{"id":2671,"date":"2018-05-31T15:43:27","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T15:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=2671"},"modified":"2018-05-31T15:43:27","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T15:43:27","slug":"china-to-end-two-child-policy-dont-celebrate-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/china-to-end-two-child-policy-dont-celebrate-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"China to End Two-Child Policy? Don’t Celebrate Yet!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One of hundreds of babies saved by our “Save a Girl” Campaign<\/p><\/div>\n

According to a\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a>\u00a0report, anonymous sources have stated that the State Council (China\u2019s Cabinet) has commissioned research on the impact of ending China\u2019s two-child policy, possibly within the next year.\u00a0\u201cThe leadership wants to reduce the pace of aging in China\u2019s population and remove a source of international criticism,\u201d one of these sources said.<\/p>\n

Having dedicated the last ten years of my life to mounting \u201cinternational criticism\u201d aimed at ending forced abortion and gendercide in China, I would of course rejoice over the end of all coercive birth limits in China.\u00a0\u00a0This would be a momentous victory for human rights and a vindication of the application of international pressure as a strategy to affect change within that totalitarian regime.<\/p>\n

But I am holding off on this celebration.\u00a0\u00a0First, the Chinese government just commissioned a study.\u00a0\u00a0It has not yet enacted the new law.\u00a0\u00a0I hope it does.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Doing so would be a momentous step in the right direction.<\/p>\n

As always when dealing with the Chinese Communist Party, there is a catch.\u00a0\u00a0The Bloomberg article states that \u201cChina is planning to scrap all limits on the number of children a\u00a0family\u00a0<\/b>can have . . .\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Many of the abortions in China are performed on unmarried women.\u00a0\u00a0China will not release how many of its 23 million abortions a year are forced.<\/p>\n

According to the most recent report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, China\u2019s Family Planning Laws require couples to be married to have children.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The implementation of the Family Planning Laws is not uniform across China, but is subject to provincial regulation.\u00a0\u00a0In some places, an unmarried woman who is pregnant may be forced to pay a \u201csocial compensation fee\u201d of up to ten times her annual salary.\u00a0\u00a0I call these \u201cterror fines.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0If she cannot pay the fine, she may be required to abort.\u00a0\u00a0Yue Zhang spoke bravely and eloquently about her tragic experience of late term forced abortion because she became pregnant without being married.<\/p>\n

In some instances, the \u201cillegal children\u201d of unmarried women are raised in secret.\u00a0\u00a0They are denied\u00a0hukou,\u00a0<\/i>without which they may be denied birth certificates and are not eligible for healthcare, education, or passports.\u00a0\u00a0They cannot officially marry, work or travel.\u00a0\u00a0They are illegal in their own land.<\/p>\n

These questions remain:\u00a0\u00a0Will China \u201cscrap\u201d birth limits for\u00a0all\u00a0<\/i>women, not just married women?\u00a0\u00a0Will they dispense with the system of social compensation fees for \u201cillegal births\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0Will they abolish the\u00a0hukou<\/i>system?<\/b><\/p>\n

In the United States, the percentage of all births to unmarried women is 39.8%.\u00a0\u00a0The unmarried women of China must be free to give birth as well.\u00a0\u00a0And the children of unmarried women should have full rights of citizenship.<\/p>\n

Further, the abolition of coercive birth limits will not end gendercide in China.\u00a0\u00a0Many couples in China choose to have small families.\u00a0Many do not want a second child, because of limited resources of time and money.\u00a0\u00a0Because strong son preference remains, baby girls will continue to be selectively aborted and abandoned; people want their only child, or one of their two children, to be a boy.\u00a0\u00a0Second daughters, therefore, remain especially vulnerable, even with the abolition of coercive birth limits.<\/p>\n

And what of the devastating legacy of the One Child (now Two Child) Policy?\u00a0\u00a0Tens of millions of men will never marry because their future wives were selectively eliminated.\u00a0\u00a0And regarding the rapidly aging population, babies born now will not enter the work force for decades.\u00a0\u00a0In the meantime, many elderly are without support and senior suicide is on the rise.<\/p>\n

So I am holding off on celebrating an end to forced abortion and gendercide in China.\u00a0\u00a0When that day truly arrives, I will rejoice that the most disastrous social experiment in the history of the world has been cast onto the dung heap of history, where it belongs.<\/p>\n

Related Links<\/u><\/b><\/p>\n

China Considers Ending Birth Limits as Soon as This Year 5\/21\/18\u00a0https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news \/articles\/2018-05-21\/china-sai d-to-consider-ending-birth-lim its-as-soon-as-this-year<\/a><\/p>\n

Forced Abortion Still Mandated Under China\u2019s \u201cPlanned Birth\u201d Laws 1\/15\/18\u00a0https:\/\/www.pop.org\/forced-abo rtion-still-mandated-chinas-pl anned-birth-laws\/<\/a><\/p>\n

2017 Congressional-Executive Commission on China \u201cPopulation Control\u201d section\u00a0https:\/\/www.cecc.gov\/publicati ons\/annual-reports\/2017-annual -report<\/a><\/p>\n

2017 State Department Country Reports of Human Rights Practices \u2013 China\u00a0https:\/\/www.state.gov\/j\/drl\/rl s\/hrrpt\/humanrightsreport\/inde x.htm#wrapper<\/a><\/p>\n

Continued Coercion:\u00a0China\u2019s Two-Child Policy Threatens Human Rights and Prosperity 3\/8\/17\u00a0https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/event \/continued-coercion-chinas-two -child-policy-threatens-human- rights-and-prosperity<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Full Testimony of Yue Zhang 3\/7\/17\u00a0http:\/\/www.womensrightswithout frontiers.org\/blog\/china-late- term-forced-abortion-victim-sp eaks-out-for-international-wom ens-day\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Suicide Among Elderly Increases 8\/4\/14\u00a0http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/c hina\/2014-08\/04\/content_182398 37.htm<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a\u00a0Bloomberg\u00a0report, anonymous sources have stated that the State Council (China\u2019s Cabinet) has commissioned research on the impact of ending China\u2019s two-child policy, possibly within the next year.\u00a0\u201cThe leadership wants to reduce the pace of aging in China\u2019s population … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2677,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2671\/revisions\/2677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}