Tag Archives: One Child Policy

Why did China stop its foreign adoption program?

Posted on by
author: Yuchen Li                                                   09-08-2024

 

On August 28, China ended an overseas adaption program that had been in place for more than three decades.

 

Confirming the policy shift last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said the decision was “in line” with international trends.

 

The girl on the cover of a book published in 2014 by the NGO organization “Women’s Rights in China” is one of the twin sisters adopted by an American family. (Photo by WRIC)

 

( See more:   https://www.amazon.com/Orphans-Shao-Jiaoming-Pang-ebook/dp/B016P8VUBS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1VFO3PTWK3I56&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.8Hd9m2pm1zZ151pIi9mQsg.0XEZ-_htXtIf64Tg6_7f_4YPOQP-xYsuWBZrMeb7baY&dib_tag=se&keywords=orphan+of+the+shao&qid=1725943556&s=digital-text&sprefix=orpghan+of+the+shao%2Cdigital-text%2C62&sr=1-1)

 

 

Faced with a shrinking population, China has stopped sending children overseas for adoption. However, many families with pending applications are now in limbo.

 

“We express our appreciation to those foreign governments and families who wish to adopt Chinese children for their good intentions and the love and kindness they have shown,” Mao said.

 

Yi Fuxian, a Chinese demographer and senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told DW that this decision reflects a landmark shift in China’s population policy.

 

“Previously, they [the government] viewed a newborn as a burden, now they see it as a resource,” he said.

 

 

Once a ‘solution’ to China’s one-child policy

When China officially opened its doors to international adoptions in 1992, the country was scrambling to curb its rapid population growth under the draconian “one-child” policy.

 

 

https://p.dw.com/p/4kQJ4

China is running out of babies

 

 

Restricted to a single child, many Chinese families were eventually forced to abandon their children — mostly girls and babies with disabilities — or else face high fines.

 

As a result, China became a major source of international adoptions. Over the past three decades, more than 160,000 Chinese children have been adopted into families worldwide.

 

Around half of these children arrived in the United States, according to China’s Children International (CCI), an international organization created by and for Chinese adoptees.

 

At the time, it was a win-win situation for the Chinese government, Yi told DW.

 

“Since [Beijing] viewed the population as a burden, international adoption effectively transferred this burden abroad.”

 

China’s population problem

 

Decades later, China is now facing a shrinking population with one of the lowest fertility rates in the world.

 

 

China: Can collective weddings boost the birthrate?

https://p.dw.com/p/4kQJ4

 

 

In 2023, ​​new births in China fell by 5.7% to roughly 9 million, and the birth rate was a record low of 6.39 births per 1,000 people. The total population also dropped by over 2 million, the second straight year of decline.

 

After scrapping  the  in 2016, China began encouraging families to have two or three children. Despite these efforts, many young Chinese wom one-child policyen remain unconvinced about having children due to the high cost of childcare, concerns about job security and an uncertain future as growth in the world’s second-largest economy slows.

 

“In the past, a smaller population was seen as better… now the populatioone-child policyn decline has brought about a sense of fear,” Yi said, adding that China’s decision to stop sending children overseas for adoption is part of its response to a growing demographic crisis.

 

With an aging population, China’s inter-country adoptions have already steadily decreased over the past few years.

 

Authorities have instead prioritized domestic adoptions in recent years, according to a commentary published by the Global Times, China’s state-affiliated tabloid. As domestic adoptions now make up nearly 90% of all adoptions in China, the article said terminating foreign adoptions has become “an inevitable step. ”

 

Pending adoption applications left in limbo

With the decision last week, it is unclear what will happen to foreign families waiting for years on pending Chinese applications. In a phone call with US diplomats in China, Beijing said it “will not continue to process cases at any stage” other than those cases covered by an exception clause, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

 

Last week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that exceptions would only be allowed in cases of the “adoption of a child or stepchild of blood relatives of the same generation who are within three generations of foreigners coming to China to adopt.”

 

 

 

China’s population shrinks for first time in decades

 

https://p.dw.com/p/4kQJ4

 

 

During the COVID pandemicChina imposed travel restrictions and suspended international adoptions. From 2020 to 2022, no Chinese children were sent to the US for adoption, and only 16 children were adopted from China last year, according to US official statistics.

 

Due to the pandemic shutdown, many foreign families who had been matched with a Chinese child for adoption have been waiting for at least four years for the process to complete. The same disappointment goes for children in China waiting for adoption.

 

A Chinese dissident running an influential X account shared several screenshots of Chinese social media posts written by “staff working in the relevant field.” The accounts of these sources were anonymized.

 

One of the posts said, “These children in China … They know there are families waiting to bring them home. They’ve received birthday and Christmas gifts, clothes, family photos, letters, and some even had FaceTime calls, but now all of that has been cut off.”

 

“We will write to ambassadors, government officials, and others to see what more can be done,” the post said, “praying that the doors will be opened.”

 

 

China’s birth rate declines, resulting in closure of 20,000+ kindergartens.

Posted on by

WRIC Integrated Report                               03-25-2024

 

 

The number of kindergartens in China has decreased by 20,400 over the past two years, with a staggering 14,800 kindergartens closed in 2023 alone. With the further decline in the annual birth rate, the closures of kindergartens are expected to continue, posing ongoing enrollment challenges.

 

According to data cited by China’s First Financial from the Ministry of Education, in 2022, there were a total of 289,200 kindergartens nationwide, a decrease of 5,610 from 2021. By 2023, the number further decreased to 274,400.

 

In 2020, the total number of children enrolled in kindergartens nationwide was 48.183 million. In 2021, the number decreased to 48.052 million, a decrease of 131,000 from the previous year. In 2022, the number of children in kindergartens further decreased to 46.275 million, a decrease of 1.777 million from the previous year. In 2023, the number of children continued to decline for the third consecutive year, reaching 40.93 million, a decrease of 5.345 million from the previous year.

 

 

In a mountain village in Bijie County, Guizhou Province, China, when the one-child policy was enforced, all the young men went to the city to work, and most of the people left in the village were the elderly and women.    （Photo taken by WRIC on March 15, 2013）

 

 

The decline in birth rates has led to a sharp decrease in the number of children eligible for kindergarten enrollment, which in turn has resulted in the closure of kindergartens. After China implemented the “comprehensive two-child policy” in 2015, there was a brief surge in childbirth. The number of births exceeded 17 million in both 2016 and 2017, reaching 18.83 million in 2016.

 

However, by 2018, the effects of the two-child policy began to weaken, with the number of births dropping to 15.23 million that year, 14.65 million in 2019, 12 million in 2020, and only 9.02 million last year.

 

The decrease in the number of children in kindergartens is expected to gradually affect primary schools, middle schools, high schools, and universities. Qiao Jinzhong, associate professor at the Institute of Education Research of Beijing Normal University, pointed out that according to their team’s model predictions, by 2035, the demand for primary and middle schools nationwide will be 92,800 and 47,900 respectively, a decrease of 51,400 and 3,800 from 2020. Among them, the negative population growth will have a greater impact on primary schools than on middle schools.

 

Qiao Jinzhong also stated that according to the current student-teacher ratio standards, by 2035, there will be approximately 1.5 million primary school teachers nationwide, but there will be 370,000 surplus middle school teachers. There will be a greater surplus in the demand for primary school teachers, while the shortage of middle school teachers will occur first and then become surplus.

 

WRIC Releases E-Book The Status of Females in Rural China

Posted on by

WRIC Volunteer: Gordon Bi

 

The Status of Females in Rural China Introduction：

 

The Chinese government, in the name of the state, has carried out an anti-human massacre plan with the largest scale, the largest number of murders, the worst torture and the deepest harm in human history, which is the root of depriving Chinese women and children of their basic rights and interests. The abduction and trafficking of children, the gender imbalance, the aging society, and the upbringing problems among families, derived from the One Child policy, have caused serious social problems, even immeasurable disasters. The 5 main projects of WRIC include anti-forced abortion, helping child brides, anti-trafficking activities, support abandoned girls, and assist the rural baby girls. This book features more than 300 pictures, which all of them were taken by WRIC volunteers along with their true stories that show the reality of rural women’s lives in China. For this, our volunteers were jailed and given different sentences. If you research China’s One Child Policy and statuses of women and children in rural China, this book will tell you more details about the reality of 800 million people living in the countrysides.

 

About WRIC：

 

A complete set of pictures of cooking fetal corpses, being enjoyed by the old and young people around table, was spreading on the Internet in 2005: a fetal corpse was washed with clean water, another fetus and traditional Chinese medi-cines were placed on chopping board, a pot on fire, an ugly man’s face, and finally a family gnawed and drank the skin, the meat and the broth… Jing Zhang, a former journalist, was extremely shocked. Soon another scandal circulated on the Internet: two teenage female orphans in Nantong (Jiangsu Province) Children’s Welfare Home (orphanage) were hospitalized to remove their uteri, the president of the orphanage said that she was afraid that their menstruation would be unclean and pre-vent them from being pregnant. She also said that the whole Chinese industry did so. Next, a reporter exposed a long list of names of female orphans who had been deprived of their wombs. After a long talk by chance, Jing Zhang was inspired by the famous media colleague, Gao Yu and decided to do her best for the girls. In 2007, Jing Zhang founded Women’s Rights in China(WRIC), a non-profit organization (NGO) in New York. To safeguard the rights and interests of vulnerable groups in China, especially women and children, to be the voice for them, and to strive to build a fair and reasonable society, is the goal of WRIC’s mission.

 

According to the survey from WRIC, the Chinese government, in the name of the state, has carried out an anti-human massacre plan with the largest scale, the largest number of murders, the worst torture and the deepest harm in human history, which is the root of depriving Chinese women and children of their basic rights and interests. The abduction and trafficking of children, the gender imbalance, the aging society, and the upbringing problems among families, derived from the One Child policy, have caused serious social problems, even immeasurable disasters. The 5 main projects of WRIC include anti-forced abortion, helping child brides, anti-trafficking activities, support abandoned girls, and assist the rural baby girls. This book features more than 300 pictures, which all of them were taken by WRIC volunteers along with their true stories that show the reality of rural women’s lives in China. For this, our volunteers were jailed and given different sentences. If you research China’s One Child Policy and statuses of women and children in rural China, this book will tell you more details about the reality of 800 million people living in the countrysides.

WRIC, a group of sisters and brothers who have ideals and seek justice, have been working hard to safeguard the people’s legal rights for ten years, hand in hand and heart in heart. How many passions touched, success or failure, gains and losses, crying, laughing, and striving, the ideal of a just society to pursue together!

All the way, it was full of difficulties and dangers. Looking back ten years ago, we have no complaints and no regrets! On the occasion of celebrating the 10th anniversary of WRIC, we have published a realistic anthology “The Ten-Year Record of WRIC’s Forum” and a short documentary, which includes interviews, surveys, financial aids, supports and demonstrations we have done in the past ten years in mainland China and at our headquarters in the United States, in order to dedicate ourselves to WRIC’s volunteers who are fearless of the fierce power and imprisonment. They adhere to their beliefs and move forward and forward. Let us honor them with lofty respects! It is also a memorial to the death in the despotic and patriarchal society.

Sep. 2018

 

 

 

A Meteor Across the Night Sky—Harry Wu and the Laogai Museum

Posted on by

by Jing Zhang

 

I received a call from a former prisoner of conscious still living in China. The caller gave his condolences and asked for information on Mr. Wu. He also asked whether the Laogai Research Foundation would continue to sponsor jailed dissidents or their families. I replied that all of the application forms are still on Laogai’s website with no changes, so I believe the Foundation would continue as it had when Mr. Wu was still living.

 

About Harry Wu’s sudden death, I do not know the real reason. Then I remembered it had been three months since Wu’s passing. Suddenly, I had mixed feelings. I stood outside, looking at the stars, feeling a little weary, when I saw a meteor streak across the sky.  A fighter. Comrades in arms tend to go quietly. Some of us wear our emotions on our sleeves, but all people are vulnerable and life is ephemeral. We are born with empty hands and die with empty hands, but what happens in between? A question we all struggle with remained persistent in my mind: What is the meaning of life? What does our spiritual conscience mean to history?

 

I remember first seeing Harry Wu in Hong Kong in 1995. He was collecting information about labor reform, specifically organ trafficking of death row inmates.  At the time he was convicted and sentenced to 15 years with “stealing state secrets.” After the expulsion, he had a short stay in Hong Kong.  National correspondents were blocked from interviewing him. I was the editor of a newspaper; with local media work permits allowed to enter the hotel he was staying. At the door, I said, “I have not come for an interview. There are other newspaper reporters doing interviews. I came to tell you that 10 years ago I had counter-revolutionary propaganda against me. I was imprisoned in the labor camps for five years. The labor camp where I was exported tea, sold at high prices in the West, including the United States. Spring and autumn was picking season, in the winter we trimmed tealeaves working 15 to 18 hours a day. I’d start before dawn and return to the laogai barracks after dark. There were no wages, no rest, unless the harvest did not sprout on time, then it might be half a day’s work.” We talked for about an hour. Before leaving, we encouraged each other with mutual words of support.

 

I saw Wu again in December of 1999. He scrimped and saved overcoming the challenges of opening a non-profit organization. In 1992, the Laogai Research Foundation (LRF) was established.  It was time the world understand the real status of human rights in China. Wu repeatedly accompanied Western reporters into the far off provinces of China to collect data on death row organ transplantation.

 

The return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 saw a mass exodus.  I along with a group of political exiles fled to the United States. I remained a journalist in New York City.

 

I learned Wu was giving a press conference to illustrate criminal intent and behavior having recordings and other evidence of perpetrators trying to buy and sell organs. I arrived at the office of Beijing Spring magazine in Flushing, New York, to ascertain the whole story. As it turned out, someone had taken out an ad in a Chinese-language newspaper in New York claiming to provide human organs for purchase.

 

A man simply known as “Wang,” claimed to have as many as 50 individual kidneys. Wu enlisted the help of intermediaries that could meet with Wang to discuss the kidney trading business. During the meeting with Wang, several severe offenses were revealed and the police intervened, but in the end, a key witness refused to testify and the court dismissed the case.

 

At that the same time the CCP enlisted a large group of newspaper reporters to cooperate with each other and the defendant to personally attack Wu. Neither haughty nor humble, Wu stood alone.  I really admired him for his pursuit of righteousness without fear. In response, someone on the Internet relentlessly released a statement, “No one should help Wu; otherwise ‘the white knife would become red.’” (A popular idiom used during the Cultural Revolution suggesting extreme and deadly force).  Motivated by Wu’s courage, I wrote an article for the independent democratic forumon the death penalty in China.

 

After years of efforts, Falun Gong practitioners strongly followed Wu promoting investigation of CCP organ harvesting procedures.  China finally announced on January 1, 2015, the cessation of organs from capital punishment criminals. It can be said that without Wu and unremitting efforts, the Chinese Communists would not easily give up the big business. However, in the Chinese Communist dictatorship remains a hotbed for bribery and corruption as officials cooperate with criminals trying to smuggle and traffic human organs only to be sold to Chinese dignitaries, Taiwan, Southeast Asian countries, and even to Westerners.  In March of this year in Putian, Fujian severalchildren were found in a room, their bodies lined with sewn incisions from removed organs.

 

Years later I was reacquainted with Wu at a commemoration for the victims on June fourth. It was then that I really understood Wu’s concept for the creation of his foundation. In 2003, I was invited to participate in a laogai fundraising seminar primarily for Chinese political prisoners and dissidents. It was beneficial to meet so many people who, like me, had labored for many years, but it eventually became devastating hearing so many similar stories. I couldn’t imagine the laogai continues to exist.

 

The Department of CPC Central Committee issued a directive on August 25, 1955  “to completely eliminate counterrevolutionaries,” one way, which is reeducation through labor. This legislation is the source that has stripped people like Wu of his youth. It wasn’t until 2001 that this evil system was officially rescinded publically. However, because of the nature of authoritarian regimes and dictatorships, the government can keep a person in prison; send them to work sites, just like the Cultural Revolution did to those counter-revolutionary rightists. For more than 60 years, the Chinese Communist regime has used the same old tricks. Even having one person put international pressure on China is better than nobody at all.

 

Which is why today laogai is found in the dictionary, synonymous with the Nazi concentration camps and Soviet gulags. And in 2008, his museum became the first in the world to specifically target Chinese human rights. It can be said, if not for Wu, the history of China’s persecution, the stories of those who have suffered may not see the light of day. We all eagerly await the day when Wu’s wish to have a Laogai Museum on the streets of Beijing is realized.

 

The Laogai Research Foundation touches on many human rights issues: slave labor and sweat shops, religious rights, supporting Tibetan issues and the Dalai Lama including rights for all minorities, supporting political prisoners past and present like Wei Jingsheng, Wang Dan, the 2010 Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, and the lawyer Gao Zhisheng. Wu used the law of the United States to prosecute large companies colluding with the CCP violating human rights such as Yahoo. It’s almost been a decade that the Laogai Museum has joined the numerous wealth of museums in the District of Columbia. The Foundation has published a variety of books including The Black Series in which chief editor of Beijing Spring Mr. Ping Huping praises, “LRF is doing boundless good.”

 

During Wu’s lifetime, he worked with the US Customs agency, checking Chinese exports for prison slave labor products. It is said by the CCP, that the export of slave labor products is good for prison inmates. The prison inmates can make money that will improve their life, but who benefits the most? Go to the jails and you’ll find a large number have been arrested arbitrarily and forced to produce products [improperly equipped that risks their health]. The world wonders how China has so quickly accumulated vast wealth. It hurts the Chinese people. Factory jobs have eroded. Of which the survival of the ordinary Chinese workers has become unfair. It’s also unfair to American workers as the import and export of goods is in violation of US trade regulations. More importantly, universal human rights are violated.

 

Long before China’s 2007 woman’s rights were established, Wu had been in the United States petitioning Congress and other organizations condemning China’s One-Child Policy. In 1998, with the aid of Wu, the US Congress passed legislation identifying the Chinese regime’s forced abortion and sterilization practices. This enabled many women to escape China and seek asylum in the US. In 2009, I gave testimony to the US Congress on behalf of women afflicted by inhuman national policies of family planning.

 

2b                                     045a

 

(From left ) Zhang Jing and Harry Wu, testifies in front of a Congressional hearing. (Photo by WRIC)

Veteran pro-democracy activist Chen Liqun has selflessly volunteered to assist LRF and Laogai Museum by providing copious amounts of information from prisoner biographies to screening eligible dissidents for aid.  Not once has Chen asked for compensation in return. It’s not always cheap both monetarily and emotionally contacting mainland China, which Chen has done countless times at her own expense. Since Wu’s passing, Chen still continues to work for his cause. She has never participated to denounce Wu. Her work is to help her suffering comrades.

I may not agree totally with Wu, but I have very much the same outlook. It is better to help out those who have or are suffering than to wallow in unsubstantiated speculation. I have provided samples of tea to the Museum forced labor products display. I’ve never asked for praise, for thanks, or tried to collect payment. I have no complaints. I do it in honor of Harry Wu. Those of us who do this know that it is for those who fought on the front lines. We are free of our conscience. We do it for no one else, but we act positively against the oppressive regime that has begun to manifest itself here in the US. That is our enemy.  Are actions are not for the spineless that spew slanderous sludge. Perhaps the “love-hate” relationship is the norm nowadays, [but I’m not one to follow].

 

In recent years, there have been negative articles about Wu some who have remained anonymous authors. They result to personal attacks. These authors seem to have two distinct characteristics: 1.) They have worked closely with Wu or for LRF, 2.) They have received aid from Wu. In particular is one such attacker who has received generous aid from Wu and seeks to bleed him for her own personal selfish gain. (Click here for the Chinese article.)

 

In regards to the tumorous articles about Wu’s sexual harassment, I believe those libellants have forgotten they live in a judicious country.  They must not be familiar with the weapons of law. These offenders are unforgiveable. Let there be a trial, let the evidence speak, at which there is little. Only the court has the right to make a conclusion. Yet, these foes with no credentials continue to publish complaints as if they were still in China. They make a mockery of themselves, the community, and the true victims.

 

Wu’s life was full of ups and downs. Interned in the camps for 19 years, he lost all his youth.  Human nature can be twisted. He rose from the depths of darkness to give light to consciousness. But people are not gods and Wu was neither immortal nor infallible. He was at times arrogant and stubborn which caused him to lose friends or collaborators. It was also these qualities that enabled him to reveal earthshattering knowledge of the laogai. Overall, his entire lifetime was dedicated to the laogai. It might have been enough for the man to accomplish as least two things: the introduction of the word laogai into the Oxford English Dictionary and the permanent establishment of the Laogai Museum. After half a century since the Cultural Revolution, the ghosts in China have nowhere to rest. Not one museum has been built dedicated to this time. Wu’s museum is a monument to Chinese history. It’s one of the stars that burn brightest in the sky. When I look up at heaven’s expanse, I do not see Harry Wu, because he’s still here on earth, in a sturdy house in DC called the Laogai Museum.

 

 

 

The End of One-Child Policy

Posted on by

China’s one-child policy to end

By Steven Jiang and Susannah Cullinane, CNN

Updated 11:10 AM ET, Fri October 30, 2015

What you need to know about China's one-child policy

What you need to know about China’s one-child policy 01:50

Story highlights

  • Amnesty International says China’s new “one couple, two children” policy is not enough
  • The policy” is “a proactive response to the issue of an aging population,” state news says
  • China instituted a policy of one child per couple to control population growth in the 1970s

(CNN)China will allow two children for every couple, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Thursday, a move that would effectively dismantle the remnants of the country’s one-child policy that had been eased in recent years.

“To promote a balanced growth of population, China will continue to uphold the basic national policy of population control and improve its strategy on population development,” Xinhua reported, citing a communique issued by the ruling Communist Party.

“China will fully implement the policy of ‘one couple, two children’ in a proactive response to the issue of an aging population.”

Xinhua said the proposal needs to be approved by the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, in March before it can be enacted.

According to Lu Jiehua, a sociologist at Peking University, the policy will affect 100 million couples.

China, now a nation of more than 1.3 billion people, instituted a policy of one child per couple to control population growth in the 1970s.

Why the policy update is no silver bullet for economy

When its propaganda didn’t work, local officials resorted to abortions, heavy fines and forced sterilization.

The decision to end the restriction followed a four-day strategy meeting of senior Communist Party officials at a Beijing hotel, CNN’s former China correspondent David McKenzie said.

He has said the move was foreshadowed by a change in the propaganda: While old advertisements depicted parents doting on one child, he said, a recent commercial showed a boy begrudgingly sharing a toy with his younger sister.

‘Not enough’

Human rights group Amnesty International issued a statement warning that the change in policy was “not enough.”

“Couples that have two children could still be subjected to coercive and intrusive forms of contraception, and even forced abortions — which amount to torture,” China researcher William Nee said.

“The state has no business regulating how many children people have,” he said.

Is China’s policy update too little, too late?

Relaxation of policy

China began relaxing the controversial policy in January 2014, allowing couples to have a second baby if the mother or father was an only child.

Parents sticking with 1 child as China eases rules

Parents sticking with 1 child as China eases rules 02:06

The move was hailed as a major liberalization of the three-decades-old restriction, but new figures released in January 2015 suggested that fewer people than expected were taking the plunge and expanding their family.

Nationwide, nearly 1 million couples eligible under the new rules had applied to have a second child, state media reported at the time. Health officials had said that the policy would lead to as many as 2 million new births when the policy change was first announced, and it wasestimated that 11 million couples were eligible.

Two kids? Thanks but no, say some Chinese

Aging population

China’s government has said the country could become home to the most elderly population on the planet in just 15 years, with more than 400 million people over the age of 60.

China's one child policy changes

China’s one child policy changes 02:07

Researchers say the graying population will burden health care and social services, and the world’s second-largest economy will struggle to maintain its growth.

For China, three decades of one-child policy proves hard to undo

“China has already begun to feel an unfolding crisis in terms of its population change,” Wang Feng, a professor at Fudan University and a leading demographic expert on China, told McKenzie earlier this year.

“History will look back to see the one-child policy as one of the most glaring policy mistakes that China has made in its modern history.”

Wang said the one-child policy was ineffective and unnecessary, since China’s fertility rates were already slowing by the 1980s.

Being a second child in China

CNN’s David McKenzie, Katie Hunt and Jason Hanna contributed to this report.

An Investigation on China Village’s One Child Policy “Three Examinations”

Posted on by

Women’s Rights in China Founder Jing Zhang testified in Congress US Neb 10, 2009

Picture24

Summary: In rural villages, the Chinese government’s One Child policy is enforced with the ¨Three Examinations,〃 which check women for use of contraceptive rings, pregnancy, and illness practice that is hostile and abhorrent to women.

Picture20
WRIC Founder Jing Zhang (left four)testified in Congress US in Neb 10, 2009.
Picture21
Jing Zhang giving a speech before testifying for the hearing

 

From September 2008 to March 2009, we visited the provinces of Shandong, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, and He Bei to investigate the conditions of rural villagers with regard to the One Child Policy. During this time, the focal points of our investigations were the so-called ¨Three Examinations,〃 which check women for use of contraceptive rings, pregnancy, and illness four times each year.

 

The Head of the One Child Policy Commission, Zhao Bai Ge, said: ¨There exist 240 million women of childbearing age inChina now, and among them, 83 percent use birth control and contraception.〃 There is some truth in those words. For example, during a trip to a village in Hebei, we found that among the 288 women in that village, 279 women of childbearing age wore the contraception ring (about 92 percent). Only those who have womb defects did not use the intrauterine device.

 

But Zhao Bai Ge, a Cambridge graduate, has also said: ¨Chinaˇs One Child Policy is not as controlling as it seems. The people are voluntarily choosing to enforce the policy.〃 That is a complete lie.

 

Not only do enforcers of the policy disrespect womenthey have no regard for the ethic of preserving personal privacy.
According to a 17-year enforcer of the One Child Policy, as well as several women who have undergone the Three Examinations, the procedure is as follows:
1. The woman is stripped naked for an external physical examination. Her abdomen is pressed to determine if there is any pregnancy, and her breasts are kneaded and squeezed to see if breast milk comes out. Often there are mothers who have no more breast milk.

2. The uterus is checked for the presence of a contraceptive ring.

3. Using a vaginal mirror, the appearance of the vagina is examined. (This part of the procedure is often omitted in poor villages since each vaginal mirror costs 5 RMB). If the vaginal folds appear to be new, this is taken as evidence of either a recent birth or miscarriage. In the case of a miscarriage, proper proof must be provided. If it was a birth, an investigation is launched on the legality of the birth under the terms of the One Child Policy.

 

While interviewing the One Child Policy supervisor in a SiChuan village, we consulted a book titled “One Child Policy Contract and Protocol”. It clearly indicates that if villagers do not make their appointed date for the Three Examinations, they will be fined 10 RMB a day. We have spoken with many mothers; not one of them wants to go to a gynecological clinic four times a year for a uterine checkup.

 

Furthermore, women are forced to carry an introduction letter written by their villageˇs One Child Policy supervisor whenever they travel. Those who travel to foreign lands must first report to a local One Child Policy supervisor for the three examinations, and then mail the results back to their own villages. If the village commission office does not receive the test results, a large fine will be imposed upon the family of the woman.

 

One can imagine the limitations that the quarterly examinations impose on women; their life-giving capacities, travel, and even them most intimate relationship between husband and wife are all controlled by the government. It can be said that until Chinaˇs women reach menopause, they are confined like sows by the fence of forced birth control, controlled and monitored by the government with the sole purpose of not allowing them to have children.

 

Truthfully, mothers are given no respect in China; their wombs are the property of the Communist regime, raised like livestock with their every use subject to approval. Mothers are required to keep a record of their uterine activities, including the date they put their rings in and the type of ring used, when their periods come each month and duration of their period, and the date on which their child was conceived. To the Communist Party, every mother is a suspected criminal and the three examinations are ways to stop the mother from committing the crimeit is a precaution against future motherhood.

 

In a way, enforced wearing of the contraceptive ring is like putting shackles on womenor rather, like putting tracking devices on them so that they may be watched and monitored like animals. Women cannot be touched and their men cannot display any interest. The ring guards the motherˇs uterus, representing the nationˇs power, and, as decided by the law, the ring is the nationˇs defender of that power. It lies deep within the womanˇs vagina, not only killing the husbandˇs sperm but also providing the One Child Policy workers with a key to that ring.

 

If someone dares defy the law and removes the ring, it becomes proof of a crime as severe as murder. The perpetrator will be punished immediately. We interviewed women living on boats on the Guang Dong (Guang Xi River), the majority of whom have removed their rings. They have become escaped criminals ever since, living in constant fear of being caught and punished. Imagine a baby who has to hide inside its motherˇs womb for nine months before it can secretly be born into a society far more dangerous than the womb, then watch its mother face cruel punishment, jail time and heavy fines. And when this child grows up, he or she will have to live under the restrictions of the One Child Policy as well, and will be forced to live a life of fear and unfairness.

 

In November 2008 we took a long-distance bus trip to Bo Bai County in Guang Xi to investigate the One Child Policy. Upon entering the county borders, a large advertisement for the One Child Policy said: ¨The One Child Policy services create families so that every village and every household can blossom!〃 There are even One Child Policy slogans on both sides of traffic signs with blue background and white text. Itˇs like passing through a bizarre One Child Policy road.

 

We visited small towns in the Bo Bi Xian County: Shuang Wang and Sha Po.
To protest the imposition of the three examinations on women in Bo Bai Xian County (in particular the fines and penalties for children that exceed the One Child Policy limit), the people there organized the largest uprising since theTiananmen Square demonstrations. More than 50,000 people from the county surrounded and destroyed six government office buildings in the villages and smashed the concrete roads in order to obstruct police cars. There were at least seven deaths, including two police officers who were beaten to death by the rebellious masses and five student demonstrators who were trampled to death. More than 200 people and 100 students were captured and jailed.

What is more, the incident exposed the corruption of the local government, which had used the policy penalties as their own income. Prior to the rebellion, the countyˇs official Website stated that ¨the entire county has provided more than 5,800 men to the labor force, produced more than 200 cars, tied the tubes for the countyˇs 17,000 women, performed abortions and installed contraceptive rings, and imposed [One Child] policy fines that reach up to 7.88 million RMB.〃

(Note: This content was subsequently deleted from the Website.)

 

In order to investigate the factors leading up to the rebellion, we questioned local barbers, photographers, cab drivers, street peddlers, restaurant workers and hotel personnel, etc., and found that there were a few main points. The factors that these people resented most greatly were the corruption of policy personnel, the fact that the government uses One Child Policy penalties to accumulate wealth, and the unfairness of suddenly enforcing policy rules very strictly after 10 years of leniency.

 

This last point is one that peasants and farmers repeatedly complain about most bitterly. Previously the One Child policy was not enforced very strictly in Bo Bai County; families with two, three and even up to five children were not uncommon. In those days offending parents could pay off policy personnel with a few hundred RMB. Now, those who exceed the policy limit are forced to pay a finebut now that their ¨illegal〃 sons and daughters are already grown up and attending junior high school, the parents refuse to pay more money. To deal with the villagersˇ refusal to pay up, policy enforcers organize third-class county cadres and policemen into a large military unit, marching into towns and letting no family escape from investigations of policy offenses. They imposed 1000 RMB fines on women who do not make their Three Examination appointment and had the courts of law enforce that payment. They also used an extreme course of action, the ¨One Ring, Two Tie〃 procedure, in which they force (by binding) a woman to go to the hospital, where a ring is inserted and, in addition, a tubal ligation is performed (a surgical procedure in which the fallopian tubes are cut, clamped, blocked, or tied to prevent the womanˇs eggs from reaching her uterus; the sperm is also blocked from traveling along the tube to meet the egg).

 

Ever since March 1, 2007, a One Child Policy leadership group established by Bobai Countyˇs policy personnel has raided the houses of extremely poor families and villages, tearing down the meager establishments and destroying possessions. Peasants began to hide in the mountains and along the lake shores. More than 250 mothers were captured and arrested at a reservoir near the town of Jiangning and taken to a hospital. There pregnant women were given an abortion shot, women who were not pregnant yet had a contraceptive ring inserted, and those with two or more children had their fallopian tubes cut off surgically.

 

In the small town of Yingqiao, male villagers and middle school students found this to be the last straw. They rushed into the homes of One Child Policy personnel and smashed their belongings. Afterwards they escaped to the mountains, but were eventually surrounded by more than 300 police officers, and 13 of the villagers were arrested and sent to prison. Especially in the town of Shuangwang near Guangdong, many female villagers who were familiar with the area escaped to Pubei County and Lianjiang City in Guangdong, where they were chased by potential captors sent from Bobai County. The husbands and elderly relatives who were unable to escape with the women were taken hostage by policy personnel, and even larger fines were imposed upon them.

 

The uprising in Bobai County was defeated, and the rebellious villagers were forced to pay a heavy price: Some older mothers agreed to have their tubes tied in order to beg the government to release their sons from imprisonment, and some women were even forced to undergo tubal ligation three times. Many people were stripped of their homes. Policy personnel took away valuables like electric appliances, farming tools, iron framed beds, aluminum window panes, pigs, chickens, cows, and sheep, while goods of little value such as pots, pans and teapots were all smashed. Many villagers took their sons and daughters to spend the nights in the mountain forests, where many became very ill. Countless families were broken up. Like the aftermath of theTiananmen Square incident, rebellion was once again resurrected in the villages.

 

The Chinese government has used inhumane methods to implement its One Child Policy. It defies human rights. It is uncivilized and barbarous. This sort of behavior must be condemned by humanity because every human being is born of a mother. Mothers should not be disgraced and humiliated by any government as they are by the Chinese government.

 

These are the findings of our extensive investigation into the Three Examinations. The department charged with enforcing the One Child Policy is gradually becoming more secretive, especially after the central authorities sent down orders to keep all work confidential. All the people that we interviewed and any exact locations have been concealed for the sake of their safety, which the reader will surely understand.

(Please credit www.wrchina.org)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jiangling Li: Forced Abortion, a Permanent Scar on Women

Posted on by

Source: WRIC,                  Translator by Yang Yu                 05-29-2012

 

Jingling Li 3

                            Li Jiangli (left) talked about her experience of forced abortion with other women

Women’s Right in China held in Flushing, New York Office “China’s Family Planning Policy and Population Conference” on May 29, 2012. Participants of the conference had very heated discussion on China’s forced family planning policy and its impact on Chinese society.

The first speaker was the Tibetan history expert and writer, Li Jiangli. She made public the first time her horrible experience of forced abortion. She said, abortion brings more pain than any other physical pains to a woman because not only she has no dignity when the abortion is in process but also she feels like a conspirator killing her child. Women can gather together and talk about anything – but not about abortion because the process is too painful. Li Jiang stated, abortion is the commonly shared nightmare, scar, and secret of all the women in China. On the other hand, a woman will never share the experience with her husband or male partner, because he cannot truly understand the pain of his woman. Men are excluded from the issue of abortion and it is likely they don’t want to learn about the experience. Being unable to protect his woman makes the gap between two sexes.

 

Theorist Hu Ping also explained his point of view that China’s forced family planning policy is an unprecedented violence. What is more perplexing is that the policy is enforced without much resistance – even the privileged class is included. From official statistics, there are annually 10,000,000 abortion cases in China, which is like massacre of 10,000,000 people. One-Child Policy incurred millions of families without decedents, because they have only one child and later loose them when parents loose reproduction ability. One-Child Policy also results in the fact that the only child is harder to educate. In order to advertise the family planning policy, the China Communist Party fervently advocates for eugenics, which is closely interconnected with Fascism. Besides, the family planning policy consolidates discrimination against peasants in China. In fact, there has never been any societal discrimination against peasants before the China Communist Party established in recent 60 years.

 

Jingling Li 2

Han Wu asserted that men are indirect victims of the family planning policy as well. After his wife was sterilized, he felt like their intimate life was unlocked by the sterilization ring. All the participants concluded that both men and women are victims of forced family planning policy.
When discussing why the forced family planning policy is so entrenched, initiator of Women’s Right in China, Zhang Jing used a couple of figures to demonstrate the issue. Zhang Jing said, according to official statistics from Chinese government in 2005, there were 58,700,000 family planning officials, 1,142,000 full-time family planning officials, and 57,270,000 part-time family planning officials. This means there are more than 100,000,000 people, which are one tenth of the whole population of China, involved in enforcing family planning policy. What is more, there are about 40,000 community family planning offices and about 5, 000 family planning service stations. The State Council has more than 20 departments dedicated for family planning policy – no such governmental policies would be this prevalent! Averagely, every Chinese citizen annually pays ten yuan for the family planning policy. Aside from the shocking benefit chain, the family planning policy even practices “political veto,” thus further consolidating the link between the family planning policy and the political life of governmental officials.

 

When discussing how to change the family planning policy, Li Jianglin asserted that women should no longer remain silent, and speak out their pain from abortion; otherwise, this pain will go on to their daughters, daughters-in-law, and granddaughters, etc.At the end of the conference, an interview from BBC with Ma Jian, a traveling author in Britain, was played. Ma Jian stated his new book Dark Road was a persecution of China’s family planning policy, and was also an attempt to regain women’s control over their uterus.

Jingling Li 4Jingling Li 5

Shocking One-Child Policy Slogan

Posted on by

Photo and caption by WRIC             10-20-2014

reality

Beside Country road there is a large banner in Weining County , Guizhou China:  It is used any ways to control population numbers. Concentrate all strengths to crush illegal birth activities.

The big banner is created by local Weining Autonomous Region government and CCP in Guizhou, China. (photo by WRIC 10-20-2014)

Customer Reviews from Amazon

Posted on by

Frankly speaking, I think this book(The Orphans of Shao) is qualified to be considered as a candidate for the Nobel Prize. The book is bold and candid exposure of the despicable corruption, unlawfulness, cold-bloodedness, cruelty to the underprivileged people, the insatiable greed for money, especially in the remote small cities and villages. The book tells how so many middle and low level Communist officials think “they are the law”, and they can do whatsoever they like to get profits from their illegal enforcement of the “One-child Policy” because the top officials in the central government agencies in Beijing have always been busy with their own businesses and preoccupied with efforts that may help them climb the political ladder. The central government officials simply ignored the cries and appeals of the underpreviliged poor people who are usually less educated and less informed. When the author, a young investigative reporter, first heard stories of infants or small children being seized by officials and sent to the government-run orphanaged. He did not start digging up the truth. As he heard more and more stories about similar stories told by the victims, he set out to dig up and verifiy the truth of the stories. The author even built up contacts with foreigners who provided many useful leads enabling the author to find out the systematic tricks used by the Communist officials to sell orphans to foreign adopters. According to this book, selling Chinese orphans to foreign adopters, by the Communist officials, is “big lucrative business”. The book even cited many news reports made by international newspapers such as the New York Times about the doubtful adoption of “Chinese orphans”. According to the book, many of the “orphans” were not orphans. Instead, these orphans had been robbed away from their parents on the accusation that the orphans were born against the “One-child Policy”. Many parents of these orphans have been trying very hard to get back their children, but in vain. Because these orphans had been adopted by foreign pare1nts. A father had been trying for many years to get back his daughter only found out that his daughter was adopted by an American family. The photograph of his daughter, clad in very beautiful silk Chinese style dress, was published on the New York Times. If you want to know the real China, the book is for you.

 

WRIC Published “The Orphans of Shao” Oct 24, 2014

Posted on by

“The Orphans of Shao” consists of case studies that exemplify more than 35-year long-lasting policy in China, the One-Child Policy. Due to the effect that the National Law has created, Mr. Pang exposed the corrupted adoption system in China. The farmers in many villages are forced to fines that they cannot afford to pay so the officials take their children away. The officials then sell the children for a low price to government orphanages. The orphanages then put these children up for international adoptions and collect the high prices fees for these adoptions. The international adoptions are usually in Europe and in the United States. These families that adopted these children truly believe that the children are orphans. After their children were kidnapped by the officials, the parents embarked on a long and draining odyssey to recover them. After searching fruitlessly for many years, the heartbroken and desperate parents were on the verge of losing all hope. At that time an investigative reporter discovered new leads for them. The reporter published an exclusive report exposing the kidnapping of their children by the Family Planning officials.

 

Zeng Youdong has one twin daughter in the East and one in the West. The older daughter was taken and kidnapped. Now she has been adopted by an American family. Pictured in the photo is the older twin sister after years of living in the United States.

             Zeng Youdong has one twin daughter in the East and one in the West. The older daughter was taken and kidnapped. Now she has been adopted by an American family. Pictured in the photo is the older twin sister after years of living in the United States. 

A family portrait of Yang Libing, his wife Cao Zhimei and their daughter before his elder daughter was snatched away by the Family Planning Office. Like other local peasants, Yang Libing hadn’t gone through the registration procedures on time after he got married and had children.

             A family portrait of Yang Libing, his wife Cao Zhimei and their daughter before his elder daughter was snatched away by the Family Planning Office. Like other local peasants, Yang Libing hadn’t gone through the registration procedures on time after he got married and had children.

 

Women's Rights in China (NGO organization) is very fortunate to gain Mr. Pang's copyrights to publish his book in the United States in English. Mr. Pang has suffered many murderous threats due to his work on this book. It is our hope that we can bring one journalist's hard work into fruition as well as the whole truth behind how the government implements the One-Child Policy in China. The product of this book is the result of many volunteers' hard work. Publish Date: 10/24/2014 Also you can order the book in the below link on WRIC's website, wrchina.org/. https://crchina.live-website.com/?page_id=6858.

Or

 

 

 

Father Commits Suicide Because of One-Child Policy Payments

Posted on by

Source： WRIC                        Translated by: Anna Li and Wendy Mei

 

 

37 year-old farmer and father of four, Wang Guang Rong, took his own life because of the “more than one child fine”. The “more than one child fine” and the related birth control policy payments are the main reason for this family’s tragedy.

 

According to the Beijing Times, on March 3, 2013, on the day of school enrollment, the 37-year-old farmer in Guizhou, Wang Guang Rong, couldn’t afford to pay the 22,500 yuan “more than one child fine”, and killed himself with an art blade. According to the recent reporter’s research, the act of  family planning policy and other policies “bundled” together is quite common.

 

Registration Required With a “Birth Certificate”

 

Wong Guang Rong has four children; the eldest daughter and second daughter are in the seventh grade and attend Wan Tuen school, while his youngest daughter and son attended the village’s primary school. Before the semester began, the illiterate farmer was informed that his family records stated that he had more than one child and that he had to pay a fine.  When he ran to the birth control station to ask for information, he was told he had to pay a total of 22,500yuan.

 

The person responsible for charging this family with fines was Wan Tun village’s Family Planning and Health Services Center’s Wu Wan Bin. Wang Guang Rong had two extra children, and the total “social compensation fee” for them was 18,000yuan (approx. $2917);for Wang’s second daughter, he had to pay the “super pregnant fee” and “undocumented birth fee” which added up to 4,500yuan (approx. $729); altogether this was 22,500yuan or $3646 US dollars.

 

These “more than one child fines” made Wang Guang Rong frustrated and he went to the Birth Control Station once more.  According to Wu Jin Min, her husband had told her that they could pay 18,000yuan all at once, however, if they couldn’t pay the rest in time then the overdue fines would be doubled.

 

Over the course of several days, Wu Jin Min observed her husband growing more quiet, occasionally sighing in front of her.  “The kids are not doing well in school. They will become illiterate like us later on”, he’d say.  Guang Rong, who had never liked asking for help, began giving acquaintances a call, but often ended up disappointed.

 

About a week before school began, the village’s primary school posted a sign under the dam gate informing parents of the school enrollment deadline and the materials needed, which included the paid fine of the child’s “proof of birth”.

 

Suicide on the First Day of School

 

Tang Yong Jiang, a villager, said that many families were borrowing or selling animals to get money. But Wang Guang Rong had nothing to sell, with the money he borrowed and the 3 old houses he’d bought from his neighbor as well as the pig and five chickens he’d sold, he couldn’t cobble together 18,000 yuan.

 

On the third day after the school’s notice was posted, parents started to enroll their children. Wu Jin Min found her husband awake that morning, yet he did not get up. Their 10-year-old daughters asked their father for allowance money, but he said no and told them, “go find your mother”. They said they wanted to get their birth certificates and again he said no. The three daughters recall their father had to cross several “birth certificate”.

 

The children left the house around 7 o’clock.

 

Wang Guang Rong’s father went out at 8:00, and Guang Rong’s brother, Wang Fu, came over. When Wong Guang Rong said he had leg pain, Wang Fu took out $500 and threw it on the bed. Wang Fu said Wang Guang Rong owed ​​him 4,000 yuan in total, and that most of the times, he gave because he felt pity for him.

 

At 9 o’clock Guang Rong’s mother, Liu Hui Xiang, personally came to see her son, and give him 100 dollars. “I said take it to pay off the fees, but he said no, and that I do not understand.”

 

Wu Jin Min went out around 11 o’clock, and their neighboring village’s uncle Li Wan Hua stopped by the house. Lee Wan Hua said the two men were drinking together. When he ventured to ask Guang Rong if he had borrowed money, Wang replied: “Two of my kids might not do well in school, and I’ve been borrowing money from everywhere in the village.”

 

After lunch at around 12 o’clock, Wu Jin Min went to help the neighbors. Before leaving, Wang Guang Rong said he felt cold, and wanted to rest on his bed for a while before going.

 

Around 12:50 or so, a neighbor told Wu Jin Min that a “pop” sound had come from her house, and Wu quickly ran home to find Guang Rong kneeling at the bedside, his head in a pit in the ground and already covered in the cold , “the pit was filled with blood.” Subsequently, her husband found her.

 

Wu Jin Min remembered, her husband was still chatting about their child’s registration a few days before his suicide. That rarely happened in the past. “He always said to let their child to be educated, unlike us.”

 

Father with Multiple Children Becomes Sick and Poor

 

In 2000, Wu Jin Min gave birth to a daughter, and after two years, she had a second daughter, meaning that the couple had reached the maximum number of children allowed.

 

Wang Guang Rong had four brothers, and the idea of patriarchy was valued. Since the oldest brother Wang Fu had no sons, being the second oldest brother meant that he had to have a boy. When his daughter was two years old, Wang Guang Rong and his wife went to the nearest town to work and build some small businesses. During that time, they had a third child, also a girl. When Wang Guang Rong’s wife was pregnant for a fourth time, he was more excited and even opened a honeycomb of small factories.

 

According to Wang’s family member, in 2004, a friend borrowed one hundred dollars from Wang Guang Rong. Wang Guang Rong asked for the money back, but his friend refused to return the money and threatened him. A fight broke out during the argument, and Wang Guang Rong stabbed the his friend with a knife. After the event Wang’s family had to move from Zheng Tun to Xin Yi, where he worked at a tunnel. Not long after, an accident happened and he had a waist injury. Discharged from the hospital after one month he soon realized that he had bladder stone.

 

According to locals, the injured man stayed in the hospital for a while and went home. On the other side of the coin, Wang Guang Rong went into jail in 2006 and released in 2010. When Wang Guang Rong was released, his son was already 4 years old, and paying off debt became his primary goal. Since he wasn’t cultured or had any skills, he only could find physical work. Before commiting suicide he worked as a mason in Kunming. Wu Jin Ming said the family is often “shaky”, they have a bank loan of thirty thousand. The bank loan was used to repay the debt.

 

Local Government Denies Any Relation with Fines

 

After 2004, due to improper one-child policy enforcement, Xingyi had two members from the one-child policy department killed in murder cases. Nearby villagers said that after the murder cases, the one-child policy department’s enforcement was obviously less harsh. Relevant departments are also exploring other ways of enforcement, the imposition of the original enforcement became less strict with “bundling laws” -, people will violate on the birth control policy.

 

Reporters investigated relevant information and found, in 2011, Xingyi City had begun to base voluntary education on the one child policy.

 

However, an anonymous source told the reporters that the educational system is unsatisfied with the one-child policy department, “voluntary education is also national policy”. The leaders of the educational system mentioned that we can’t prohibit children from having their education because of the one child policy.

 

After Wang Guang Rong died, the local officials stated Guang Rong’s death had nothing to do with the “one-child policy fine”, and other reasons are “currently being investigated”. The four kids were enrolled in school. At the same time, Wu Jin Ming received $60,000 in funeral expenses and the government’s commitment to help its housing. But Wu Jin Ming told the reporters that after her husband committed suicide that afternoon, her three daughters came back from Xia Bei elementary school, and asked for the “more than one-child certificate”.

 

Coincidentally, the next day after Wang Guang Rong’s death, the local media reported on March 3rd, Southwest Guizhou Committee Secretary Sang Wei Liang held a meeting. The conference formed a consensus: The original idea of education is “both trusting and promising” is nonexistence.

 

The reporter’s inquiry found out that this is the only region in Guizhou, which clearly expresses that voluntary teaching with the one-child policy are executed together.

 

 

                                             

WRIC Report on Child Trafficking in China

Posted on by

WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN CHINA                                                                                                    2011

 

Child-trafficking has become a severe social problem in China. It has become an extensive and lucrative illegal trade. The government’s One Child Policy is the root cause of the problem which directly and indirectly created and stimulated the “market” for trafficked children. Criminal groups made up mainly of members of the same family (*a) go into vast areas of the Chinese countryside and kidnap or barter children and young women for sale in other areas. 10 years ago, the children were mainly sold to coastal provinces like Fujian and Guangdong. The buying market has quickly expanded north. The areas where the children came from have also expanded from the southwest inland mountain areas to the northwest and Central Plains areas.

 

The Chinese government has a longstanding policy of secrecy over statistics of the missing persons. It has never published the real numbers of the nation-wide child-trafficking problem. As the problem increased in severity, under pressure from foreign governments and NGO’s, to mend social stability and its imago, the Chinese government initiated five separate “operations” combating human trafficking. During each “operation”, public security organs would disclose relevant data. However, these data were incomplete and unorganized. Little cooperation existed between the central and regional governments and different departments. After “processing” through different government agencies, the data on missing children became even more convoluted and could not give accurate figures on the missing and trafficked population. Civil society efforts to compile data have been hampered by the expanse of the country and lack of resources. However it is possible for WRIC to give a rough estimate from our own data and governmental figures.

 

 

1. Data on Rescued Children 

According to the Ministry of Public Security, since the April 2009 “Battle to Establish the National Anti-trafficking DNA Database”, the nation’s public security organs took in blood samples of suspected trafficked children. As of September 20, 2010, 130,000 samples had been collected from the children (* b), along with blood samples of 34, 000 parents of missing children. 813 abducted children were found to be matches in this way. That is, only 6.2% in the database matched the sampled parents. 93.8% remained unclaimed.   July 1,2005, Xinxiang, Henan police rescued 35 babies, only 1 was reclaimed, 34 children did not find the birth parents, accounting for 97% of the total;   Ministry of Public Security published in 2009 the first rescue of 60 children (* d). 55 so far could not find their birth parents, accounting for 92% of the total;   On June 3,2009, Wuhan Railway Police uncovered the baby trafficking gang headed by Yu Li Hong of Yunnan Province. 46 infants were rescued. None were claimed, 100%;   Shanwei police early in 2010 detected a serious case of baby trafficking, rescued 26 children, of which 11 remain unclaimed, 58% of the total;   On September 5,2010, Anxi, Fujian police rescued 41 trafficked children. None were claimed, 100% of the total.   In a small village in Putian, Fujian, WRIC helped reunite three women who were trafficked as young girls with their birth families. None of the three were in governmental databases. Even more shockingly, in a village in the same municipality, almost every family had bought children from traffickers. Local police and census takers always looked the other way. Neither did they help the suddenly appearing children in searching for their birth family in any way. From these instances, it is clear that child trafficking is far graver than the 130,000 number of the Public Security Ministry or even the 6.2% reclamation rate of its database suggested.

 

2. Civil Society Activities in Child Search and Rescue

In Mainland China, child trafficking first occurred in the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. It has now spread to nearly all provinces and autonomous regions, with the possible exception of Tibet. From databases maintained by civilian non-governmental websites, Henan has become the province where the problem of missing children has become the most severe. Numbers in Guangdong, Fujian, Guangxi, Shaanxi, Hebei provinces are also skyrocketing. In the December, 2010 Huijiawang (Return Home Net) activities in North China, it was discovered that kidnapping of girls had increased markedly in the last two to three years. In regions of Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi, rural villagers bought child brides in large numbers. The price for such trafficked children had also increased from several thousand yuan in the past to twenty or thirty thousand. Girls in their teens and young women were also targets of kidnapping.

 

The main method by which parents of missing children search for their lost children is to travel to various places with their own resources, if possible with the help of extended family. The parents often post notices of their missing children on websites and major train stations. The effort quite often exhausts the resources and life savings of the families.   The Return Home network (www.crchina.org), affiliated with Women's Rights in China has maintained contacts with various regional organizations of missing children’s parents since its founding in 2008. More than 4,000 families looking for their missing children have registered on the website. In three years, with two grants from All Girls Allowed, wrchina.org/ organized several large scale anti-trafficking activities in severely affected provinces. During these activities, the Return Home Net tried to avoid all harassment by local police, gathered representatives from various provinces for parental victims for conferences and invited attorneys for legal advice (*d). Convoys plastered with pictures of missing children traveled through eight provinces and held educational exhibits in markets and towns, attracting widespread attention from the public. Although the expense was heavy, through the wrchina.org/ platform, parent volunteers from dozens of provinces helped many trafficking victims to reunite with their birth families. Mr. Guo Gangtang of Shandong and Mr. Chen Fuyu of Guizhou succeeded in uniting several families through their travels although they could not find their own missing children.

 

However, the strength of the civil society efforts was thin. The parent volunteers were under tremendous financial pressure and harassment of local governments. In September, 2008, more than 40 parents petitioned China Central Television to tell their stories. They were arrested and taken under guard back to their localities for further detainment. In January, 2010, three vehicles and representatives from five provinces looking for missing children were detained in Taiyuan, Shanxi.

January, 2010, a parent volunteer is picking up posters torn by local police. In the background, more policemen are chasing away volunteers.
Detainment for over 20 hours in the garage of the local police station.
 In addition, parents who were interviewed by Hong Kong and foreign media have been under constant police
surveillance. They were banned from all travel on pain of immediate arrest. The Zhen family of Zhanjiang, Guangdong is still under
such treatment.

3. Civil Society Missing Children Websites 

  
As the Chinese government had not set up dedicated agencies to find missing children and child trafficking is a 
constantly growing problem, parents looking for missing children spontaneously organized provincial child rescue 
leagues and websites. 

At present, dozens of missing children sites exist in China. Each site is registering information on missing or abducted 
children information. But many are charging fees for registration, some are semi-governmental, such as 
Baobeihuijiawang, which has become the only government approved NGO in the area. Independent, non-profit websites 
like wrchina.org/ of WRIC are rare. Nevertheless, many parents anxious to find their children are willing to pay to publish 
their children’s information. With the help of the websites and their users, there have been some cases of success. So far, 
these separate databases range between 10,000 to 15,000 each. Some information is overlapping, but most of these 
cases are outside of the government registrations. 
An anti-trafficking exhibit organized by WRIC in Fujian, 2009.
Volunteers educating the public in Fujian.
 
The missing data are caused by four main factors: 
  
a. A large number of trafficking occurred in the rural areas. There is often no photo of the child, let alone the funds to 
publish them online. Even the contact with local volunteers, the most that could be gathered was text information. 
On WRIC's wrchina.org/, 3,000 missing children had have no photos.

  
b. One -child policy and gender discrimination inhibit rural families from reporting missing children, particularly girls. Many 

families prefer boys. The kidnapping of a girl obviates heavy government fines for “illegal” births and opens the opportunity for

additional children.

  
c. Many families give up after long periods of their little loved ones’ disappearances. WRIC volunteers found two women in Putian, Fujian whom they were kidnapped 24 years ago from Guizhou. Neither of them were in the case files of Guizhou police or

government. Their parents never officially registered their disappearance with the police and gave up long before. Rural residents

were often less educated and reluctant to seek help from government. 

d. Families sometimes break up after the child had gone missing. Both parents might hide their past history after 
remarrying and might not recognize their missing children even if found. The most recent case happened in January, 2011. 
Wong Qionghua of Huizhou, Guangdong found her birth parents through WRIC volunteers. Her siblings even recognized 
her voice in the telephone. But her mother categorically refused to recognize her. Ultimately it was discovered that she 
had been sold by her mother, who feared any more complications if she were to return.

4. Street Children As Entertainment

           Large numbers of street children are inconsistent with China’s growing national wealth, negatively impact 
its international image and tourism, and could also serve as a source of future social unrests.
           
           There are 610 medium-sized cities in China. If there are 100 begging children per city, there are 60,000 children. There are at least 1000 begging children in each of the 50 large cities. In medium and large cities in China alone,
there would be more than 100,000 begging homeless children. Combined with those who live in the vast countryside and rural towns,
the national total could be as high as a million. 
           Most of these children are trafficked, many under the control of criminal organizations. During the Spring Festival in 
February 2011, the Central People’s Broadcasting Station uncovered a large scale, long running child trafficking ring that 
forced children to beg. The child victims were under the control of adult organizations in systematic begging operations. 
All profit belonged to the head of the organization. Even crueler was the artificial disabling of some of the children to elicit 
more sympathy from the audience and more profit for their handlers.

Recently, Professor Yu Jianrong of the Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Rural Development, started the blog 
‘photo rescue child beggars’ which attracted attention from web users in the country and various law enforcement agencies.
In less than a week, users submitted photos of 24,000 begging children to the blog.
5. Government Orphanages in the Child-Trafficking Trade 

Some of government orphanages also engaged in the child trafficking trade. They took in “illegal” births and abandoned 
infants and are profited by domestic and foreign adoptions, collecting high fees. Zhenyuang County orphanage in Guizhou 
province gained more than 110,000 yuan through such adoptions. However, media investigations discovered that the 
“orphans” were “illegal” babies kidnapped from rural families by government Birth Planning officials. A girl who was 
“donated” in such a way would offset the heavy government fines. A foreign “adoption” cost from $20,000 to $30,000
for American families.
 
The newborn girl of this farm family in Zhenyuan, Guizhou was taken by government orphanage in lieu of a heavy fine.
           More shockingly, since 2002, six government orphanages in Hunan had been buying babies in large numbers from 
human traffickers in order to profit from later foreign adoptions. In 2005, Hengyang orphanage alone bought 78 
infants from traffickers.
           Beijing Sun Village (Taiyangcun) is an orphanage that takes in children whose parents had been incarcerated. 
It was founded by a former female prison guard and once hailed as a model of Chinese charities. WRIC 
investigations in 2007, 2008 and 2009 revealed that girls who lived in Beijing Sun Village had been raped and 
abused. Some infants who entered the orphanage disappeared in days without leaving any trace in internal 
registries or its website.
 
 
This girl entered Beijing Sun Village in June, 2007. She disappeared in 4 days.
This three-year-old child, photographed in Beijing Sun Village on October 18, 2007, disappeared a week later.
 
One of four guard dogs at Beijing Sun Village in 2009 before they were exposed by the media. 
The administrators said they were used to prevent children from escaping. 
Unexplained is why homeless children would want to escape their orphanage.
 
           In May 2011, the Birth Planning agency in Longhui County, Shaoyang City, Hunan province abducted more than a 
dozen “illegal” above-quota infants. Their surnames were all changed to Shao in the county orphanage. Some had 
been sold for adoption overseas at the price of 3000 US dollars a head.
Yang Libing, wife and daughter Yang Ling in a family portrait before Yang Ling was abducted by Birth Planning officials.
           According to incomplete statistics, since the 1990’s, about 120,000 Chinese children had been adopted by 90,000 
foreign families from 17 countries. 70,000 of these children went to the United States. This is one factor that 
contributed to the difficulty of finding missing children.

Conclusion:
  
           The Chinese Ministry of Public Security’s DNA database registered samples from 130,000 children suspected of 
being trafficking victims. Most of these were from those who were rescued in the last two years. The DNA samples 
from families looking for their missing children only numbered 34,000. 3/4 of the families had stopped 
looking or lost hope. In the last ten years, there were 500,000 abducted children in China. In the decade of the 90’s, 
when child trafficking was about twice as prevalent, the number could easily reach in the millions.
           China’s aging population, mandatory family planning policy, gender imbalance and other factors created incentives 
for the human trafficking trade. Tempted by the prospect of strong profits, criminal groups have become more 
organized and professionalized, their activities hardly impacted by the government’s superficial measures which never 
addressed the root cause of the problem. Without more dedicated and more effective involvement of law enforcement,
in the foreseeable future human trafficking would only expand and continue to destabilize Chinese society.  
  
(Translated and abridged from an original report in Chinese. www.wrchina.org)
Notes: 
* a. A streamlined family trafficking operation 
 http://www.womensrightsofchina.org/?viewnews-3390 
Family-based criminal trafficking group kidnapped 49 infants in three provinces for four years.
http://www.gdzjdaily.com.cn/news/2010-04/19/content_1190244.htm 
* b. Xinhua News Agenc: 813 matches from DNA anti-trafficking database
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2010-09/20/c_12589721.htm 
* c. Ministry of Public Security 
http://www.mps.gov.cn/n16/n1252/n1687/n2257/2080658.html 
 * d. “Return Home Net” Report on activities in northern China 
https://crchina.live-website.com/?content=show_article&id=776&parent=34 
 * e. The Southern Weekend: Guizhou Zhenyuan orphanage baby trafficking investigation 
http://news.qq.com/a/20090714/000281.htm http://406465685.blog.163.com/blog/static/4100725420096321337916/ 

Child Brides and Baby Trafficking

Posted on by

NTD reporters Li Ting and Zhou Ping                05-10-2011

 

The phenomenon of child brides resurges in China. New York-based NGO Women’s Rights in China’ director Zhang Jing investigated child brides.

In Putian area in Fujian Province alone, there are 120,000 to 600,000 child brides.In Shaoyang, Hunan Province, a dozen infants were seized and sold to foreigners by government officials.

 

As per Radio France International, Zhang Jing’s “Child Bride Investigation in Putian, Fujian” shows that there are groups systematically stealing and kidnapping children to sell as child brides. Prices are negotiated, and they are delivered.

 

According to Zhang’s investigation, in Putian alone, there are 120,000 to 600,000 child brides. In Changle, Fujian, girl trafficking is rampant. There are even criminal chains formed by families

to kidnap, transport and sell child brides. Zhang: “From trafficking and transporting, to price negotiating and even home delivery, it is all run by criminal groups. Even women and the elderly articipate in these. For example, a woman carrying two children wouldn’t look suspicious in general.”

 

Zhang concluded that local authorities are careless.This contributed to the spread of this social problem. The imbalanced birth rate of males and females are another cause of the child bride henomenon. The “gender imbalance” in China is deteriorating. It will make 20% of men unable to find spouses and leads to the phenomena of transnational brides and human trafficking.

 

China’s “one-child policy” and patriarchal tradition contributes greatly to its gender imbalance, Some parents abort, abandon or kill female babies, resulting in a declining birth rate of girls.

 

The “over-the-quota” babies are also unfortunate. On May 8, New Century magazine reported that over a dozen infants in Shaoyang, Hunan Province were taken away by family planning officials

for “being illegally born” and sent to an orphanage. The parents had to pay to redeem their children. To adopt a Chinese baby, foreign families often pay USD3,000 each just as fees. In China, orphanages collude with child traffickers to buy infants, label them as “abandoned babies”and send them to be adopted by foreigners.

 

Although “one-child policy” has serious aftermath, party leader Hu Jintao said recently that it would continue to be strictly enforced to maintain a low fertility level..