Brutal forced abortions in China

[Rogue 9]

TIME:

Enemies Of the State?

How local officials in China launched a brutal campaign of forced abortions and sterilizations

The men with the poison-filled syringe arrived two days before Li Juan's due date. They pinned her down on a bed in a local clinic, she says, and drove the needle into her abdomen until it entered the 9-month-old fetus. "At first, I could feel my child kicking a lot," says the 23-year-old. "Then, after a while, I couldn't feel her moving anymore." Ten hours later, Li delivered the girl she had intended to name Shuang (Bright). The baby was dead. To be absolutely sure, says Li, the officials--from the Linyi region, where she lives, in China's eastern Shandong province--dunked the infant's body for several minutes in a bucket of water beside the bed. All she could think about on that day last spring, recalls Li, was how she would hire a gang of thugs to take revenge on the people who killed her baby because the birth, they said, would have violated China's family-planning scheme.

Since 1980, when China began fully carrying out what is commonly known as the one-child policy, officials in the provinces have often resorted to draconian measures--forced sterilizations and late-term abortions among them--to prevent the country's population of 1.3 billion from expanding into a Malthusian nightmare. Government leaders credit China's stringent population control with helping spur economic growth by reducing the number of mouths that must be fed. But in 2002, as personal freedoms proliferated in other areas of life, parliament voted to ease the deeply unpopular policy. Instead of forbidding extra children outright, the new law, among other reforms, allowed couples to have multiple offspring if they were willing to pay big fines. The costs can be exorbitant for peasants like Li--$365 or more for the first additional child in Linyi, around four times the average annual net income in this impoverished region. But at least the Chinese now possess a modicum of choice in family matters, which they lacked a few years ago.

The Communist Party bureaucracy, however, doesn't seem to have caught up with the new law. Despite laxer regulation, the career advancement of local leaders, especially in rural areas, still often depends on keeping birthrates low. "One set of bad population figures can stop an official from getting promoted," says Tu Bisheng, a Beijing legal activist who has helped document abuses related to the one-child policy.

At a provincial meeting last year, Linyi officials were castigated for having the highest rate of extra births in all of Shandong, according to lawyers familiar with the situation. The dressing-down galvanized what appears to be one of the most brutal mass sterilization and abortion campaigns in years. Starting in March, family-planning officials in Linyi's nine counties and three districts trawled villages, looking to force women pregnant with illegal children to abort, and to sterilize those who already had the maximum allotment of children under the local family-planning policy. According to that regulation, which exists in a similar form in most rural areas, women with a son are not allowed to bear more children, whereas mothers whose first child is handicapped or a girl are allowed to have a second baby.

Many women refused to undergo the procedures. Others hid, often in family members' homes. The crackdown intensified. Relatives of women who resisted sterilization or abortion were detained and forced to pay for "study sessions" in which they had to admit their "wrong thinking," says Teng Biao, an instructor at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, who visited Linyi last month to investigate the coercive campaign. In the Linyi county of Yinan alone, at least 7,000 people were forced to undergo sterilization between March and July, according to lawyers who spoke with local family-planning officials. Several villagers, the lawyers allege, were beaten to death while under detention for trying to help family members avoid sterilization.

...

When family-planning officials came to fetch her in May for a forced sterilization, Hu escaped with her two daughters to her parents' home in another village. Several days later, seven officials showed up, she says, grabbed her younger child and shoved the girl into a car. Afraid that her daughter would be abducted, Hu jumped into the vehicle with them. The car drove to the local family-planning clinic, where, Hu says, nurses threw her onto an operating table. "Other people were fine after their operations, but it hurt me so much, I could barely stand up," says Hu, 33. Two weeks later, doctors operated again and promised things would heal better. But even today, Hu doubles over in pain after just a few steps. "They told me they were doing this for my own good," says Hu. "But they have ruined my life."

At this point (actually it was a point I reached long ago, but let's put that aside), screw the effects on the economy. Embargo those bastards at the very least; we don't need to buy shit from a state that behaves like this towards its people.

[Narsil]

That's just...

I mean...

Fucking hell, no fucking words I could ever give can describe how truly evil that is.

[The Cleric]

[devils_advocate]Don't these people realize what the government will do if they don't listen? Why don't they actually only have one child, and strenuously attempt to not concieve another? I don't know if unlimited procreation is a right or a priveledge, but at some point you have to cut back.[/devils_advocate]

[Narsil]

It's a right of nature...

Put simply... it's very, very natural to procreate.

[The Cleric]

It's a right of nature...

Put simply... it's very, very natural to procreate.

So is the principle of Might Makes Right. Just because it's "natural" doesn't make it correct. We sublimate all sorts of natural urges because of constraints, whether they be ethical, moral, logical, societal, whatever.

[Narsil]

Ahem...

Procreation, without it...

We don't exist.

[The Cleric]

Ahem...

Procreation, without it...

We don't exist.

In moderation. For China, moderation is 1 child/family.

[Narsil]

...

Well... although, due to the population size, that might be considered necessary... There's better methods of doing it...

Also, they could try promoting Immigration... you know, people moving to better countries with less population problems (seems to be needed here)

[The Cleric]

Yes, there are better options. But when you have a populace that WILL NOT COMPLY, and a government that likes to take drastic measures, well, shit happens. It sucks, but it's easy to stand on the sidelines and see where both parties are wrong.

[Caz]

Also, they could try promoting Immigration... you know, people moving to better countries with less population problems (seems to be needed here)

Which would instantly make them the enemy of every western nation. For years there have been parties both in the U.S. and Europe to decrease if not ban immigration... think of the international repercussions.

[Josh]

We need more immigration, not less. But that's a bit of a sidetrack.

(Also, the term is 'emigration', Dakarne, encouraging people to leave your country, which no country can afford to do, and most especially not a quasi-communist nation.)

It's not a matter of capacity to handle population, this planet could handle a much larger population than we already have, Ehrlich and Malthius aside. However, it is a matter of distribution of resources, specifically ag, which a quasi-communist/crony capitalist country like China can't do efficiently.

[The Cleric]

Correct Petro. The populace can either fix their own damn country, bitch and moan, or shut up and fall in line. They all choose option 2, and expect everyone else to come resuce them or something.

[frigidmagi]

The populace can either fix their own damn country

Ah yes, because it's not like when they tried to awhile back that they were smashed by tanks or anything... Oh wait they were... But China doesn't have a massive internal police force or intelligence system designed to watch and crack down on it's own population... Oh wait they do. Well it doesn't matter because China doesn't have groups that are trying to fight against oppression... Oh wait, wrong there to...

They all choose option 2,

Well at least millions of them aren't rioting in the streets in over 70,000 seperate incidents of anti-government actitiy... Wait a minute...

In short this is blaming victum, a rather disgusting tactic. And drips of denial of reality.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Correct Petro. The populace can either fix their own damn country, bitch and moan, or shut up and fall in line. They all choose option 2, and expect everyone else to come resuce them or something.

Last time they tried they got mowed down with tanks. Everytime western media goes into china, they go in with a goverment liason who restricts what they see, and the people they interview refuse to even answer certain questions. because FUCKING CHINA literally has a secret police force, and anything they say will be used against them in a court where they may or may not get a damn lawyer. China executes something like 1000-2000 people anually (18,008 over a 9 year period), the US executes around 100 on a bad year. Much of this is without anything along the lines of what we in the US would consider a fair trial. They have no fucking choice, they cant even bitch and moan in their country. Hell, some wont even do it here for fear of reprisal because they could easily dissappear in the middle of the damn night. Those people that protest do so at tremendous risk to themselves. And their families

As for the rest of the article. Switch to all caps mode

FUCKING CHINA! THOSE PIECE OF SHIT MOTHERFUCKING CHICOMS! DO WE HAVE AN EXCUSE TO BOMB THE LIVING HELL OUT OF THEIR MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND INVADE NOW!? OR AT LEAST GET THEM BOOTED OFF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION?! MOTHERFUCK THEY KICKED US OFF IN FAVOR OF SUDAN, WHICH SPONSORS RAPES AGAINST ITS OWN CITIZENS!!! WELL I SUPPOSE THAT IS WHAT THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMISSION IS FOR! HELPING HORRIBLE OPPRESSIVE SHITHOLES ESCAPE RIGHTEOUS PUNISHMENT FOR THEIR ACTIONS!! [/CAPS]

Jesus fucking christ this is not abortion. It is government sponsored wholesale murder.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Many women refused to undergo the procedures. Others hid, often in family members' homes. The crackdown intensified. Relatives of women who resisted sterilization or abortion were detained and forced to pay for "study sessions" in which they had to admit their "wrong thinking," says Teng Biao, an instructor at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing,

Oh look, these impoverished people have to pay for their own god damn brain washing

who visited Linyi last month to investigate the coercive campaign. In the Linyi county of Yinan alone, at least 7,000 people were forced to undergo sterilization between March and July, according to lawyers who spoke with local family-planning officials. Several villagers, the lawyers allege, were beaten to death while under detention for trying to help family members avoid sterilization.

And they murder people who attempt to stop the abuse

[Narsil]

Yes...

The point is Emigration is a much better option than wholesale slaughter... it may not be a particularly good choice... but it is most certainly the lesser of two evils.

[Stofsk]

Ah yes, because it's not like when they tried to awhile back that they were smashed by tanks or anything... Oh wait they were...

The Cultural Revolution was a grassroots 'heart and minds' campaign who's footsoldiers were the young and idealistic. Not everyone is a democracy-advocating tank-darer, and those people are actually a minority.

But China doesn't have a massive internal police force or intelligence system designed to watch and crack down on it's own population... Oh wait they do.

So does every other great power. What's the FBI if not a massive internal police force? Designed to watch and sometimes crack down on it's own population? (That's what people think when they hear 'WACO')

Our (yes, 'our' as in, 'the west') have given a lot of leeway in recent years to our intelligence and security organisations. If you think China is somehow unique in this you'd be wrong. What they do have is an apalling human rights record, and you won't hear me defend them over their decisions.

Well it doesn't matter because China doesn't have groups that are trying to fight against oppression... Oh wait, wrong there to...

Interesting choice. China continues to operate it's government or it gets broken up due to intra-state conflict.

I find it interesting people are clamouring for a massive war that has the potential to see millions of people die and millions more get displaced... to avenge those who haven't even been born. Yes it's tragic to hear about victims of China's family planning program, but immediately screaming for the bombs to fly is what, better? How will that help the victims? Oh wait... it won't. It'll just create more victims.

So will trade embargos for that matter. Without foreign investment China's massive population will have to go back to a subsistence agriculture economy, which is worse than working in those sweatshops. It'll eventually collapse and then you get the warlordism, which has a lot of implications for the region as well.

[Caz]

Stofsk is right. Sure, it's a human rights issue and yes, it's horrible (especially for westerners to comprehend), but saying it justifies a war--especially a war in which one side has literally millions of disposable bodies--is overkill.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Not everyone is a democracy-advocating tank-darer, and those people are actually a minority.

I wonder why. COld it bec because they fear reprisal if they arent in the majority? COuld it be that they are systematically indoctrinated from a young age to be in the majority? Including brain washing of they arent? Gee.

So does every other great power. What's the FBI if not a massive internal police force? Designed to watch and sometimes crack down on it's own population? (That's what people think when they hear 'WACO')

Not equivalent. The FBI enforces federal aw and helps local law enforcement with legal cases, were there is a trial at some point. Unlike the chinese government, we dont use this police for ce to root out political dissidents parade them around for a few hours then take them out back and shoot them like the chinese do. Hell, we dont arrest political dissidents at all.

Our (yes, 'our' as in, 'the west') have given a lot of leeway in recent years to our intelligence and security organisations. If you think China is somehow unique in this you'd be wrong. What they do have is an apalling human rights record, and you won't hear me defend them over their decisions.

And we can challenge that leeway in court, and actually win, now cant we.

Human rights are just that, Rights. They are pretty much absolute.

I find it interesting people are clamouring for a massive war that has the potential to see millions of people die and millions more get displaced... to avenge those who haven't even been born. Yes it's tragic to hear about victims of China's family planning program, but immediately screaming for the bombs to fly is what, better? How will that help the victims? Oh wait... it won't. It'll just create more victims.

It will save future generations, and the other god knows how many hundred million from having to live in a place where their very thoughts are crimes. I am willing to wait until their inevitable attempt at invading Taiwan before our bombs get dropped. But china is a state which is too evil to be allowed to exist. And frankly, we are morally obligated to intercede on the behalf of the chinese people when we are able. The fact that we so much as trade with them in the mean time is disgusting to me.

What is the answer Stofsk? European style appeasement? I suppose we in the west are supposed to simply allow them to continue murdering their own people. An average of 3-6 people a day just in their recorded executions, brainwashing their children and essentially violating every human right imaginable, keeping 1.3 billion people in a state which is morally equivalent to slavery. I dont think so.