{"id":2702,"date":"2018-08-31T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-31T00:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/?p=2702"},"modified":"2019-03-28T03:06:57","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T03:06:57","slug":"china-denies-plan-to-end-two-child-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/china-denies-plan-to-end-two-child-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"China Denies Plan to End Two-Child Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to\u00a0a Reuters report\u00a0<\/a>this week, \u201cAll content on family planning has been dropped in a draft civil code being deliberated by top lawmakers on Monday, the Procuratorate Daily [a state-run newspaper affiliated with China\u2019s prosecutor\u2019s office] wrote in a post on its Weibo account.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0News of this Weibo [Twitter-like] post sparked a spate of headlines heralding that China is about to\u00a0\u201cend,\u201d<\/a>and\u00a0\u201cscrap\u201d<\/a>the two-child policy,\u00a0\u201cfinishing decades of family planning.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

However, two articles this week in the\u00a0China Daily<\/a><\/i>\u2013 the official, English-language newspaper published by the People\u2019s Republic of China \u2013 quashed these speculations.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0\u201cRemoval of family planning in draft doesn\u2019t mean end of policy,\u201d<\/a> China Daily <\/i>acknowledges that the reference to family planning has been removed from the draft Marriage and Adoption sections of the Civil Code.\u00a0\u00a0However, it remains in the family planning section of the code:<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the country\u2019s demographic situation, the decision [to remove family planning clauses from the Marriage and Adoption sections] has triggered widespread speculation as to whether it is meant to pave the way for the abolishment of the country\u2019s decades-old family planning policy.\u00a0However, legislators explained on Tuesday that\u00a0there\u2019s a special law on family planning, so there\u2019s no need to include similar content in the marriage section while drafting the civil code.\u00a0\u00a0Related regulations can still be found in the Population and Family Planning Law.\u201d\u00a0<\/b>(Emphasis added.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Reggie Littlejohn, President of\u00a0Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers<\/a>, stated, \u201cThe statement from\u00a0China Daily <\/i>does not eliminate the possibility that China is considering the abolition of its brutal population control program.\u00a0\u00a0It does, however, clarify that the deletion of family planning content from the civil code sections on marriage and adoption law is irrelevant to this potential policy change.\u00a0It seems that again, the media has jumped the gun in proclaiming the end of \u201cfamily planning\u201d in China.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to press for the complete elimination of all coercive population control measures, effective immediately.\u00a0\u00a0Now, under the two-child policy, all\u00a0couples <\/i>can have two children.\u00a0\u00a0Single women and third children, however, remain at risk for forced abortion.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, girls \u2013 especially second daughters \u2013 remain at risk of sex-selective abortion.\u00a0\u00a0We urge the Chinese government to specify that all women \u2013 not just married women \u2013 can have as many children as they want.\u00a0\u00a0We also urge them to provide strong incentives for baby girls.\u00a0\u00a0We have saved hundreds of girls through our\u00a0Save a Girl Campaign<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0We would encourage the Chinese government to implement such a campaign nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition,\u201d Littlejohn continued, \u201cwe need to guard against forced pregnancy.\u00a0 On August 17, it was reported that two Chinese scholars proposed the creation of a\u00a0“procreation fund,<\/a>” into which couples of childbearing age would be forced to pay if they had fewer than two children.\u00a0 Given the desperation the Chinese government faces because of its rapidly aging population, I could see a move by the Chinese government to pressure all couples who are eligible to have a second child into having a second child, whether they want a second child or not.\u00a0\u00a0This would be preposterous. The Chinese Government needs to stop functioning as womb police and let go of the idea that women’s bodies are domain of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The abolition of coercive birth limits will not end gendercide in China, because many 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

\u201cBecause of the ongoing impact of the One-Child Policy and continuing coercive population control,\u201d Littlejohn concluded, \u201chundreds of millions of Chinese women have been forcibly aborted, tens of millions of girls have been selectively aborted, and women from within China and throughout the world are being sucked into sexual slavery. China\u2019s population problem is not that it has too many people, but rather that it has too few young people to sustain its rapidly aging elderly population, as well as a critical shortage of girls. \u00a0China\u2019s One Child Policy has caused more violence against women and girls than any other official policy on earth and any other policy in human history. This is the true war against women<\/b>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Experts:\u00a0\u00a0Civil code plans don\u2019t mean family planning is over 8\/28\/18\u00a0http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/a\/201808\/28\/WS5b8511a7a310add14f3883c3.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Removal of family planning in draft does not mean end of policy 8\/29\/18\u00a0http:\/\/www.chinadaily.com.cn\/a\/201808\/29\/WS5b85d6ada310add14f388469.html<\/a><\/p>\n

China moves to end two-child limit, finishing decades of family planning\u00a0\u00a08\/29\/18\u00a0https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2018\/08\/28\/asia\/china-family-planning-one-child-intl\/index.html<\/a><\/p>\n

China Is Preparing to End Draconian Family Planning Measures.\u00a0\u00a0But That Won\u2019t Solve its Demographic Crisis 8\/28\/18\u00a0http:\/\/time.com\/5379947\/two-child-policy-end-china\/<\/a><\/p>\n

China paves way to end family planning policy:\u00a0state media 8\/27\/18\u00a0https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-china-population\/china-paves-way-to-end-family-planning-policy-state-media-idUSKCN1LD077<\/a><\/p>\n

China Signals End to Child Birth Limits by 2020 at Latest 8\/27\/18\u00a0https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-08-28\/china-signals-end-to-limits-on-child-births-by-2020-at-latest<\/a><\/p>\n

China could scrap two-child policy, ending nearly 40 years of limits 8\/27\/18\u00a0https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2018\/aug\/28\/china-could-scrap-two-child-policy-ending-nearly-40-years-of-limits<\/a><\/p>\n

China think tank slammed for \u2018procreation fund\u2019 idea 8\/17\/18\u00a0https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-china-population\/china-think-tank-slammed-for-procreation-fund-idea-idUSKBN1L2132<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to\u00a0a Reuters report\u00a0this week, \u201cAll content on family planning has been dropped in a draft civil code being deliberated by top lawmakers on Monday, the Procuratorate Daily [a state-run newspaper affiliated with China\u2019s prosecutor\u2019s office] wrote in a post … 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":[49,30,7,15,8,20,123,1,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinas-one-child-policy","category-coerced-abortion","category-forced-abortion","category-gendercide","category-one-child-policy","category-reggie-littlejohn","category-two-child-policy","category-uncategorized","category-womens-rights-without-frontiers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702","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=2702"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2843,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2702\/revisions\/2843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}