China's One-Child Policy

[YankeeFan]

Just brutal:


For the poor, however, the policy is a flesh-and-blood tiger with claws and fangs. In the countryside, where the need for extra hands to help in the fields and the deeply entrenched patriarchal desire for a male heir have created strong resistance to population control measures, the tiger has been merciless.

Village family-planning officers vigilantly chart the menstrual cycle and pelvic-exam results of every woman of childbearing age in their area. If a woman gets pregnant without permission and is unable to pay the often exorbitant fine for violating the policy, she risks being subjected to a forced abortion.

According to Chinese Health Ministry data released in March, 336 million abortions and 222 million sterilizations have been carried out since 1971. (Though the one-child policy was introduced in 1979, other, less-stringent family planning policies were in place before it.)

These figures are easy to quote, but they fail to convey the magnitude of the horror faced by rural Chinese women. During a long journey through the hinterlands of southwest China in 2009, I was able to find some of the faces behind these numbers.

On ramshackle barges moored on the remote waterways of Hubei and Guangxi, I met hundreds of “family-planning fugitives” — couples who’d fled their villages to give birth to an unauthorized second or third child in neighboring provinces.

Almost every one of the pregnant women I spoke to had suffered a mandatory abortion. One woman told me how, when she was eight months pregnant with an illegal second child and was unable to pay the 20,000 yuan fine (about $3,200), family planning officers dragged her to the local clinic, bound her to a surgical table and injected a lethal drug into her abdomen.

For two days she writhed on the table, her hands and feet still bound with rope, waiting for her body to eject the murdered baby. In the final stage of labor, a male doctor yanked the dead fetus out by the foot, then dropped it into a garbage can. She had no money for a cab. She had to hobble home, blood dripping down her legs and staining her white sandals red.

It is not surprising that China has the highest rate of female suicide in the world. The one-child policy has reduced women to numbers, objects, a means of production; it has denied them control of their bodies and the basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children.

Baby girls are also victims of the policy. Under family pressure to ensure that their only child is a son, women often choose to abort baby girls or discard them at birth, practices that have skewed China’s sex ratio to 118 boys for every 100 girls.

nyti.ms/ZbSB3t

 

[britwrit]

China is a brutal, Communist dictatorship. Soviet Russia would still be around and thriving today if we'd treated it like we do them.

 

[Alma]

China is a brutal, Communist dictatorship. Soviet Russia would still be around and thriving today if we'd treated it like we do them.

You mean, if corporations didn't gleefully root there, exploit workers for low wages and maintain record profit margins?

Yes.

But those corporations are led by REAL AMERICANS fleeing the Communist taxation policies of the United States by propping up a Communist government's economy.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

They're all just casualties in the global economy.

Then again, their leadership is evil, and they have WMDs. We should attack them. The Chinese will greet us as liberators with flowers and candy.

 

[User 11148]

Interesting that the lefties around here ignore that China's one-child policy was instituted in 1979 ... Can't quite see how U.S. corporations are/were to blame, but I am sure the reasoning will be entertaining.

 

[old_tony]

Interesting that the lefties around here ignore that China's one-child policy was instituted in 1979 ... Can't quite see how U.S. corporations are/were to blame, but I am sure the reasoning will be entertaining.

"Reasoning" from the port-side of the boat is always entertaining.

 

[YankeeFan]

They're all just casualties in the global economy.

Then again, their leadership is evil, and they have WMDs. We should attack them. The Chinese will greet us as liberators with flowers and candy.

If corporations are allowed to do business in/with a nation, they will.

If we as a nation find another country's human rights violations to be so egregious, we can restrict U.S. companies from doing business with that country.

This isn't on companies. This is on us.

 

[Iron_chet]

Interesting that the lefties around here ignore that China's one-child policy was instituted in 1979 ... Can't quite see how U.S. corporations are/were to blame, but I am sure the reasoning will be entertaining.

A rational discussion does not get off to a good start when the pejorative of "lefties" gets thrown around. I would submit that most who consider themselves on the left would consider the policy of forced abortion absolutely abhorrent.

I think you missed the point that the quest for cheap manufacturing helps prop up a government that would do these kinds of things to their people.

The constant need to get on the scoreboard in these kinds of discussions is incredible lame.

 

[YankeeFan]

I would submit that most who consider themselves on the left would consider the policy of forced abortion absolutely abhorrent.

Yes, but here's the problem: because it's tied up with abortion policy, many on the left won't actually speak out against it, or fight it.

Maybe you'll get some lip service on occasion. Baron will probably find some quote from Hillary Clinton condemning it. But, there is no sustained effort to end this policy.

It makes the left uncomfortable, just as the Kermit Gosnell trial did. And, rarely have I read an article with as much detail as this one. Maybe the details make the press uncomfortable.

We've gotten our priorities so twisted that a feminist is someone who demands free birth control, and you are guilty of participating in a "war on women" if you oppose such a policy.

Meanwhile, a true war on women is being waged in China, and no speaks out.

This stuff is gruesome. It might be one of the few instances where a Nazi comparison is not out of place.

 

[Captain Obvious]

No criticism of Reagan, Bush I, or Bush II, or other prominent Republicans to go along with the accurate criticism of Democrats? MFN status wasn't held up by any President. Now it's permanent.

 

[YankeeFan]

I criticize every President -- including Reagan, and both Bushes -- for not doing more to tie trade with China to their human rights record.

It's a disgrace. And, Bush as a former envoy to China might deserve additional blame. he should have known better, but appears to have been charmed by the Chinese.

For all his faults, Ted Kennedy was a voice for Soviet dissidents. And it mattered. He could shine world attention on their plight, and the pressure he applied made a difference in Moscow.

Not a single prominent American politician has made this a priority, nor any Hollywood celebrity.

And the problem isn't just that we want cheap shirts at Walmart. Movie stars want distribution in China. Everyone has a conflict. Everyone sees potential profits in China, not just Walmart.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I would submit that most who consider themselves on the left would consider the policy of forced abortion absolutely abhorrent.

Yes, but here's the problem: because it's tied up with abortion policy, many on the left won't actually speak out against it, or fight it.

Maybe you'll get some lip service on occasion. Baron will probably find some quote from Hillary Clinton condemning it. But, there is no sustained effort to end this policy.

It makes the left uncomfortable, just as the Kermit Gosnell trial did. And, rarely have I read an article with as much detail as this one. Maybe the details make the press uncomfortable.

We've gotten our priorities so twisted that a feminist is someone who demands free birth control, and you are guilty of participating in a "war on women" if you oppose such a policy.

Meanwhile, a true war on women is being waged in China, and no speaks out.

This stuff is gruesome. It might be one of the few instances where a Nazi comparison is not out of place.

What you don't get is that us on the left call it "Pro-Choice" for a reason. And that's the woman has the right to choose.

This policy by China is the same as what the right in the U.S. wants, except in the opposite direction. They want to tell women that they must have an abortion. Just like those righties who want to tell women that, if they're pregnant, that they must carry the fetus to term.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

I criticize every President -- including Reagan, and both Bushes -- for not doing more to tie trade with China to their human rights record.

Thanks for making a difference.

 

[BTExpress]

What you don't get is that us on the left call it "Pro-Choice" for a reason. And that's the woman has the right to choose.

He gets it. What he's saying is that nobody cares that Chinese women do not have a right to choose.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

What you don't get is that us on the left call it "Pro-Choice" for a reason. And that's the woman has the right to choose.

He gets it. What he's saying is that nobody cares that Chinese women do not have a right to choose.

I guess he'd be wrong. YankeeFan cares. I care. Others care.

 

[YankeeFan]

What you don't get is that us on the left call it "Pro-Choice" for a reason. And that's the woman has the right to choose.

This policy by China is the same as what the right in the U.S. wants, except in the opposite direction. They want to tell women that they must have an abortion. Just like those righties who want to tell women that, if they're pregnant, that they must carry the fetus to term.

I get that the "Pro-Choice" movement would like to frame it that way. And, for most folks, that's how they truly feel.

But, for Big Abortion, and for the folks most active in fighting for abortion rights, this just isn't true. It's an industry.

So, they don't speak out against Kermit Gosnell. It hits too close to home.

But, they also don't fight for women who are coerced into having an abortion by their boyfriend, husband, in-laws, or others.

Women who want to keep their baby have abortions every day in America, because they are pressured into it. They are threatened with being cut off financially or emotionally.

And, while it might not be as brutal as it is in China, it goes against anything "Pro-Choice" folks supposedly stand for.

Yet, I've never heard them make an issue of it.

 

[old_tony]

What you don't get is that us on the left call it "Pro-Choice" for a reason. And that's the woman has the right to choose.

This policy by China is the same as what the right in the U.S. wants, except in the opposite direction. They want to tell women that they must have an abortion. Just like those righties who want to tell women that, if they're pregnant, that they must carry the fetus to term.

I get that the "Pro-Choice" movement would like to frame it that way. And, for most folks, that's how they truly feel.

But, for Big Abortion, and for the folks most active in fighting for abortion rights, this just isn't true. It's an industry.

So, they don't speak out against Kermit Gosnell. It hits too close to home.

But, they also don't fight for women who are coerced into having an abortion by their boyfriend, husband, in-laws, or others.

Women who want to keep their baby have abortions every day in America, because they are pressured into it. They are threatened with being cut off financially or emotionally.

And, while it might not be as brutal as it is in China, it goes against anything "Pro-Choice" folks supposedly stand for.

Yet, I've never heard them make an issue of it.

To the left, a woman who wants to have an abortion and is talked out of it is a victim, but a woman who wants to have the child and is talked out of it is a hero and a pillar of strength.

 

[Big Circus]

What you don't get is that us on the left call it "Pro-Choice" for a reason. And that's the woman has the right to choose.

This policy by China is the same as what the right in the U.S. wants, except in the opposite direction. They want to tell women that they must have an abortion. Just like those righties who want to tell women that, if they're pregnant, that they must carry the fetus to term.

I get that the "Pro-Choice" movement would like to frame it that way. And, for most folks, that's how they truly feel.

But, for Big Abortion, and for the folks most active in fighting for abortion rights, this just isn't true. It's an industry.

So, they don't speak out against Kermit Gosnell. It hits too close to home.

But, they also don't fight for women who are coerced into having an abortion by their boyfriend, husband, in-laws, or others.

Women who want to keep their baby have abortions every day in America, because they are pressured into it. They are threatened with being cut off financially or emotionally.

And, while it might not be as brutal as it is in China, it goes against anything "Pro-Choice" folks supposedly stand for.

Yet, I've never heard them make an issue of it.

To the left, a woman who wants to have an abortion and is talked out of it is a victim, but a woman who wants to have the child and is talked out of it is a hero and a pillar of strength.

Or they're both just human beings trying to make a difficult decision.

 

[Captain Obvious]

What you don't get is that us on the left call it "Pro-Choice" for a reason. And that's the woman has the right to choose.

This policy by China is the same as what the right in the U.S. wants, except in the opposite direction. They want to tell women that they must have an abortion. Just like those righties who want to tell women that, if they're pregnant, that they must carry the fetus to term.

I get that the "Pro-Choice" movement would like to frame it that way. And, for most folks, that's how they truly feel.

But, for Big Abortion, and for the folks most active in fighting for abortion rights, this just isn't true. It's an industry.

So, they don't speak out against Kermit Gosnell. It hits too close to home.

But, they also don't fight for women who are coerced into having an abortion by their boyfriend, husband, in-laws, or others.

Women who want to keep their baby have abortions every day in America, because they are pressured into it. They are threatened with being cut off financially or emotionally.

And, while it might not be as brutal as it is in China, it goes against anything "Pro-Choice" folks supposedly stand for.

Yet, I've never heard them make an issue of it.

To the left, a woman who wants to have an abortion and is talked out of it is a victim, but a woman who wants to have the child and is talked out of it is a hero and a pillar of strength.

So writes a guy who couldn't get a woman to want to have his child.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

In my delusional fantasies of what I think other people think, a woman who wants to have an abortion and is talked out of it is a victim, but a woman who wants to have the child and is talked out of it is a hero and a pillar of strength.

Fixed.