110 HRES 705 IH: Expressing the sense of the House of U.S. House of Representatives 2007-10-02 text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.

IV 110th CONGRESS 1st Session H. RES. 705 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES October 2, 2007 Mr. Bilirakis (for himself, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mr. McCotter, Mr. Franks of Arizona, Mr. Renzi, Mr. Souder, Mr. Feeney, Mr. Tiberi, Mr. Ryan of Ohio, and Mr. Aderholt) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Chinese Communist Party should be condemned for engaging in coercive abortion practices, and for other purposes.

Whereas the People’s Republic of China is an authoritarian police state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount source of power; Whereas the citizens of China do not vote for the members of the CCP; Whereas the citizens of China do not have the right under Chinese law to change their government; Whereas the unelected members of the CCP have implemented a one child policy the goal of which, with some exceptions, is to limit each couple in China to one child; Whereas the CCP, and government officials obliged to enforce the CCP’s one child policy, have violated and continue to violate the rights of women and citizens of China by engaging in economic and physical coercion in pursuit of the CCP’s one child policy; Whereas the CCP has passed a law which purports to prohibit the use of physical coercion (but not economic coercion) to compel persons to submit to abortion or sterilization, and holds this law out to the international community and its own people as evidence that there is no such problem in China; Whereas, however, this CCP propaganda is contradicted in the Department of State’s Report on Human Rights Practices in China, published on March 6, 2007, in which the Department of State determined— (1)the CCP’s birth planning policies utilize harshly coercive elements in law and practice; (2)the penalties for violating the law are strict, leaving some women little choice but to abort pregnancies; (3)reports of forced sterilizations and abortions continued to be documented in rural areas; (4)officials who help persons evade the birth limitations are subject to significant sanctions; (5)social compensation fees for violations of the one child policy are set and assessed against mothers and families at the local level, enabling corrupt officials to enrich themselves while zealously enforcing the one child policy; (6)forcible action is used as an enforcement mechanism, such as detaining family members or confiscating and destroying property of families who refuse to or cannot pay social compensation fees; (7)seven provinces require termination of pregnancy if the pregnancy violates provincial family planning regulations; (8)an additional 10 provinces require unspecified remedial measures to deal with out-of-plan pregnancies; (9)it continues to be illegal in almost all provinces for a single woman to have a child; in fact, social compensation fees are levied on unwed mothers; (10)the country’s population control policy relies not only on education, propaganda, and economic incentives, but on more coercive measures such as the threat of job loss or demotion; those who violate the child limit policy by having an unapproved child or helping another to do so face disciplinary measures such as job loss or demotion or loss of promotion opportunity; imposing fines and refusing to allow persons to return to work based solely on the fact that the woman became pregnant or gave birth to more than one child is commonplace; and (11)in the case of families that already had two children, one parent was often pressured to undergo sterilization; these penalties sometimes left women with little practical choice but to undergo abortion or sterilization; Whereas on September 1, 2002, China adopted the Population and Family Planning Law, which requires couples who have an unapproved child to pay a social compensation fee; Whereas the social compensation fee policy is a harsh and effective enforcement tool that is used to force women to have an abortion by imposing fines that ranged from one-half to 10 times the average worker’s annual disposable income; Whereas the CCP publicly admits that it does not consider the social compensation fee and other administrative punishments to be coercive; Whereas the one child policy of the CCP results in the citizens of China being forced to make horrific choices regarding the life and death of unborn children; Whereas many families use ultrasound to identify female fetuses and terminate pregnancies, due to the preference for male children in China and the penalties imposed for having more than one child, particularly in rural areas; Whereas an official study in Hainan Province found that 68 percent of abortions were of female fetuses, where pregnancy was terminated in the hope that the next child (and only child permitted) would be a male; Whereas according to a 2002 survey, 35 percent of women in one rural township admitted to having an abortion because of a preference for a male child; Whereas female babies also suffer from a higher mortality rate than male babies, contrary to the worldwide norm; Whereas state media report that infant mortality rates in rural areas are 27 percent higher for girls than boys, and a higher percentage of girls are found in orphanages; Whereas the CCP’s claims that it does not use coercion to enforce the one child policy are further refuted by the imprisonment of Chen Guangchen; Mr. Chen is a blind activist who was working on behalf of victims of the one child policy; Mr. Chen accused local health workers in Shandong Province of forcing people to have late-term abortions and sterilizations; Whereas local rights activists documented cases of forced late-term abortions, and at least 7,000 people had been forced to submit to sterilization procedures; Whereas in 2006, Time Magazine named Mr. Chen as one of the world’s 100 most influential people for exposing the atrocities; Whereas the response of the CCP was to silence Mr. Chen by accusing him of frivolous law violations, arresting his attorney on the eve of trial, and imprisoning Mr. Chen for 4 years and 3 months; Whereas despite international protests, Mr. Chen remains incarcerated; Whereas on August 24, 2007, Yuan Weijing, the wife of Chen Guangcheng, was kidnapped from Beijing Airport by authorities and beaten as she attempted to fly to the Philippines to accept an award on behalf of her imprisoned husband; and Whereas Yuan Weijing was forcibly returned to her home village: Now, therefore, be it

That— (1)the House of Representatives declares that— (A)pregnant women in China possess a fundamental, inalienable right to carry their pregnancies to term and to deliver their children free from coercive tactics designed to force a woman to abort her child; (B)the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and government officials in China have no right to impose a fine, dismiss from employment, or in any way punish a pregnant woman, her spouse or members of her family based solely on the pregnant woman’s exercise of her inalienable right to carry her pregnancy to term and deliver her child; (C)Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 217 A (III) of December 10, 1948, provides that adult men and women have the right to marry and to found a family; and (D)the use of the power of the government by the CCP to coerce abortion and sterilization is immoral, reprehensible, and a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; (2)the House of Representatives expresses its regrets and condolences to the innocent victims of the CCP’s one-child policy; and (3)it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Government should publicly condemn the CCP’s one child policy, coerced abortions, and coerced sterilizations at appropriate United Nations bodies and other international and multi-national forums, and ensure that preparations for such actions be made at appropriately high levels and with the widest possible support from other United Nations member states.