By: Jessica Ties
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
BEIJING, China– A woman in China has narrowly avoided being forcibly sterilized after giving birth to her second child.
The attempt was carried out by family planning officials in the Chinese province of Fujian who held the woman down on an operating table.
The woman, Huang Yongchun, explains her experience by stating “they took me over there this morning, and about eight of them held me down on the operating table.”
Huang has already given birth to two children which exceeds the one child allowed under Chinese law. Huang reported that this attempt was preceded by an initial attempt made in 2010. While the first attempt was thwarted by Huang’s health problems, the second attempt was cancelled by a doctor after seeing Huang’s frantic reaction.
“The doctor didn’t want to do the operation because I was terrified…I was shuddering there on the operation table because I felt so helpless” reports Huang.
In response, Village chief Chen Renhe explained that, “they didn’t comply with family planning regulations…in our country the policy is that people who don’t comply are not forced, but we have to do ideological work with them.”
Forced sterilization and abortion have become common in rural areas of China where family planning officials attempt to avoid being fined for exceeding local birth quotas.
Rights lawyer Tang Jingling has reported that sterilizations, peer pressure and financial incentives are commonly used to convince women to comply with the one-child policy. For example, “if one person in a work unit has an extra child, then the whole organization…could lose out on economic benefit” stated Tang.
China’s one-child policy was instituted by the Communist government in the 1970’s to curb the growing population. Under this policy, couples living in urban areas are allowed only one child while couples living in rural areas are allowed two children if the first child is a female.
The one-child policy has sparked controversy not only internationally but nationally as well. One of China’s most well-known activists, rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng, has endured over six years of harassment, persecution and physical abuse because of his investigative reported of forced sterilization and abortion in China.
Chen and his wife are currently under house arrest and have been forbidden from leaving their home for over a year. During this time they have suffered beatings and frequent raids on their home by Chinese authorities.
In December American actor Christian Bale was criticized by the Chinese government for engaging in an altercation with Chinese police who physically thwarted his attempts to visit Chen while he was in town to attend the opening ceremony of his latest filed “The Flowers of War”.
For more information, please see:
Radio Free Asia – Woman Flees Forced Sterilization – 12 January 2012
Lifenews – Biden to Head Obama China Policy but Ignored Forced Abortions – 3 January 2012
New York Daily News – China Says Christian Bale Should be Embarrassed – 21 December 2011
The Guardian – Chen Guangcheng: Amnesty Urgent Action – 12 November 2011
