Monthly Archives: 5 月 2012

Women’s Rights in China Successfully Organized Conference on Family Planning Policy and Population DevelopmentWomen’s Rights in China Successfully Organized Conference on Family Planning Policy and Population Development

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Women’s Rights in China Successfully Organized Conference on Family Planning Policy and Population Development
Family Planning has been the national policy of China for more than 30 years. What are the reasons for this policy? What are its effects on Chinese society? Should the policy continue to be implemented? On May 29th, 2012, Women’s Rights in China held the Conference on Family Planning Policy and Population Development in New York, USA. WRIC invited experts and scholars to discuss the Family Planning Policy’s impact on society, family and individuals in China and problems currently facing population development in China.
A group of scholars participated in a morning round table discussion session, including Tibetan history researcher, woman’s writer Li Jianglin, theorist Hu Ping, WRIC founder Zhang Jing and One Child Policy victim Han Wu. A BBC interview of Ma Jian, author of Yi Zhi Dao, was also broadcast. In the afternoon, Ma Jian, Ann Noonan, Zhang Yujun gave talks. Chinese population policy experts Yang Zhizhu and He Yafu, both of whom were unable to attend, submitted papers that were read by others. More than 120 New York residents attended the event, including Wang Xuezhen, who shared her experience of 11 attempts at meeting Chen Guangcheng during his house arrest.
Professor Yang Zhizhu, formerly Associate Professor of Law at Chinese Youth Political Institute, was fired in 2010 for having an extra-quota child. The birth of his second daughter and its aftermath initiated fierce debate in Chinese society. The event catalyzed the most closely watched public debate the One Child Policy’s thirty year history. Prof. Yang had long commented on China’s Population and Family Control policies. His articles have appeared in Chinese publications such as Southern Weekly, New Kuabao, Eastern Morning Daily, New Beijing, Modern Express, etc. He was a leading activist and dissident against the One Child Policy.
Professor Yang’s report, The Situation of Chinese Women Under The Birth Control Policy, stated, “From fear of persecution of the One Child Policy and forced abortions, many women had no choice but to hide or leave their homes. Ultimately these women gave birth taking considerable risks outside of registered hospitals. This situation resulted in the death rate from birth among mobile population to exceed pregnant women in rural areas. Women giving extra-quota births, which accounted for 6% of the total population of pregnant women, accounted for 50% of deaths.”
He Yafu was a former reporter for Coastal News, founder of Babi Translation Agency. Mr. He had published hundreds of articles on Population and Family Planning Policy on the internet. The web visitor count of his microblog had reached over ten million, leading all other microblogs focusing on the One Child Policy. He also published articles in Eastern Morning Daily, First Financial Daily and China Youth Daily, etc. Mr. He was an accomplished commentator on Population Development and Family Planning Policy in China.
Mr. He’s paper, Why The One Child Policy Should Be Abolished, stated that “Over population in China” was a myth. Of the more than 200 countries worldwide, almost none practiced forced birth control outside of Mainland China. Whether a country was overpopulated depended not on the total number of people, but more importantly its population density. Many countries had higher population density than China, for example, South Korea at 487 persons per square kilometer and Japan at 337. In contrast, China’s population density was at 140 persons per square kilometer. Even taking out inhospitable parts of western China, its population density would still be far below Japan and South Korea. Governments in Japan and South Korea not only did not practice the Family Control Policy but actively encourage reproduction.
Mr. He pointed out that to enforce draconian population control policies would require sufficient rationale. Forced reproductive restrictions infringed upon the basic human rights of citizens. He proposed a test of three criteria: One, would fewer population lead to quicker prosperity? Two, was the Family Planning Policy the only vehicle to control population growth? Three, human rights. The Family Planning Policy could not pass even the first, practical test let alone the latter two. There were no solid reasons to enforce it.
Ms. Ann Noonan was the director of the Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting. Ms, Noonan said that reproduction was a basic human right. The One Child Policy was a severe abuse of human rights. It was one of the most egregious and violent persecutions of women in the world today. Ms. Noonan said that women and their families in China who are victims of human rights abuses need Voice of America (VOA) radio and Radio Free Asia (RFA) broadcasts. She reminded victims of the policy that the American people would not sit idle while millions of innocent victims shed their blood.
WRIC member Zhang Yujun gave a presentation of reports on a widespread yet largely unpublicized child brides in Putian, Fujian. WRIC volunteer Yao Cheng had been investigating and reuniting child brides with their families since 2009.
Mr. Ma Jian gave the last presentation. Ma Jian was a famous Sino-British writer whose novel Beijing Coma received the 2009 British International Free Speech Award, 2009 Athens Literature Award and nominated for Berlin Literature Award. Beijing Coma has been published in more than 30 languages around the world. Mr. Ma was listed as one of fifty most important modern writers by French magazine Lire in 2004. Mr. Ma’s newest work, Yin Zhi Dao was the result of seven years’ labor. It combined large numbers of in-the-field interviews and countless factual cases to tell the complete story of the One Child Policy.
Mr. Ma emphasized that one book could not stop the One Child Policy. However, it was the duty of a writer to express respect for life, especially the life of a child who had yet to taste a breath of air. The Chinese government regularly executed millions of innocent babies in the womb every year. The warmth body of a loving mother became all too frequently the execution ground for babies. Since 2008, Family Planning Policy passed from the responsibility of the propaganda departments to “secret agencies” headed by Party Committee chairmen at all levels, whose actions were hidden from reporters, making Mr. Ma’s investigation much more difficult.
 Family Planning Policy, Mr. Ma said, was the result of a planned economy. Since the planned economy had already been abolished in China, the Family Planning Policy should be as well.

Jiangling Li: Forced Abortion, a Permanent Scar on WomenJiangling Li: Forced Abortion, a Permanent Scar on Women

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Source: WRICAuthor: WRIC, Yang YuPulsihed Time: 05-29-2012

 

Yang Yu, interpreter of the conference, made speech representing population expert.

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.

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.

陳光誠事件後安徽大規模嚴查重罰“超生”陳光誠事件後安徽大規模嚴查重罰“超生”

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自4月22日反一胎化維權人士陳光誠逃出監控後，中國地方政府加強了對違反一胎化政策的“超生”家庭及孕婦採取更為嚴厲的措施，前中国国家人口和计划生育委员会主任、現安徽省省长李斌所管轄的安徽省行動最為神速。宿松县计生办從4月28 日起开始派出大批工作人员，在全县范围内对非盈利組織中国妇权幫助的超過400個女婴家庭和孕妇进行查访，其中數十个“计划外”生育的女婴家庭和怀孕的妇女将面临严重罚款和惨无人道的强行性堕胎。

《中国农村女婴辅助计划》针对中国大陆男女性别比例严重失调而开展的一项公益活动，旨在摒弃传统重男轻女政策、提高广大农民家庭保护女孩意识，仅在宿松县就好几百个家庭受益，该计划自始至终没有附加任何条件，获得广大农民朋友的一致好评。然而宿松县计生办人员高调的查访行动，使受助的农民家庭人心惶惶，计生人员扬言：所有“计划外生育”的家庭将面临五万多元人民币的罚款，“计划外”怀孕妇女的也将面临强制堕胎，这意味着数十条生命将被屠杀。

计生人员还威胁我们的义工说，她若不合作将会遭到强行辞退，也就是说，不交出女婴辅助计划的各种登记资料，不配合他们的猎杀行动，她将失去赖以生存的工职。

中国计生政策实行三十多年来，亿万无辜的生命被屠杀，人口老化、性别比例严重失调等社会问题已经显现，但政府置若罔闻，不人道的强制计生政策臭名昭著。宿松计生办将农村女婴辅助计划这样利国利民的慈善活动，上升到政治和法律层面，并对怀孕妇女进行强制流产以及女婴家庭进行非人道的处罚，只会激起广大农民朋友和所有珍惜生命者对中国政府的更大反感和加深其政府人员的罪孽。

中国妇权强烈警告宿松计生办，立即停止干涉这项慈善活动，停止对受助家庭和志愿者非人道的处罚和威胁，将政府“和谐社会、以人为本”体现出来，而不只是一句虚假口号；吁请计生工作人员，重良知讲人道，做上对得起祖宗，下对得起后代事情，停止助纣为虐，回头是岸。

中国妇权声明，如果宿松计生办一意孤行而对孕妇强行堕胎、对受助的女婴家庭进行强行罚款，并解雇有关义工的全职工作，我们将通过媒体的道德谴责和诉诸于法律程序，予以讨回公道。

陳光誠事件後安徽大規模嚴查重罰“超生”

圖片說明：圖為受助於中國婦權“農村女嬰輔助計劃”的安徽省宿松縣的農民女孩。.該計劃有400多受益人，其中數十家庭、孕婦面臨遭嚴重罰款和強制墮胎。

（2012/05/03 发表）

Main issues for discussion on difficulties faced by women in ChinMain issues for discussion on difficulties faced by women in Chin

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Source: Women of China Media Author:  Han Xiangjing Pulsihed Time: email Print this article

 

I Historical Overview
1) Events relating to gender equality in the two decades following the first Chinese Constitution in1954:
1. Promotion of schooling and access to education for girls.
2. Mobilisation of women to join the labour force. At the time, the means and conditions for women to get paid employment were as follows:
a. Implementation of an employment plan,
b. Reaffirmation of women’s right to take part in the collective paid work of production
units in rural communities.
3. Broadening of the range of decision making positions in society accessible to women.
4. Improvement in women’s contribution to and social recognition in society.
5. Establishment and development of feminist associations.The Chinese Women’s Association was set up in 1949 and built a 5-tier network (for the purposes of
administrative authority Translator’s note) extending from Government to urban quarters and rural villages. Committees and divisions of the Chinese Women’s Association were also set up in the mining industry and in specialised units for teaching and research.
2) Following this period, China went through thirty years of gradual reform and economic
opening. The economy took off and living conditions improved.
During this period the domestic market remained vibrant, household consumption continued to grow.
1. As China entered the 21 stcentury the state of social development in Chinese society
underwent several upheavals that had a complex impact on the way equality between
the sexes evolved.
2. After thirty years of reforms and opening up, the Chinese economy and its social
structures were subjected to massive change while clearly making progress. Chinese
women took an active role in this change and benefited from the situation.
3. After emerging from the era of a planned economy China is inexorably moving
towards becoming a globalised market economy. This, for Chinese women has both
positive and negative implications
i. Thanks to rapid economic growth, women have ever improving employment prospects
with higher earnings potential. Women with sought-after high level skills and
training can use these abilities in a context that encourages efficiency and
competition.
ii. Because of changes in society, the traditional systems that offered some guarantee ofprotection of women’s rights and interests have been challenged by the
market economy, and are no longer applicable.
4. The 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995 was an unprecedented
opportunity for Chinese women to make their voices heard in the tumult of social
change and reform going on at the time:
i. At this 4th UN World Conference on Women, the Chinese Government declared “our
goal is to place gender equality at the heart of the promotion of social
development in China”.
ii. Holding this conference in Beijing provided a new window of opportunity for the
Chinese public to become more familiar with the idea of gender equality and
increasing involvement of women.
iii. In August 1995, China launched a new government action plan for promoting gender
equality and improving living conditions for women: ‘The life improvement plan for Chinese women 1995/2000’ hereafter referred to as the ‘1995 plan’. Another one was launched in 2001: ‘the life improvement plan for Chinese women 2001/2010’ referred to later as the ‘2001 plan’
iv. A decade after the conference , an amendment to the PRC’s legislation relating to the
guarantee on women’s rights is adopted.
II   Important points relating to the current position of women.
1. It is imperative that peasant women lift themselves out of poverty
1.1 Peasant women still live in poverty today.
1.2 Inequality still clearly exists judging by the largely female rural workforce.
1.3 Peasant women are usually left behind in the migration process to urban areas.
1.4 The three elements these women need most: finance, technical wherewithal, a means to earn a better living.
1.5 Peasant women need confidence in their future.
2. Employment and reorientation of women in towns and cities.
2.1 The negative impact of deeper labour reform and regulation of economic structures
became increasingly apparent after 1995.
2.2 Academia in China has traditionally viewed women as being a marginal work force in its employment theories.
2.3 The employment situation of women in China clearly reflects marginalisation.
3. It is essential that the women take a greater role in the political and social decision-making process. Even though Chinese women are increasingly becoming involved in politics, a great deal remains to be done and the current situation is not optimistic.
3.1 Whereas the percentage of women in national assemblies around the globe is on the rise, in China female representation to the people’s assembly is dropping in national assembly and international organisation rankings. Domestically, female representation in village committees hasbeen poor since 2000, the year when records began, with scores hitting a low in 2004 with only 15% participation from women.
3.2 A fact that should not be overlooked is that women who hold decision-making positions are more often than not deputies or working in divisions that are unrelated to the economy. As aresult they are sidelined from power.
3.3 In 2008, China underwent various changes in government, presenting a new challenge towomen’s participation in politics.
4. Women and consumer rights
4.1 Women are increasingly becoming targets for marketing campaigns and there are still problems in the field of the protection of women’s consumer rights and interests.
4.2 It is necessary to pay particular attention to women’s rights as consumers, so that they can consume safely. Women should be encouraged and taught how to be more discerning, healthy and reasonable consumers. At the same time, the consumption environment needs to be improved as well. Attempts to reduce the female body to being a vulgar consumer product should be strongly discouraged.
4.3 Women-oriented consumer surveys and the creation of a female consumer forum would encourage companies to be more socially responsible as well as provide guidelines on women’s consumption.
III  Difficult to resolve issues
1. Promotion of society that respects equality between men and women through legislative and policy leadership. According to the spirit of the constitution, sexual discrimination is never intended in the establishment and implementation of laws. Nevertheless, sexual discrimination is common both in the drawing up and
implementation of supposedly gender-neutral measures, due to lack of awareness of the principle of gender equality. Measures relating to gender equality and equal rights
face many obstacles from an objective point of view. These are the main problems China faces in establishing a system that respects gender equality. Amending or repealing social policies that go against the principle of gender equality, taking
decisive measures to put an end to the above mentioned issues – in other words transforming discriminatory measure into egalitarian ones – are just some of the ways in which China could build a national policy for gender equality. At the same time it should provide a response to the urgent problems relating to equality between the sexes – a response that any society claiming to protect gender equality must provide.
2. Emphasising the importance of training and education in order to raise the general level of education in women. The difference in status between men and women compounded by old traditions means that access to education is generally more difficult for women. Less educated women face a higher risk of being marginalised in the increasingly competitive climate in China resulting from its adhesion to the WTO.In addition to this many women deliberately pass up opportunities to get technical training because of lack of understanding of the advantages such training could bring or because they are too burdened by responsibilities in the home. Most women cruelly lack knowledge and experience in how to set up and run a small company.In a system that is based on a market economy, making profits is of primary concern. As a result, women’s lack of education can seriously damage their chances of getting a job in a highly
competitive labour environment.
3. Setting up financial systems that favour entrepreneurship in women. Women suffer from insecurity in the job market because of sexual discrimination. Women’s associations play an important role in the promotion and support of female enterprise. The main obstacle faced by women today in finding a job or setting up a small business is obtaining financial backing. Microcredit programs don’t take sexual inequality sufficiently into account and tend to lack in flexibility as a result. Loans are generally requested and granted to household units. Since men are usually considered to be the head of a household, they are naturally given the right to request such loans, depriving women of the support to which they should be entitled.
4. Protecting human and health rights. Threats to the right to life and women’s right to health should be recognised, against a background of an imbalance in the ratio of girl/boy births (more boys than girls). Firm measures must be taken to guarantee the health of newborn and young girls in order to give them the same chances as boys with regards to proper nutrition and health care. Furthermore, attention needs to be paid to the issue of elderly women who are ill or living below the poverty line in towns and villages. Society should offer help to elderly women who do not have health insurance or a pension. It is also important to be aware of the ravages caused by domestic violence. The complexity of the issues involved should be apprehended in order to guarantee proper protection of women’s rights in the home and in their private lives. Preventive measures should therefore be taken to put an end to violence against women and sexual harassment. Gender should be taken into account when analysing data relating to trends in the spread and means of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) – especially AIDS. It is vital to produce gender-based statistics and data in order to ensure sexual equality in STD prevention measures, given that women are more affected than men. Equality between the sexes is a principal that should be taught from as young an age as possible, in order to instil the younger generation with the idea of sexual equality and mutual respect. This is conducive to better understanding of the importance of responsible sexual behaviour and responsible behaviour in the home.