chongqing official has said: “No more forced abortions.”

ChinaAid believes that the evidence cited by AGA are merely oral statements that have been put down on paper (the document has not even been sighted yet; it’s just hearsay), and there is no evidence yet of it being put into practice or of action having been taken.   In other words, this is still nothing more than the propaganda of the Chinese government.  Therefore, it should not be the basis upon which the conclusion is drawn that the Chinese government has already begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations.  These are our reasons:

1. Do not readily fall for the propaganda of the Chinese government. From 1944 to the present, the propaganda of China’s Communist Party-ruled government has been based on lies, mostly through deception, misleading, coercion and inducements, and brainwashing.  According to a June 13, 1944 report in Liberation Daily, Mao Zedong said in response to questions from a group of foreign reporters:  “Strong politics can only be built on freedom of speech, publication, assembly and association and on a democratically elected government.”  Such moving words! As a leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square student movement, Ms. Chai Ling experienced the massacre [that ended the movement] and therefore should understand this better than most people and have a more unforgettable memory of it.  At the time, didn’t the central government promise that “the government will not settle the score after the fact” and “students who took part in the June 4 movement will not be politically persecuted by the government,” etc., etc.?  But what really happened?  Furthermore, at least this much is clear: because of the political news with Chinese characteristics that exploded in Chongqing this year does anyone still believe the words of officials in Chongqing?  And also, Chinese government propaganda for years has said that Chinese citizens fully enjoy human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of religion, etc.  But don’t the large body of facts and data reported by ChinaAid in its annual reports on persecution of Christian churches unmask those lies for the whole world to see?

2. In her speech, National Population and Family Planning Commission director Wang Xia stressed that the national policy of family planning would be continued. The core message and central theme of Wang Xia’s speech is that the forced family planning [measures] of the past 30-plus years were correct.  Hence, [she referred to] “the need to conscientiously sum up the achievements in population and family planning work and to be even more confident and resolute.”  Moreover, [she said,] this is the political road that the Communist Party and the government has all along held to, saying “the Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council have always remained committed to strategically and comprehensively grasping and achieving a high level of understanding of population issues.  Especially since reform and opening-up, they have always persisted in the comprehensive policy strategy of population and development in unwaveringly carrying out the basic national policy of family planning” so that “we have made great achievements in population control and family planning that have attracted world attention.  Nationwide, births were reduced by more than 400 million babies (person)…”  Please note here, this 400 million is truly a bloody figure.

3.  Facts speak louder than words:  According to news from mainland China in recent days, family planning measures are still being forcibly carried out and forced abortions are still being performed. Since forced family planning started in 1979, countless unborn babies have already been forcibly aborted and countless women have been forcibly sterilized and countless families have lost livestock and their homes due to heavy fines or because their houses have been demolished.  Countless cadres have been removed or demoted because unapproved births have occurred in their jurisdictions.  There also have been countless cadres who have been promoted because they brutally and bloodily implemented the family planning policy (for instance, Li Qun the former Party secretary of Linyi City who was widely regarded as the No. 1 blackhand in persecuting [blind human rights activist] Chen Guangcheng, is now the Party secretary of the city of Qingdao).  But nowhere in China’s family planning law and local family planning regulations does it approve of [using] the measures of forced abortions or sterilizations.  Yet, in reality, the government has always acted unhesitatingly in carrying out forced abortions and sterilizations.  When Hu Jintao visited the United States in January 2011, Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Congresswoman from Florida and chairman of House Committee on Foreign Affairs, referred to China’s forced family planning practices with a concern.  President Hu Jintao immediately responded with a lie, “There are no forced abortions in China!”

4.  As was true of the 1989 crackdown on the Tiananmen Square student movement, so it also is with the “national family planning policy”: it is an important and politically correct aim of the Chinese Communist Party in the Deng Xiaoping era. Therefore, to overturn the decision on the June 4th crackdown or to reverse the forced family planning policy is tantamount to admitting that the Chinese Communist Party has made serious mistakes since 1979 and it would also be tantamount to negating Deng Xiaoping.  If the Chinese government were to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations and require that the parents themselves choose, then the family planning policy would immediately fall apart.  When that day comes, a major political transformation will have certainly emerged in China and Deng Xiaoping’s political era will be negated, just as the Communist government in the Deng Xiaoping era negated the Cultural Revolution of the Mao Zedong era.  At any rate, in advance of this year’s 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the opening date of which has not even been set yet, there is no reason yet to be so optimistic.

To sum up the four points above, it is our view that AGA has no conclusive evidence to believe that Wang Xia will put into practice that single sentence in her long-winded speech, even less is there any basis to believe that the words of that Chongqing official is proof that the Chinese government plans to ban forced abortions and sterilizations, even though we have reason to believe that there has been this kind of propagandizing and that such words were spoken—the objective was to deal with the international outcry and the international pressure [over China’s forced abortions].  Certainly, these changes in wording demand our close attention and should be encouraged because they demonstrate that international pressure and the rights defense movement in China on the family planning issue have already achieved results.

As is well-known to all, these serious repercussions and denunciations both internationally and domestically were triggered by the explosive news of several forced family planning scandals, including escape to the United States of Mr. Chen Guangcheng, the blind human rights lawyer from Linyi, Shandong province, the government’s forced abortion of the seven-month unborn baby of Feng Jianmei in Ankang, Shaanxi province, the government’s forced abortion of an eight-month unborn baby in Xianyou county, Fujian province, the government’s forced abortion of Hu Xia’s nearly eight-month unborn baby in Jianli county, Hubei province, etc.  There was also Ms. Cao Ruyi from Changsha, Hunan province, who was five months pregnant when she was kidnapped by government cadres and taken to a hospital where they intended to force her to undergo an abortion.  Fortunately, due to the efforts of ChinaAid, Chinese house churches and the international community, particularly the efforts of New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, who protested in a letter to the Changsha government, she was spared.

Therefore, just because there has been some change in the propaganda of the Chinese government does not mean there will be actual changes in practice.  People need to see actual actions and changes in the actual policy.  Looking at Wang Xia’s speech, however, no movement of any kind is evident toward a ban on forced abortions and sterilizations, since she said: “[Of] first [importance] is to hold unwaveringly to family planning as an unchanging fundamental national policy and grasp firmly the paramount task of maintaining a stable low birth rate. Maintaining a stable low birth rate is the most important task in upholding and implementing the fundamental national policy of family planning, …” Here she emphasizes that maintaining a stable birth rate is the paramount task, that is, the paramount task of this “unchanging” fundamental national policy.  But how is one to “hold unwaveringly to” and accomplish this paramount task?  Are they relying on Chinese parents to voluntarily give up having a second child? No one would believe this, not even Wang Xia.

Below, we quote from the Xinhua News Agency, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, in a 1946 attack on the Kuomintang (the Nationalist Party governing China then):

“In the past 20 years, especially in recent years, we see every day that ‘only the magistrates can set fires while the commoners are not allowed to light their lamps.’  Setting aside for the moment the question of whether the government’s edicts are in the interest of the people, what really makes people angry is that the government doesn’t even abide by these kinds of edicts.  Every day, the government wants the people to abide by the law and yet the government itself violates the law every day.  Such behavior is miles removed from the concept of ‘democracy.’  Whether the democracy advocates are genuine or fakes, we are too humble to comment.  Let us first see what percentage of the government’s empty promises of democracy has it actually honored.  If they do not honor the words written in blank ink on white paper, what more is there to say?  Therefore, before holding the political consultative conference, we would first like to ask them to keep their promise.  We hope that by doing this small thing that it ought to do, the government can show the people that it is trustworthy.”—Xinhua Daily.  February 1, 1946.

We can’t help but ask, next month it will be 63 years since the Communist Party founded the People’s Republic of China, but has it kept its promises?  It’s already been more than 20 years since the Kuomintang government in Taiwan honored its promise.

Likewise, director Wang Xia of the National Population and Family Planning Commission of P. R. China in her July speech called for “resolutely put[ing] an end to late-term induced labor [abortions].”  So let’s just wait and see, see when they will bring this to pass.

Lies themselves are nothing to be afraid of, but believing in lies and naïvely spreading them is definitely cause for concern.

In view of this, ChinaAid expresses its deep regret and unease, and strongly urges AGA to release a corrected statement so as to redeem itself for having publicly misled people.

Let’s be united in continuing to expose the brutality of the forced family planning policy, to bring comfort to and to support the victims who are bravely using the law to protect that most basic of human rights, the right to reproduce.  At the same time, let’s look to the Lord Jesus Christ for grace and help to bring to an early end this end this ignorant and evil national policy that is disastrous for both the country and the people.

Links to English-language news reports:

http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/ChinaEndsLatetermForcedAbortions

http://www.christianpost.com/news/chinese-govt-calls-for-end-to-forced-abortions-after-intl-outcry-81606/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/china-has-not-banned-forced-abortion-groups-insist-81829/

http://www.lifenews.com/2012/09/17/chinese-government-has-not-banned-forced-abortions-despite-reports/

http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/update-chinese-government%E2%80%99s-document-banning-late-term-forced-abortion

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2012/09/advocacy-groups-disagree-china-ban-one-child-policy-forced-abortions.html

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/religion/forced-abortions-continue-china-china-expert-steven-mosher-says

The Chinese version of the ChinaAid Editorial is here: http://www.chinaaid.net/2012/09/blog-post_7110.html

The 2012 National Semi-Annual Work Conference on Population and Family Planning Opens

http://www.chinapop.gov.cn/xwzx/zwyw/2012/201207/t20120719_391788.html

July 19, 2012   Source: China Population News  Translated by China Aid Association

Liberate the mind, deepen reform, boost confidence

Promote the sustainable and healthy development of the cause of population and family planning

Speech by Wang Xia.  Gou Qingming, Wang Peian, Cui Li, Chen Li, Yang Yuxue and Jiang Fan in attendance

The 2012 National Semi-Annual Work Conference on Population and Family Planning opened on July 19 in Beijing. The conference’s main tasks were: to carry out and implement a series of Party Central Committee arrangements regarding effective nationwide population and family planning in the new era, which center on the comprehensive implementation of the program in the 12th Five-Year Plan for population growth and for population and family planning work, to sum up work achievements, to analyze the current situation, deepen the development of ideas, nail down the key tasks, to further liberate the mind, to deepen reform, to strengthen our confidence and to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the work of population and family planning.  Wang Xia, minister of the  National Population and Family Planning Commission, delivered a semi-annual work report.  Attending the conference were: Gou Qingming, head of the disciplinary inspection group of the Communist Party Central Committee’s Disciplinary Inspection Commission assigned to the National Population and Family Planning Commission; National Population and Family Planning Commission vice ministers Wang Peian, Cui Li and Chen Li; Yang Yuxue, vice president of the standing committee of the Chinese Family Planning Association; and Jiang Fan, president of the Research Institute of Family Planning and Reproductive Health.

Since the beginning of this year, solid progress has been made in the various priority tasks of the population and family planning system and phased results have been achieved.  Leadership efforts have been enhanced and smooth progress has been made on major projects; some new breakthroughs have been achieved on some difficult problems, basic work at the grass-roots level has been consolidated, and building up work style has been further strengthened; thus laying a solid foundation for realizing the annual work goals and promoting the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan.

Wang Xia pointed out in her speech the need to conscientiously sum up the achievements in population and family planning work and to be even more confident and resolute.  The Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council have always remained committed to strategically and comprehensively grasping and achieving a high level of understanding of population issues.  Especially since reform and opening-up, they have always persisted in the comprehensive policy strategy of population and development in unwaveringly carrying out the basic national policy of family planning.  We have made great achievements in population control and family planning that have attracted world attention.  Nationwide, births were reduced by more than 400 million babies, creating a relatively long period of a population “dividend” when total expenditure on child raising is comparatively low and savings rates are relatively high. This is effective in relieving the pressure the population growth exerts on natural resources and the environment, greatly.  It has greatly improved the conditions for existence and development of all the people in this country, and is an important contribution to reform and opening-up and rapid economic and social growth that is indelible.  It has also laid a solid foundation for good overall success in population and family planning work in the new era.

Wang Xia emphasized the need to clearly see the new situation we face and further strengthen our sense of responsibility and sense of calling.  First, is the need for a profound understanding of the basis of the impact that population changes in the new era are having on the transformation of social and economic development.  The overall transformation of China’s population growth is concomitant with the transformation of China’s economic and social development; hence, demographic issues must be addressed within the larger context of the overall economic and social development, and there must be a profound understanding of the important role of population growth on economic and social development. Not only does resolving practical problems need to be emphasized, but strategic research must also be strengthened, by using new ways of thinking to crack various problems and by striving to enhance the ability to explore and use regular patterns and science in policy decisions.  Second is to have a profound understanding of the objective requirements that strengthening of and innovations in social management will have on the management of population services as a whole.  Population growth must become the foundation of the various resources for integrating the national economy, gradually perfecting the “people-oriented” policy for management of population services and establishing a management system for population services that is compatible with social patterns.  Strengthening of and innovations in social management must occur unceasingly at the source, attaching importance to the effect that population-based management has on its supporting role in formulating the policies for perfecting people’s livelihoods, establishing a comprehensive population service mechanism guided by demographics-based information, paying close attention to the link between interactive sharing of demographic information and basic public services in urban and rural areas, and strengthening  the monitoring and early-warning forecasting of population growth.  Third is to have a profound understanding of the inherent demands that establishing a service-oriented government will have on accelerating the transformation of the function of population service management. We should stick to the principle of “people first,” making equal access to basic public services the goal and guided by the public’s needs and the needs of economic and social development, to create a new structure of social pluralism in collaborative governance by strengthening pro-active service and overall coordination. At the same time, the idea of investing in people first should be adopted, establishing a system of sound population growth policy and allocating more public resources to areas that are directly related to comprehensive human development and the improvement of people’s livelihood. A sense of purpose and service awareness must be firmly established, areas of service must be constantly expanded, management must brought into the providing of services, and our ability to make service policy decisions, to serve the grassroots and to serve the masses must be strengthened.  Fourth, we should have a profound understanding of the problems and shortcomings in our current population and family planning work.  We must be vigilant in peacetime, boost our confidence and push ourselves so as to effectively improve our overall quality and our work performance.

Wang Xia called for thinking and understanding to be unified and further clarification of the important work to be firmly grasped.  The first is to hold unwaveringly to family planning as an unchanging fundamental national policy and to grasp firmly the paramount task of maintaining a stable low birth rate.  Maintaining a stable low birth rate is the most important task in upholding and implementing the fundamental national policy of family planning, as well as the basis and premise for achieving good overall results in population work and a comprehensive resolution to the population problem.  Work at the grassroots level in both urban and rural areas must be comprehensively strengthened by identifying and rectifying the shortcomings, establishing sound work systems in urban and rural areas, perfecting long-term work mechanisms and accelerating the achievement of full coverage of excellent family planning services. Organizational leadership should be further strengthened and duties should be fulfilled; earnestly do a good job in key locales and among key people-groups to promote transformation of the work in backward areas. Hold fast to using propaganda as a guiding force and the combining of law-abiding administration with [the lure of] benefits to guide the masses to practice family planning on their own initiative, resolutely put an end to late-term induced labor [i.e. abortion] and resolutely avoid triggering malevolent cases through illegal administrative actions.  Sternly investigate by following regulations and adhering to discipline the problem of unapproved births among Party members and cadres and the rich and famous, so as to create a social atmosphere that is conducive to population and family planning work.

(ChinaAid: The Translation is on going and a complete version will be updated soon)

ChinaAid Contacts
Bob Fu, President | Mark Shan, Spokesperson
Tel: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Cell: (267) 205-5210
Email: Bob@ChinaAid.org |  Mark@ChinaAid.org

Posted in All Girls Allowed, Bob Fu, China Aid Association, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, One Child Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Off on China Aid — Beware Naive Rumors: “The Chinese government has begun to ban forced abortions and forced sterilizations”

China’s Brutal One Child Policy Turns 32 Today: An Open Letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

Dear President Hu Jintao:

As you know, today is the tragic 32nd anniversary of the official institution of China’s brutal One Child Policy, which has caused incalculable suffering to the women and families of China.

Feng Jianmei, for example, was forcibly aborted at seven months when she and her husband, Deng Jiyuan, could not pay a 40,000 yuan fine ($6300). Officials of Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, tried to force Feng into a car, but she escaped to her aunt’s house.  They broke through the gate, so she fled to the mountains, where officials found her hiding under a bed.  After forcibly aborting her baby, officials laid the bloody body of her dead daughter next to her in the bed.  The story and photograph immediately went viral, sent shockwaves around the world, and ignited a firestorm of outrage.

Our hearts go out to the victims of forced abortion and their families.  The coercive enforcement of China’s cruel and barbaric One Child Policy causes more violence towards women and girls than any other official policy on earth.  It is China’s war against women and girls. Women are forcibly aborted up to the ninth month of pregnancy.  Forced abortion is not a choice.  It is systematic, institutionalized violence against women, official government rape; and it continues to this day.  Women’s Rights Without Frontiers urges you to put an end to this hideous crime against humanity.

Feng Jianmei is not alone.  Several other cases of coercion have emerged in the past year:

Lijing County, Shandong Province. October 12, 2011.  Jihong Ma died during a forced abortion, six months pregnant.  Due to the trauma of being seized by Family Planning Officials, she had been placed on oxygen.  In the words of a family member:

“More than ten persons from the Family Planning Bureau came, took off the oxygen mask from her and forced her to induce labor. From the time she was put into operating room at 4:00 p.m., there was no news about her . . . At night around 10:00 p.m., someone came, opened the door of the delivery room and slipped away. We ran into the delivery room and saw that the doctors and nurses all disappeared while poor Jihong Ma’s body had already been totally freezing cold, with purple lips and bleeding nose, lying on the operating table without any movement.”

Linyi City, Shandong Province. March 2012.  A photo of a forcibly aborted full term baby drowned in a bucket, submitted anonymously, circulated on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, and in the West.  The infant reportedly cried at birth, but was drowned in a bucket by family planning personnel.

Huangqiao Town, Jishui County, Jiangxi Province. March 2012.  A 46-year-old woman was forcibly sterilized, in retaliation for bringing a petition. The woman posted the following account on the internet:

On March 14, my husband was being escorted back from making a petition.  To retaliate for his petition, the town government sent more than 20 strong men.  I could no longer give birth to a child at that time, but they still dragged my legs, treated me like an animal, and forcibly performed a tubal ligation on the operating table of the Family Planning Office.  Guoqing Luo (the Deputy Town Secretary) also exclaimed, “The Government takes the consequences!  The Government has the money!”

Cao Ruyi, Changsha City, Hunan Province. June 2012 and ongoing.  Five months pregnant, Cao Ruyi was detained by Family Planning Officials, who beat her husband and attempted to forcibly abort her.  They demanded that she pay the Chinese equivalent of approximately $24,000, or face forced abortion.  Because of international pressure, this amount was reduced and Cao was allowed to leave the hospital, but she remains in jeopardy.

Hu Jia, Jianli County, Hubei Province. June 19, 2012.  China’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported that Hu Jia was forcibly aborted at nearly eight months.  This case was reported by a major Chinese newspaper, indicating the growing discontent with the policy inside China and the courage of the Chinese news media to report it.

Chen Guangcheng. Not only are women oppressed, but so are those who try to defend them.  Blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng exposed the widespread and systematic use of forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations in Linyi County in 2005.  The Chinese Communist Party imprisoned Chen for four years and three months.  They then kept him and his family under strict house arrest from September, 2010 until his dramatic escape.  Chen arrived in the United States on May 19, 2012.

Catastrophic Financial Penalties. Forced abortion and sterilization are not the only way that the One Child Policy devastates families.  The often excessive fines paid by couples to save an “out of plan” pregnancy are used to line the pockets of family planning and other officials.  These fines can reach up to ten times a person’s annual salary.  Job loss is another form of financial coercion and can be catastrophic.  In March 2012, the head of the Chemistry Department at Renmin University in Beijing jumped to his death because he was accused of having a second child and threatened with being “discharged from public employment.” Meanwhile, officials are promoted or demoted based on whether they meet birth, abortion and sterilization quotas.

Professor Commits Suicide Over Violating China’s One-Child Policy

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/professor-commits-suicide-for-violating-china-s-one-child-policy-272556.html

Jackie Sheehan, “Cruel Cut,” South China Morning Post, 7/25/12

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=752

European Parliament. 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. 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.

UNFPA and IPPF. It is significant that the European Parliament has acknowledged that it provides funding for family planning in China.  For decades, the UNFPA and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) have worked hand in hand with the Chinese population control machine, which is coercive.  They are funded by many nations, not only in Europe but the world over, including the United States.  WRWF has no doubt that any unbiased investigation by the European Parliament or any other governmental body will reveal that these organizations are complicit with coercive family planning in China.

Chinese Group Calls for Abolition of One Child Policy. In the wake of the case of Feng Jianmei, a prominent group of scholars has criticized the policy on the basis that it violates human rights and works against economic stability. Fifteen brave intellectuals signed an open letter urging that re-writing of family planning law was “imperative.” One of their leaders, well-known Internet entrepreneur James Liang, called for the abolition of the one-child rule.

Below my signature are links to our video and petition to stop forced abortion in China.

President Hu, you are in a unique position to stop this violence.  As you prepare to leave office later this year, may the end of the One Child Policy be your legacy to the Chinese people.

Sincerely,

Reggie Littlejohn, President

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org

Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! (49,000 views)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

Petition to stop forced abortion in China (21,000 signatures)  http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

Posted in coerced abortion, European Parliament, Feng Jianmei, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, Hu Jintao, IPPF, One Child Policy, Planned Parenthood, pro-choice, pro-life, rape, Uncategorized, UNFPA, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | 3 Comments

Forced Abortions Continue in China, Steven Mosher Says

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

“Reports that the Chinese Party-State has ended its practice of forcibly aborting women pregnant in violation of the one-child policy are premature,” says Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute.

Mosher, who blew the whistle on forced abortions in China back in 1980, points out that “The Chinese Party-State has asserted for over three decades that the one-child policy is ‘entirely voluntary.’  But this assertion of ‘voluntarism’ is no more true now than it was when I saw women who were five, seven, and even nine months pregnant held down on the operating table and aborted. Women continue to be arrested, aborted, and sterilized against their will at this very moment.”

The claim that China has ended its cruel and inhuman practice of forced abortions originates with All Girls Allowed (AGA), which reached this conclusion after learning that a Chinese government “document [was issued] to Family Planning offices that bans forced abortion and sterilization.”

“I do not doubt that such a document was issued,” maintains Mosher. “Indeed, I expected that the Chinese government would engage in exactly this kind of damage control. After all, the recent spate of adverse publicity generated by blind activist Chen Guangcheng’s flight into exile, and Feng Jianmei’s brutal forced abortion at seven months gestation, has made hundreds of millions of people around the world and inside of China aware of its crimes against humanity. The Chinese Party-State, which is responsible for such criminal acts, has lost face, and is now trying recover.”

“Coercion will continue,” Mosher went on. “How will officials successfully extort huge fines from women and their families for violating the one-child policy if they can’t threaten women with forced abortion and sterilization for not paying up?

This latest document will no more end forced abortion that did the 2002 Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China, Article 4 of which directed population control officials to “enforce the law in a civil manner, and [they may] not infringe upon legitimate rights and interests of citizens.”

Forced abortions and other abuses won’t end,” notes Mosher, “until the Chinese Party-State not only abandons the one-child policy, but abandons its Maoist-Marxist  belief that it has the right to control the reproduction of human beings under a state plan.

Posted in Steven Mosher | Comments Off on Forced Abortions Continue in China, Steven Mosher Says

Despite Recent Report, Chinese Government Has NOT BANNED Forced Abortion

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

On September 13, All Girls Allowed (AGA) sent out a press release with the bold title, “Chinese Government Bans Forced Abortion.”  We wish we could agree with our colleagues at AGA.  Unfortunately, this time, we cannot.

AGA’s claim that “the Chinese Government issued a document to Family Planning offices that bans forced abortion and sterilization” is based on links to two Chinese documents and a call to a family planning official in Chonqing City.  The press release states, “What the officer in Chonqing said was incredible.  Not only did they ban forced abortion, but the change came from the top down:  “Earlier the government issued a document to all family planning committees,” he said.  “Everyone has received it.”    The AGA press release touted this statement as “a major change” and stated, with respect to the One Child Policy, “its days are numbered.”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has no doubt that forced abortions continue to happen at this very moment in China. When the message goes out that this is nolonger happening, it undermines the movement to stop it.

Considering the facts set forth in the AGA press release, WRWF reaches the opposite conclusion:  The Chinese Government has NOT BANNED forced abortion.  Until proven otherwise, we believe that any rhetoric generated by the Chinese Communist Party ostensibly banning forced abortion is propaganda designed to deflect the heat generated by the notorious forced abortion at seven months of Feng Jianmei in June 2012.  Here’s why:

1)  Forced abortion has long been officially “banned” in China, yet it happens all the time.

In January 2011, Chinese President Hu Jintao told Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that China has no forced abortion policy, yet numerous cases of forced abortion have surfaced since that time.  In addition, Article 4 of The Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China already protects against forced abortion.  It states that Family Planning Officials shall “enforce the law in a civil manner, and they may not infringe upon legitimate rights and interests of citizens.” http://www.gov.cn/english/laws/2005-10/11/content_75954.htm This law is not worth the paper it is written on.  Many credible reports of forced abortion have surfaced since this law was promulgated in 2002.  To see examples from 2012, read WRWF’s Complaint to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=717

2)  The documents cited in the AGA press release do not support the conclusion that the Chinese government has banned forced abortion.

Both documents mention a ban on late-term forced abortion only.  They are silent on early and mid-term forced abortion, and therefore do not ban such forced abortions.  Further, both documents take the position that late-term abortions must be voluntary.  The Chinese Communist Party, however, already insists that abortions must be “voluntary,” and forced abortion is still practiced.  In April 2012, for example, Pan Chunyan was grabbed out of her grocery store and forced to place her thumbprint on a document authorizing her abortion at eight months of pregnancy.  Does this count as “voluntary” under the Policy?

These documents do not cite any penalty for breaking the “ban” on forced abortion. Nor do these documents discuss what will happen to women who are more than six months pregnant, but who cannot or will not pay the often impossible fines.  To the contrary, both documents extol the virtues of the One Child Policy.  To read English translations of these documents, scroll down.

3)  The documents cited in the AGA press release do not remove the financial or structural incentives that keep forced abortion in place.

The often excessive fines paid by couples to save an “out of plan” pregnancy are used to feather the pockets of family planning and other officials.  These fines can reach up to ten times a person’s annual salary.  Job loss is another form of financial coercion and can be catastrophic.  In March 2012, the head of the Chemistry Department at Renmin University in Beijing jumped to his death because he was accused of having a second child and threatened with being “discharged from public employment.” Meanwhile, officials are promoted or demoted based on whether they meet birth, abortion and sterilization quotas.

Professor Commits Suicide Over Violating China’s One-Child Policy

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/professor-commits-suicide-for-violating-china-s-one-child-policy-272556.html

Jackie Sheehan, “Cruel Cut,” South China Morning Post, 7/25/12

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=752

Clicking the “read more” link on the AGA press release and scrolling down will reveal that the release eventually mentions the fact that the documents cited are silent on the issue of early and mid-term forced abortions, and do not address the issue of “huge fines” as a form of coercion.  These nuances, however, were predictably lost in the blast of the sensational headline.

Conclusion

WRWF agrees that pressure is mounting to end forced abortion in China.  However, to announce that the Chinese government has already banned it is, in our opinion, premature and inaccurate.  We need to keep the pressure on, not celebrate propaganda designed to take the pressure off.

Sign a petition to end forced abortion here.

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

Watch a video about forced abortion in China here.
Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women! Video (4 mins)

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/?nav=stop-forced-abortion

Here are English translations of the Chinese documents referenced by AGA.

2012 Semi-Annual Working Conference

On National Population and Family Planning

July 20, 2012

The original Chinese document can be found here:
http://www.chinapop.gov.cn/xwzx/zwyw/2012/201207/t20120719_391788.html

English translation:
On July 19, the National Population and Family Planning held its semi-annual work conference in Beijing. The main tasks  of this conference are: implementing a series of deployment on carrying out the family planning in the new period, focusing on the “12th Five-Year Population Development Plan” and the “Development Plan on Population and Family Planning,” summarizing achievements, analyzing current situation, deepening understanding of development, clarifying key tasks, further liberating ideas, deepening China’s reform, facilitating the development of the population and family planning in a sustained and healthy way. The Minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, Wang Xia made the semi-annual report. Gou Qingming, Resident Discipline Inspection Team Leader to NPFPC, Wang Peian, Cui Li, Chen Li, Vice Ministers of NPFPC, Yang Yuxue, Executive Vice President of China Family Planning Association, Jiang Fan, President of the Society of Family Planning and Reproductive Health, attended the meeting.

Since this year, all the major works of population and family planning have made solid progress, and initial achievements have been made. Intensified supervision has been increased, all the major projects are progressing smoothly, breakthroughs have been made with a number of difficult issues, the work at grassroots has become more consolidated and the good style of the construction work has been further strengthened.  All of these works have laid a solid foundation for fulfilling the targets of the whole year and pushing forward the implementation of the “12th Five-Year Plan.”

In her speech, Minister Wang Xia pointed out that we should conscientiously sum up the experiences of successes in population and family planning work, and be more steadfast with our confidence and determinations. The Party Central Committee and the State Council have always understood and addressed the population issue from a strategic and integral elevation. Especially since the reform and opening up policy, the decision making has been practiced in a comprehensive manner, embracing both population and development, and the basic national policy of family planning has been persistently carried out. As a result, the population and family planning work of our country has achieved remarkable success that is recognized by the world. Four hundred million births were prevented and a prolonged condition of high population dividend, in which there is a low population dependent ratio and a high saving ratio, was created. This has effectively alleviated the pressure of population growth on resources and environment, tremendously improved conditions of living and development and made indelible contributions to the reforms and opening up and the rapid social and economic development. These successes have also laid a solid foundation for better implementation of the population and family planning program in the new era.

Wang Xia emphasized that we should understand our new situation and further enhance the sense of responsibility and the sense of mission.

First, we should understand the impact from the population changes to the basis of the transformation of the economic and social development in the new era. The overall transformation of the development of China’s population is accompanied by the transformation of China’s economic and social development.  We must put the population problem into the pattern of economic and social development as a whole.  We should understand that the population development is very important to the economic and social development.  We should not only focus on addressing the real problem, but also strengthen the strategic research.  We should crack various problems with a new way of thinking, and enhance the ability to explore the use of the law and scientific decision-making. Population development is the basis for the integration of the national economy and all kinds of resources.  We should gradually improve “people-oriented” service management policies, establish a service management system to adapt to the large population and social pattern. We should continue strengthening social management, we should pay attention to the supporting role of population-based management to improving the people’s livelihood policy, we should build up a population-based information service mechanism, we should focus on the interaction of demographic information sharing and the urban-rural basic public services convergence, we should strengthen the monitoring development and early warning and forecast on population.  We should have a profound understanding of the requirement of service-oriented government building for accelerating the transformation of the population service management functions.  We should adhere to the principle of “people-oriented,” in order to achieve the aim of the equalization of basic public services; public demand and economic development, social development should be our guide. We should strengthen active service and co-ordination, form a new pattern of social pluralism collaborative governance. At the same time, we should establish the concept of putting investment in people first, establish a healthy population policy system, and assign more public resources to improving people’s livelihood. We should firmly establish the sense of purpose and a sense of service, continue to expand service areas, focus management on services and enhance services decision-making, the grassroots services, the ability to serve people. Fourth, we should have a profound understanding of the problems and shortcomings of the current population and family planning work. We should be vigilant, increase confidence, be self-pressurized, and effectively improve the overall quality and level of work.

Wang Xia said we should unify our thinking, clarify the key tasks. First, always adhere to the basic national policy of family planning, which is a fundamental task, effectively stabilize the low birth rate, the primary task at present. Stabilizing the low birth rate is a primary task. It’s imperative to strengthen the grassroots work in urban and rural areas, establish and improve the urban and rural working system, improve the long-term working mechanism, accelerate the realization of the full coverage of Family Planning Services. We should further strengthen the organization and leadership, assign responsibilities, implement carefully the deployment in the key areas and key groups, promote the transformation of backward areas. We should adhere to the combination of advocacy, law-based administration and interest orientation.  We should guide the people to implement family planning voluntarily, absolutely stop performing late-term abortions, absolutely stop vicious cases due to illegal administration. Seriously follow the rules to investigate and deal with the problem of party members, cadres, rich and famous persons, create a good social atmosphere for family planning work.

Second, the construction of population information is the key for solving the population problem. We should improve the working mechanism of the information technology; put the population information construction to the top of our priority. Conscientiously implement the population integrated management information system project, accelerate the construction of the full population information database, strengthen top-level design, [implement] uniform standards and build a unified information platform. Population and Family Planning Commissions of all provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities and of cities  should follow the standard of the national platform.  We should take the grassroots communities as our base, further improve the population registration and statistics system, speed up the sharing of information resources, further improve the collection and sharing system, and build a  dynamic update mechanism.  We should strengthen information, comprehensive development and utilization, build a full demographic information platform to provide a reference for scientific decision-making of the Party committees, governments and relevant departments, and provide information to improve the level of population service management.

Third, gradually improve the legal and policy system. We should accelerate research to establish the population development policy system, and implement the incentive fees for one-child parents. In accordance with the requirements of the central authorities, in conjunction with relevant departments, [we should] step up the policy of supporting the population of the study and the national main functional area planning, further promote and improve relevant laws and regulations.

Fourth, strengthen family planning public service system. [We should] seriously study the range of population and family planning of basic public services, projects, key tasks, explore realistic modes, and establish basic public services and improve family planning implementation mechanisms. [We should] study and develop and promote the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan of the family planning service system.  [We should] fight for the standardization public service facilities for each county. Pay more attention to the management of the specification of the service agencies, improve public education, technical services, eugenics guidance, contraceptive distribution, information consultation and follow-up services, reproductive health, training of personnel, improvement of service quality. Take the implementation of the national free pre-pregnancy health check of the eugenics project as an opportunity, to further consolidate and enhance the population and family planning public service system level.  [We should] actively seek the attention and support of the Party committees, governments and relevant departments to ensure the stability of the grassroots institutions and team. [We should] enhance the overall capacity of the workforce, strengthen personnel training and incentives to strengthen building a professional style. We should be politically reliable, with multi-job experience, reasonable structure, creativity, hard work and honesty.

Fifth, we should research large projects and large investment to improve the development of Population and Family Planning. We should build a large project for our large population. This is our important criterion to measure the performance for each unit.  This is also an important assessment for our year-end appraisal. We should strengthen the project awareness, reserve a number of large projects, and lay the foundation for a big investment.

Sixth, we should uphold and improve the responsibility system of management by objectives. We should improve the examination content, set up scientific assessment indicators and a target system, and explore the establishment of an assessment index system to adapt to the characteristics of the eastern, central and western [regions]. We should improve assessment methods to reduce examination times, alleviate the burden for the grassroots, and guide the grassroots to work effectively. We should build an exam application system and teach our team discipline.

Wang Peian made a speech in conclusion. He pointed out that the meeting had a clear theme, further unified our thinking and understanding, and encouraged our team. We should learn this report and make our own work plan, strengthen the work of guidance and push forward the work in the second half of the year, greet the 18th National Party Congress with our outstanding achievements.

Participants to the Conference conducted earnest discussions on how to do a good job under current situations, while focusing on studying and understanding the spirit of the report by Minister Wang Xia. They also put up very good ideas and suggestions. Liaison officials from concurrent commissioner units — which are the General Office of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Health and the National Bureau of Statistics, Directors-General (Secretaries of Party Lead Group) and Directors of Office of Population and Family Planning Commissions of all provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities and of cities with independent planning status and the Xinjiang Construction Corps, Directors of Office of the Family Planning Leading Groups of the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police, responsible officials of the Population and Family Planning Offices of Organs Directly under Party Central Committee and Central Governmental Organs, principal responsible official of all Departments of NPFPC and all institutions affiliated to NPFPC — participated in the Conference.

Chongqing City Bans Late-Term Abortions and Prohibits Forced Sterilizations

August 31, 2012

Link to Original Chinese Document:
http://cq.qq.com/a/20120901/000001.htm

Translation:

On August 30, the Population and Family Planning Commission of Chongqing municipal government held a news conference on the 10th anniversary of the implementation of the law “Population and Family Planning,” the government said that the city’s population and family planning services have constantly improved in recent years. “Sunshine IPPF” received remarkable results.  The citizens enjoy the right of information of the right of selection [of contraceptive method].  “Late-term induction of labor” is strictly prohibited.

Sunshine IPPF has covered the districts of the city, unified content, form and timing of population and family planning information in the cities, counties, towns and villages.  People can learn the regulations and the implementation of the family planning policy through television.

At the same time, the city has fully launched an action to introduce contraceptive knowledge. People can choose the contraceptive methods they like.  People who take long-term contraceptive methods get a reward from the service sector. In addition, the mandatory ring ligation is strictly prohibited.  It requires the parties signing an agreement before proceeding induction of labor.  The spokesman of Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission said, the city strictly prohibits the “late-term” induction of labor, there was no case like Shaanxi Ankang — 7-month pregnant mother was forced to abort occurred in our city. According to regulations, more than six months pregnancy is “late-term” pregnancy.

It is learned that the city has a family planning reward and a special reward.  The local government has an additional family planning reward. If qualified, one-son/two-daughters parents can apply for 1080 yuan per year; one-daughter parents can apply for 1560 yuan; one-child-died parents can apply for 3120 yuan as special assistance; one-child-disability parents can apply for 2760 yuan per year.

Posted in abortion, Feng Jianmei, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, Human Rights, One Child Policy, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | 1 Comment

Cruel Cut: Powerful incentives protect one-child policy on mainland despite reform calls

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

Dr. Jackie Sheehan says powerful financial and personal incentives for local officials will ensure forced abortions and sterilisations continue on mainland despite calls to reform family planning laws

Updated on Jul 25, 2012
Two recent high-profile forced abortions have again fuelled debate over Beijing’s controversial one-child policy.

In June, a photograph of Feng Jianmei lying exhausted in her hospital bed next to the seven-month-old fetus she was compelled to abort was published across the world’s media. If the publication of such graphic evidence is unusual, forced third-trimester abortions on the mainland are not.

In April, Pan Chunyan was forced to put her fingerprint on a document, unwittingly agreeing to undergo an abortion in her eighth month of pregnancy, having already paid a 20,000-yuan (HK$24,500) “social compensation fee” and agreed to pay 55,000 yuan more.

In Feng’s case, the authorities have agreed to a 70,600-yuan compensation deal with her family. But despite renewed calls from government researchers and academics to amend the one-child policy, these abuses will continue.

Coercion and violence are integral parts of the system. The people who track down pregnant women to carry out unwanted terminations do it not because they are evil or unfeeling. They do it because of powerful incentives to meet family-planning targets.

Disappointing their superiors by failing to meet targets has serious career consequences, whereas violating the rights of ordinary citizens, an occasional international scandal notwithstanding, results only in temporary suspension or demotion. The understanding is that local officials do whatever dirty work is necessary to keep the numbers right and in turn their bosses look after their interests.

The head of Feng’s local family-planning bureau has reportedly been removed from his post. It would be surprising if he were not, inside a year, either back in the job or in another one of equal or greater rank.

Take the case of Li Qun, mayor of Linyi , a small city in eastern Shandong province. In 2005, activist Chen Guangcheng , now in the United States after his dramatic escape from more than two years of house arrest, exposed forced abortions and sterilisations in the city.

Li lost the mayor’s job, but was later appointed to the more prestigious post of Communist Party secretary of Qingdao , Shandong’s major commercial city.

Others implicated in the Feng affair face only “administrative demerits” and, if they continue their jobs with enough zeal, there will be opportunities to move up the career ladder.

Beijing introduced the one-child policy in the late 1970s. In 2002, the law was amended to allow certain couples to have a second child, provided they pay a penalty.

These social compensation fees have become a vital component of local officials’ income, covering overtime, bonuses, pensions and travel expenses. China Human Rights Defenders has highlighted the financial rewards and penalties on offer to family-planning officials on performance-related pay. Officials lose points for every out-of-quota birth in their area and earn cash bonuses for every abortion and sterilisation they enforce.

In a township in Anhui province, for each birth out of quota and each mandated sterilisation not carried out, five points were deducted from an official’s score. Teams of village officials competed for a 1,000-yuan bonus for the top-scoring team, while those from the last-placed village were named and shamed.

In one Guangdong county, it was officials who did not apply illegal methods who were disciplined, not the ones who “spared no effort” to carry out 5,601 sterilisations out of a target of 9,559 in April 2010.

During a “spring enforcement campaign” – taking advantage of migrant workers returning to their home provinces for the Lunar New Year – or any time an area is over its quota for unauthorised pregnancies, desperate officials resort to forced abortions and sterilisations.

Other illegal methods, aside from detentions and beatings, include the cancellation of hukou – the official household registration that governs access to basic services. Officials can deny parents permission to register a child born in contravention of family-planning regulations until a social compensation fee has been paid. Without hukou, “black” children – as in “black market” – cannot get a place at school.

Some schools will take them for a substantial fee, but it does not buy an equal education. They may be taught by different teachers and even have to wear different uniforms. The problems for unregistered children persist into adulthood, barring their whole family from state employment and the child from applying to university. In addition, most hospitals refuse to treat anyone without local hukou.

The hukou system and one-child policy are interlinked, and not only by calls for their abolition. Hukou is essentially a system for rationing access to scarce urban housing, jobs and welfare, and the central government can’t afford to abandon it just yet.

As urbanisation creates better opportunities in smaller cities, the pressure of people wanting to move to the biggest cities will ease, making both hukou and the one-child policy less necessary. Urban couples do not depend on their sons for security as rural families do and have fewer children.

This obedience to the rules of urban couples will kill the one-child policy eventually, when the mainland’s swelling generations of grandparents and great-grandparents can no longer be supported by the working-age population.

Feng Jianmei’s family have been called traitors for speaking to foreign media and have had demonstrators organised by officials surrounding their home. Even if more women were to brave the risks of going public, until it ceases to be in the state’s interests to enforce the one-child policy, the complaints of a few brave individuals will not stop official abuses of power.

Dr Jackie Sheehan is senior fellow at the China Policy Institute and associate professor at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility in China Concerning Coercive Family Planning

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, drafted these Principles, which she sent to Tim Cook, President of Apple Computer, on August 30, 2012, together with blind activist Chen Guangcheng, human rights activist Andrew Duncan, China Aid President Bob Fu.

Principles for Corporate Social Responsibility in China

Concerning Coercive Family Planning

The Principles:

As a company that voluntarily endorses the Principles for Corporate Social Responsibility in China Concerning Coercive Family Planning (“Principles”), we pledge to apply these Principles in conducting our business in China. We will design and deploy a corporate code of conduct, including policies, procedures, training and internal reporting structures to ensure adherence to these Principles when conducting business in China. We believe the application of these Principles will achieve greater equality for women and avoid complicity with violence against our female employees, perpetrated in connection with our enterprise in China.
Accordingly, we will:
(1) Refuse to practice, collaborate with or tolerate any aspect of coercive family planning on our premises or in connection with our employees, whether on or off premises.

(2) Prohibit the presence of any Family Planning Personnel on the premises of our businesses; prohibit any access of Family Planning Police or other Family Planning Officials to the employees of our businesses; refuse to issue any report or allow the creation of any report concerning the fertility or reproductive status concerning any employee or group of employees of our businesses.

(3) Refuse to allow on our premises or elsewhere in connection with our employees:

  • Forced abortion
  • Forced sterilization
  • The tracking of the menstrual cycles
  • The insertion of IUDs
  • The administration of cervical checks
  • The monitoring of fertility
  • The issuance of threats or seizure in connection with population control
  • The use of physical violence
  • The use of economic, social or political pressure
  • The use of informants, whether paid or unpaid
  • The seizure or detention of illegally pregnant women or members of our families
  • The issuance of birth permits
  • The collection of family planning fines
  • The punishment of One Child Policy violators, their families or co-workers

(4) Refuse to report, or allow to be reported, women who are pregnant without birth permits or who have otherwise violated family planning laws in China.

(5) Communicate with the Government of the People’s Republic of China to urge that Government to end forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced contraception and any other form of coercive family planning in China.

(6) Report and otherwise collaborate in the prosecution or holding accountable of any Chinese national who attempts to practice coercive family planning against any employee of our company, whether this coercion takes place on or off premises.

We will be transparent in our implementation of these principles and provide information that demonstrates publicly our commitment to them.

Posted in China, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, One Child Policy, Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments Off on Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility in China Concerning Coercive Family Planning

Reggie Littlejohn joins Chen Guangcheng in Challenging Apple: Letter

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, has joined forces with blind activist Chen Guangcheng, human rights activist Andrew Duncan, and China Aid President Bob Fu, in sending a letter to Apple President Tim Cook, concerning Apple products made in China.  Reggie Littlejohn stated, “We are challenging Apple to assure customers that products made in China are not made in facilities that practice coercive family planning or stifle free speech.  According to Apple’s own 2012 internal investigation, 24 Apple facilities conducted pregnancy tests, and 56 facilities did not have policies and procedures that prohibit discriminatory practices based on pregnancy.  Apple says that it has required that these practices must stop.  Apple, however,  has been auditing its facilities since 2006.  Why, then, is it still the case that pregnancy testing is reported as rampant? Either Apple’s requirement that these practices must stop is new, or its policies to implement it are ineffectual.”

Littlejohn continued, “We want to know what has happened to women at Apple factories when they have been found to be pregnant without a birth permit.  Have they been referred for a forced abortion or involuntary sterilization?  With the one child/forced abortion law in place, how can Apple assure consumers that its products are made in facilities free of coercive population control?

“We are also asking Apple to take the lead in endorsing our ‘Principles of Corporate Responsibility,’ in which multinational corporations will refuse to comply with coercive family planning practices at their facilities in China.”

To date, the group has received no response from Apple.

Bloomberg has written about this action challenging Apple:

Apple Urged by China Dissident to Act Against One Child Rule

http://washpost.bloomberg.com/Story?docId=1376-M9UPQG6K50YC01-6KA31T5UB0QAGCMLLDB8N30G5G

Below is the text of the original letter that went out to Tim Cook.  Following that is the text of the “Principles for Corporate Social Responsibility in China Concerning Coercive Family Planning.”

August 30, 2012

SENT VIA EMAIL AND FAX

Dear Mr. Cook,

We write concerning Apple’s business enterprise in China as it may intersect with Chinese human rights abuses perpetrated in the workplace – specifically, forced abortion and coercive family planning.

As you may be aware, one of the signatories of this letter, blind forced abortion opponent Chen Guangcheng, escaped house arrest earlier this year in China and subsequently made his way to the United States Embassy in Beijing, and eventually was allowed to leave China to study law in the United States.  Due to the persecution of his family who were left behind (including a trumped up murder charge against his nephew), Mr. Chen felt compelled to accept the invitation of United States lawmakers on August 1, 2012 to visit the U.S. Capitol.

During that visit, Speaker of the House Boehner (later reaffirmed by House Minority Leader Pelosi) stated that it was time to “hold the Chinese government to account” on freedom of speech and the “reprehensible” one child/forced abortion policy. Here is a link to these speeches:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz54u93zLto&feature=player_embedded.

That same day Mr Chen met with senior staff members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee along with Senators Kerry and Cornyn, who have both also taken a strong leadership position in support of Mr. Chen and Chinese human rights.

The bipartisan statement regarding “holding the Chinese government to account” was significant. Current United States foreign policy towards China has purposely separated human rights issues from economic issues.  China’s human rights record has deteriorated.  As reported in this New York Times article, Apple has been working to resolve human rights issues in connection with Foxconn (Hon Hai). http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/30/business/apple-supplier-in-china-pledges-changes-in-working-conditions.html?pagewanted=all

Human rights can no longer be separated from economic issues.  With China’s current economic slow-down and a major transition in senior leadership on the horizon, we believe that we are entering a window of opportunity to have a positive impact on human rights.  With Congressional leadership support, the policy of separating our economic relationship from human rights in China must change.

As you know from Apple’s own internal investigation, “24 [Apple] facilities conducted pregnancy tests, and 56 facilities did not have policies and procedures that prohibit discriminatory practices based on pregnancy.”

http://images.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2012_Progress_Report.pdf

Apple’s response states that the company has required that these practices must stop.  According to the New York Times report above, Apple has been auditing its facilities since 2006.  Why, then, is it still the case that pregnancy testing is reported as rampant in Apple’s 2012 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report? Either Apple’s requirement that these practices must stop is new, or its policies to implement it are ineffectual.

When women are found to be pregnant without a birth permit, are they referred for a forced abortion?  With the one child/forced abortion law in place, how can Apple assure consumers that its products are made in facilities free of coercive population control? No matter what one’s personal view is on abortion –forced abortion is unacceptable.

Below is an excerpt from the September 22, 2011 Congressional testimony of Liu Ping, who was the victim of forced abortion at the hands of the Family Planning Commission in her factory:

My factory’s Family Planning Commission used three levels of control:  at the factory level, in the factory clinic and on the factory floor. There was a system of  collective punishment: if one worker violated the rules, all would be punished. Workers monitored each other. Women of reproductive age accounted for 60% of my factory floor.  Colleagues were suspicious and hostile to each other because of the One-Child Policy. Two of my pregnancies were reported by my colleagues to the Family Planning Commission.  When discovered, pregnant women would be dragged to undergo forced abortions—there simply was no other choice. We had no dignity as potential child-bearers. By order of the factory’s Family Planning Commission, every month during their menstrual period, women had to undress in front of the birth planning doctor for examination. If anyone skipped the examination, she would be forced to take a pregnancy test at the hospital. We were allowed to collect a salary only after it was confirmed that we were not pregnant.

We are concerned that such practices may still be in force at Chinese factories today, including factories owned by multinationals. We are sure that Apple would be appalled to learn that anything like this could happen at an Apple facility.  Since dozens of Apple facilities have required pregnancy testing, however, it is a legitimate concern that they may also have been complicit with forced abortion under the One Child Policy, as described in Ms. Liu’s shocking testimony.  Would Apple allow an outside group to investigate whether coercive family planning occurs at Apple facilities?

As reported by this USA Today cover story, the One Child Policy continues to be enforced. This policy goes against a woman’s fundamental human right to choose to give birth to a child.  Forced abortion is official government rape.  It is a form of torture.

http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2012-07-25-China-abortionART_CV_U.htm

Additionally, freedom of speech is not allowed in China. Apple’s distinguished Board of Directors includes former Vice President Al Gore, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. While Apple makes millions of iPhones and iPads in China, Mr. Gore’s fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Liu Xiaobo, remains imprisoned. His chair remains empty in Oslo for only having exercised his fundamental right to free speech.  Similarly, Chen Guangcheng was jailed, tortured and denied medical treatment for years because he exposed the massive, systematic use of forced abortion and sterilization in Linyi City under the One Child Policy.  It is a striking irony that your great products promote free speech while being manufactured in a nation that suppresses free speech.

Pursuant to Speaker Boehner’s bipartisan comments, we, as signatories, are committed to assisting the United States Congress in working to “hold China to account.” Our effort is focused on how to insure accountability without penalizing shareholder interests of any United States corporations. We are also committed to future consumer education efforts if necessary – informing the world about the potential complicity of U.S. and other foreign corporations in coercive population control in China.

We invite Apple to champion this cause.  Here is what we ask:

1)  Apple is in a unique position to take a leadership role in standing up against coercive family planning in China.  Attached are our Principles for Corporate Social Responsibility in China Concerning Coercive Family Planning.  We ask that Apple endorse them.  Apple’s endorsement will have a major impact on ending coercive family planning in China, sending a message to the Chinese Communist Party, other American businesses, and the world, that Apple will not comply with violent population control.

2)  We ask that Apple would leverage its clout to demand that China release Liu Xiaobo; ratify into law the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which establishes an array of human rights, including freedom of expression (Article 19); and end forced abortion and other coercive population control, within three months of the date of the demand.

3)  Should the Chinese government fail timely to agree with respect to Apple’s demands,  we request that Apple would agree to draw up a plan to withdraw manufacturing of all Apple products from China.  This courageous act by Apple on behalf of the many people who are suffering horrific human rights abuses would have an incalculable impact to further the cause of human rights in China.  We will call upon other U.S. companies to follow.  As the world’s most valuable company, and as one that has profited much from the hard labor of the Chinese people, this could be Apple’s legacy to the Chinese people and to the world.

4)  In September, we are going to work with members of Congress to secure a bill that would allow Apple a one time waiver to repatriate tax-free the over $74 billion in Apple profits currently in off-shore accounts. Based on the current effective tax rate, this would provide Apple and its shareholders with over a $25 billion windfall for simply doing the right thing.   Should this bill pass, we ask that Apple would repatriate these off-shore profits.

Some key members of Congress from both parties have already agreed to support our efforts next month.   As demonstrated at Chen Guangcheng’s August 1 press conference, we have bipartisan support from influential members of Congress as it pertains to Chinese human rights. Our effort now is to assist Congress in implementing their stated goal of  “holding China to account.” As the world’s most valuable company, Apple has a unique opportunity to demonstrate corporate global leadership.

We would deeply appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss Apple’s position on our proposal and human rights policies as they pertain to China.  We respectfully request you to watch the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

Andrew Duncan, Human Rights Advocate

Chen Guangcheng, Blind human rights lawyer and former prisoner

Bob Fu, President, China Aid Association

Reggie Littlejohn, President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

Principles for Corporate Social Responsibility in China

Concerning Coercive Family Planning

The Principles:

As a company that voluntarily endorses the Principles for Corporate Social Responsibility in China Concerning Coercive Family Planning (“Principles”), we pledge to apply these Principles in conducting our business in China. We will design and deploy a corporate code of conduct, including policies, procedures, training and internal reporting structures to ensure adherence to these Principles when conducting business in China. We believe the application of these Principles will achieve greater equality for women and avoid complicity with violence against our female employees, perpetrated in connection with our enterprise in China.
Accordingly, we will:
(1) Refuse to practice, collaborate with or tolerate any aspect of coercive family planning on our premises or in connection with our employees, whether on or off premises.

(2) Prohibit the presence of any Family Planning Personnel on the premises of our businesses; prohibit any access of Family Planning Police or other Family Planning Officials to the employees of our businesses; refuse to issue any report or allow the creation of any report concerning the fertility or reproductive status concerning any employee or group of employees of our businesses.

(3) Refuse to allow on our premises or elsewhere in connection with our employees:

  • Forced abortion
  • Forced sterilization
  • The tracking of the menstrual cycles
  • The insertion of IUDs
  • The administration of cervical checks
  • The monitoring of fertility
  • The issuance of threats or seizure in connection with population control
  • The use of physical violence
  • The use of economic, social or political pressure
  • The use of informants, whether paid or unpaid
  • The seizure or detention of illegally pregnant women or members of our families
  • The issuance of birth permits
  • The collection of family planning fines
  • The punishment of One Child Policy violators, their families or co-workers

(4) Refuse to report, or allow to be reported, women who are pregnant without birth permits or who have otherwise violated family planning laws in China.

(5) Communicate with the Government of the People’s Republic of China to urge that Government to end forced abortion, forced sterilization, forced contraception and any other form of coercive family planning in China.

(6) Report and otherwise collaborate in the prosecution or holding accountable of any Chinese national who attempts to practice coercive family planning against any employee of our company, whether this coercion takes place on or off premises.

We will be transparent in our implementation of these principles and provide information that demonstrates publicly our commitment to them.

Posted in abortion, China, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, Forced Abortion, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | Comments Off on Reggie Littlejohn joins Chen Guangcheng in Challenging Apple: Letter

China’s Coercive Population Control: WRWF Files Complaint Against China

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

Here is the text of the Complaint against China concerning coercive population control, filed today by Women’s Rights Without Frontiers.

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 and to call for an investigation into UNFPA, which has been working hand in hand with the Chinese Communist population control apparatus for 30 years.

As you know, WRWF submitted a Complaint this time last year.  While the UNCSW acknowledged receipt of this Complaint, China never responded to it.  We believe that, given the international outrage generated by the case of Feng Jianmei, it behooves China to respond to our 2012 Complaint.

By way of introduction, please watch this four-minute video about forced abortion in China and our work to expose this egregious violation of human rights:

Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY

Here is the link to our international petition to stop forced abortion in China.  As of today, we have more than 20,200 signatures from approximately 90 countries.

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

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.

This violence became increasingly evident in 2012, giving rise to both international and domestic criticism of the One Child Policy.  Here are some of the cases of forced abortion or sterilization that have arisen just this year.

Linyi City, Shandong Province. March 2012.  A photo of a forcibly aborted full term baby drowned in a bucket, submitted anonymously, circulated on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, and in the West.  The infant reportedly cried at birth, but was drowned in a bucket by family planning personnel.[1] Blind activist Chen Guangcheng comes from Linyi and was still under house arrest at the time news of this forced abortion broke. This incident demonstrates that forced abortion up to the ninth month of pregnancy still occurs in Linyi, as first disclosed by Chen in his report of 2005.[2]

Huangqiao Town, Jishui County, Jiangxi Province. March 2012.  On the eve of the U.S. – China Human Rights Dialogue, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers learned that a 46-year-old woman was forcibly sterilized, in retaliation for bringing a petition. The woman posted the following account on the internet:

On March 14, my husband was being escorted back from making a petition.  To retaliate for his petition, the town government sent more than 20 strong men.  I could no longer give birth to a child at that time, but they still dragged my legs, treated me like an animal, and forcibly performed a tubal ligation on the operating table of the Family Planning Office.  Guoqing Luo (the Deputy Town Secretary) also exclaimed, “The Government takes the consequences!  The Government has the money!”[3]

Cao Ruyi, Changsha City, Hunan Province. June 2012 and ongoing.  Five months pregnant, Cao Ruyi was detained by Family Planning Officials, who beat her husband and attempted to forcibly abort her.  They demanded that she pay the Chinese equivalent of approximately $24,000, or face forced abortion.  Because of international pressure, this amount was reduced and Cao was allowed to leave the hospital, but she remains in jeopardy.  Jing Zhang, President of Women’s Rights in China, has arranged for Cao Ruyi and her husband to remain in hiding until their baby is born.[4]

Feng Jianmei, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province. June 2, 2012.  Breaking within days of the case of Cao Ruyi, Feng Jianmei was forcibly aborted at seven months when she and her husband, Deng Jiyuan, could not pay a 40,000 yuan fine ($6300). Officials tried to force Feng into a car, but she escaped to her aunt’s house.  They broke through the gate, so she fled to the mountains, where officials found her hiding under a bed.  Her husband told The Economist, “They laughed when they found her.”[5] After forcibly aborting her baby, officials laid the bloody body of her dead daughter next to her in the bed.  The story and photograph, which WRWF broke to the west on June 12, 2012, immediately went viral, sent shockwaves around the world, and ignited a firestorm of outrage.[6]

In the aftermath, the local Ankang City government apologized, several officials were given administrative demerits, and one reportedly was terminated. The sincerity of these gestures, however, is questionable, given the fact that at the same time, protests were organized outside Feng’s family home.  Protesters carried a large banner reading “Beat the traitors, drive them from the town.”  According to local media reports, these protests were organized by local authorities, in retaliation for Deng’s interview with a German journalist.

Feng was held in the hospital for more than a month after her forced abortion.[7] Earlier, she had said that she was ready to leave the hospital and felt that remaining hospitalized weeks after the forced abortion felt like “prison.”[8] The Chinese government provided her with cash for her late-term abortion, but this will not compensate for the trauma of forced late-term abortion.

Feng’s case has become symbolic of the heinous human rights abuses suffered by the women of China at the hands of the Chinese Communist population control machine.  Feng’s forced abortion and the subsequent persecution of her family, however, have not been in vain.  Feng was specifically cited by the European Parliament in its resolution condemning coercive family planning.

Hu Jia, Jianli County, Hubei Province. June 19, 2012.  China’s Southern Metropolis Daily reported that Hu Jia was forcibly aborted at nearly eight months.  This case was reported by a major Chinese newspaper, indicating the growing discontent with the policy inside China and the courage of the Chinese news media to report it.[9]

Zhang Wen Fang, Hong Hu City, Hubei Province (2008) – Inspired by the outrage generated by the case of Feng Jianmei, Zhan Wen Fang stepped forward to report that she had been forcibly aborted at nine months in 2008.  Along with her baby, family planning officials removed her uterus, cervix and one ovary.  Previously a successful business owner, she is now confined to a wheelchair and dependant on her aging mother.  She states that her older child is “like an orphan,” without much support from her.  She came forward stating, “I would like to ensure that no more families ever have to go through what I have been through, to be butchered like this.”[10]

Pressure builds in Europe and the United States

This spate of barbaric cases has focused criticism against coercive family planning in China.

European Parliament. 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. 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.

I have twice addressed the European Parliament on the One Child Policy, and I know how passionate the MEPs are, both from the pro-life and the pro-choice perspectives.[11] The fact that these forces were able to join together to condemn forced abortion is a masterpiece of coalition building.  As WRWF’s message has been from the beginning, whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, no one supports forced abortion, because it is not a choice.

Additionally, it is significant that the European Parliament has acknowledged that it provides funding for family planning in China, and urged the Commission to ensure that this funding is not associated with coercion.  For decades, the UNFPA and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) have worked hand in hand with the Chinese population control machine, which is coercive.  They are funded by many nations, not only in Europe but the world over, including the United States.  I have no doubt that any unbiased investigation by the European Parliament or any other governmental body will reveal that these organizations are complicit with coercive family planning in China.

I hope that this courageous action by the European Parliament will serve as a model for governments all over the world, including the United States, to join the outcry against forced abortion in China — and to stop funding it.

U.S. State Department. On the domestic front, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland, condemned forced abortion while expressing concern for the case of Cao Ruyi.  “We’ve seen the reports that a Chinese woman is being detained and possibly pressured into a forced abortion by Chinese family planning authorities after purportedly violating China’s one-child policy,” she told reporters during a press briefing in June. “We have reached out to the authorities in Beijing to ask about this issue.”  Nuland reiterated that the U.S. strongly opposes “all aspects of China’s coercive birth limitation policies,” which they have deemed a serious human rights abuse. [12]

Center for Reproductive Rights. In an encouraging development, Nancy Northup, President of the Center for Reproductive Rights, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times, referencing the case of Feng Jianmei and condemning forced abortion in China.[13] This was a courageous act on Northup’s part.  If NARAL, Planned Parenthood, NOW and the UNFPA truly stand for choice, they will join Northup in condemning forced abortion in China.  If they do not condemn forced abortion, they do not stand for choice.

Pressure Builds Within China

In the wake of these cases, it was reported that two brave groups within China have called for the reform or relinquishment of the One Child Policy.  According to the China Economic Times, several researchers in the Developmental Research Center – a prestigious, government-affiliated think tank — cited the coming demographic disaster caused by low birth rates combined with an ageing population as the reason for China to move to a two-child policy.  “The longer we wait, the more vulnerable we will be,” they stated.[14]

While I agree that China is facing a nearly-irreversible demographic disaster caused by the One Child Policy, I do not agree that instituting a two-child policy is the answer to the problems created by the One Child Policy.  First, a two-child policy encourages gendercide, the sex-selective abortion of baby girls.  In areas where couples can have a second child if the first is a girl, gendercide is rampant.  According to a 2009 study by the British Medical Journal, the average birth ratio in China is 120 boys for every hundred girls born.  But for second births, that number jumps to 143 boys for every hundred girls.  In two provinces, Jiangsu and Anhui, for the second child, there were 190 boys for every hundred girls born.[15]

The central issue in the One Child Policy, moreover, is not whether the government allows couples to have one or two children.  Rather, it is the coercion with which this limit is enforced.  Even with a two-child policy, women will still be subject to forced abortion if they get pregnant without a birth permit.

A second call for reform came from a prominent group of scholars who criticized the policy on the basis that it violates human rights and works against economic stability. Fifteen brave intellectuals signed an open letter urging that re-writing of family planning law was “imperative.” One of their leaders, well-known Internet entrepreneur James Liang, is calling for the abolition of the one-child rule.[16]

The Chinese forced abortion policy is systematic, institutionalized violence against women. This violence against women and girls takes the following six forms:

1)    Forced abortion is traumatic to women.   It is a form of torture.

2)    Women who have violated the policy are often forcibly sterilized.  Forced sterilization is a serious human rights abuse and can lead to life-long health complications.

3)    A document leaked out of China in November, 2009 discusses methods of infanticide, including the puncturing of the skulls and injecting alcohol into the brains of full term fetuses to kill them during labor.

4)    Because of the traditional preference for boys, sex-selective abortion is common and most of the aborted fetuses are girls, a form of “gendercide.”

5)    Because of this gendercide, there are 37 million more men than women in China today.   This gender imbalance is a major force driving sexual trafficking of women and girls in Asia.

6)    China has the highest female suicide rate of any country in the world.  It is the only nation in which more women than men kill themselves – approximately 500 women a day.  I believe that this high suicide rate is likely  related to coercive family planning.

The Chinese government would like the world to believe that ethnic minorities are exempt from the One Child Policy.  This is propaganda. Rebiya Kadeer has submitted into the Congressional Record a hard-hitting report on the genocidal use of the One Child Policy against the Uyghurs.

Not only are women oppressed, but so are those who try to defend them.  Blind activist lawyer Chen Guangcheng exposed the widespread and systematic use of forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations in Linyi County in 2005.  The Chinese Communist Party imprisoned Chen for four years and three months and has kept him and his family under strict house arrest since September, 2010.  Women’s Rights Without Frontiers led the international coalition to free Chen, who arrived in the United States on May 19, 2012.

Free Chen Guangcheng!  Video

http://www.youtube.com/user/reggielittlejohn#p/a/u/1/hnqQ5v_ofgw

I have attached several reports for your reference.   To read more than a dozen expert reports documenting the facts stated in this complaint, click here. http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=congressional

Concerning my background, please view my online biography here: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=reggie-littlejohn

Here is a video in which Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, condemns coercive family planning in China:

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

Here is a seminal article about our work that appeared in the Washington Post:

Kathleen Parker, Washington Post, Interview of Reggie Littlejohn, “When Abortion Isn’t a Choice” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111013891.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

In addition, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers launched its website in Chinese.  This is the first ever comprehensive website dedicated to exposing the brutal truth about the One Child Policy, in Chinese. To visit the website, click here.  http://www.nvquan.org/

I hope to work with you to help end this extremely serious violation of the rights of women and girls in China.  Please let me know if you would like any more information.

Very truly yours,

Reggie Littlejohn, President

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers

www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org

[1] Kathleen Gilbert.  “Photo of a baby aborted in China at 9 months in forced abortion circulates on internet, sparks outrage.”  4/3/12

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/photo-of-baby-aborted-in-china-at-9-months-in-forced-abortion-circulates-on/

[2] Congressional-Executive Commission on China Hearing of December 6, 2011, releasing the Chen Guangcheng Report.

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/?nav=congressional_hearing_2011

[3] Reggie Littlejohn.  “China:  46 Year Old Woman Forcibly Sterilized.”  7/23/12

China: 46-Year-Old Woman Forcibly Sterilized

[4] Jing Zhang. “China’s One Child Policy – Two Cases.”  American Spectator, 6/15/12.

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/06/15/chinas-one-child-policy-two-ca

[5] “The Brutal Truth:  A shocking case of forced abortion fuels resentment against China’s One Child Policy.”  6/23/12.  http://www.economist.com/node/21557369

[6] Reggie Littlejohh, “BREAKING:  Chinese Woman Forcibly Aborted at Seven Months.”  6/12/12

http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=667

[7] Father in China forced abortion case demands criminal prosecution, seeks compensation.  7/6/12  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/father-in-china-forced-abortion-case-demands-criminal-prosecution-sues-for-compensation/2012/07/06/gJQAx4GLRW_story.html

[8] Josh Chin.  Mom Cites Pressure in One-Child Saga.  6/28/12 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303561504577492413851079538.html

[9] Patrick Burke.  “Another Forced Abortion Case Reported as Abuses Under China’s ‘One-Child’ Policy Get More Attention” 7/2/12

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/another-forced-abortion-case-reported-abuses-under-china-s-one-child-policy-get-more

[10] “Chinese woman comes forward with forced abortion story” 7/3/12

http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/another-woman-comes-forward-harrowing-story-forced-abortion

[11] I am told that in 2008, I was the first person to address the European Parliament on the issue of the One Child Policy.  This 2008 address comprises the chapter on the One Child Policy in the book, “Human Rights in China After the Olympic Games,” currently available on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Rights-China-After-Olympics/dp/1448610567/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247847877&sr=1-1

[12] Alexandra Ludka and Gloria Riviera.  “Forced Abortion in China Prompts Apology and Three Officials Suspended.” 6/15/12

http://abcnews.go.com/International/forced-abortion-china-prompts-apology-officials-suspended/story?id=16579517#.T_e2WXAio7A

[13] Nancy Northup.  Letter to the Editor, New York Times, “Forced Abortion in China,” 7/4/12.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/05/opinion/forced-abortion-in-china.html

[14] Josh Chin.  “Think Tank Calls China to Adjust One-Child Policy” 7/3/12 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304211804577504360440496118.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[15] Wei Xing Zhu, Li Lu and Therese Hesketh. (2009) BMJ:  China’s excess males, sex-selective abortion and one child policy:  analysis of data from 2005 national intercensus survey.  http://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.b1211.abstract

[16] Josh Chin.  Another High-Profile Call to Revisit China’s One-Child Rule, 7/5/12

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/07/05/another-high-profile-call-to-revisit-chinas-one-child-rule/

Posted in abortion, cao ruyi, Center for Reproductive Rights, Chen Guangcheng, China, China's One Child Policy, coerced abortion, European Parliament, female suicide, Feng Jianmei, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, gendercide, human dignity, Human Rights, IPPF, Josh Chin, Nancy Northup, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive rights, right to choose, Uncategorized, UNFPA, women, women's rights, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | 2 Comments

China: 46-Year-Old Woman Forcibly Sterilized

Posted on July 23, 2012 by Reggie Littlejohn

HUANGQIAO TOWN, JISHUI COUNTY, JIANGXI PROVINCE.  On the eve of the U.S. – China Human Rights Dialogue, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers has learned that a 46-year-old woman was forcibly sterilized, in retaliation for bringing a petition. The woman posted the following account on the internet:

On March 14, my husband was being escorted back from making a petition.  To retaliate for his petition, the town government sent more than 20 strong men.  I could no longer give birth to a child at that time, but they still dragged my legs, treated me like an animal, and forcibly performed a tubal ligation on the operating table of the Family Planning Office.  Guoqing Luo (the Deputy Town Secretary) also exclaimed, “The Government takes the consequences!  The Government has the money!”

Women’s Rights Without Frontiers phoned the victim’s husband and learned of the tragic circumstances that led to the petition.  The couple’s second daughter fell to her death from a fourth floor window during a quarrel with her boyfriend.  Her parents took the boyfriend’s parents to court and won a judgment of 43,000 RMB ($6700), but they were never paid.  The victim’s husband petitioned to enforce the judgment.   In retaliation for this petition, that local government forcibly sterilized his wife. The local government told the victim’s husband that if he and his wife kept quiet about the forced sterilization, they would receive compensation.  The couple, however, decided to post the incident on the Internet.

Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, stated, “Forced sterilization is barbaric and is already categorized as a crime against humanity.  To forcibly sterilize a woman who is beyond childbearing to retaliate for bringing a petition is beyond barbaric.  This incident is evidence of what I have been saying for years:  China’s One Child Policy is social control masquerading as population control.  Its primary purpose is no longer to control fertility, but rather to control the Chinese people through terror.  Family planning officials function as domestic terrorists.  They extort, maim and kill with impunity, to suppress dissent of any sort.”

Littlejohn added: There is no mention of forced abortion or involuntary sterilization on the agenda of the U.S. – China Human Rights Dialogue. These practices touch every family in China and should be front and center in the Dialogues.”

Read the Internet report concerning the forcibly sterilized woman here:

http://k.t.qq.com/k/%25E7%25BB%259D%25E7%25BB%258F%25E5%2586%259C%25E5%25A6%2587%25E7%2596%2591%25E5%259B%25A0%25E4%25B8%258A%25E8%25AE%25BF%25E9%2581%25AD%25E5%25BC%25BA%25E5%2588%25B6%25E7%25BB%2593%25E6%2589%258E?pgv_ref=aio2012&ptlang=2052

Posted in China's One Child Policy, crime against humanity, Forced Abortion, forced sterilization, Human Rights, One Child Policy, pro-choice, pro-life, Reggie Littlejohn, reproductive health, reproductive rights, right to choose, Uncategorized, Women's Rights Without Frontiers | 1 Comment