[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 141 (Wednesday, October 8, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E1996]]
                    CHINA'S BRUTAL ONE-CHILD POLICY

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                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, October 8, 2003

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I continue today to bring to our colleagues' 
attention the Chinese government's perpetual human rights abuses and 
would like to highlight the atrocious acts of barbarism that have 
arisen from the government's One-Child Policy.
  In the long list of cruel acts committed by the government of China 
against its own people, this one is the most inhuman. Forced abortion, 
sterilization and the abandonment of female children in favor of males 
are the end results of this policy. None of our colleagues would 
tolerate such treatment toward their own mothers, wives, daughters and 
grand-daughters and it is no more acceptable because we cannot see the 
faces or know the names of those living in terror.

``In Their Own Words'' Statements on China's Coercive One-Child Policy 
               Provided by the Laogai Research Foundation

       For over 20 years, the Chinese government's one-child 
     policy has perpetuated systemic human rights abuses against 
     the Chinese family.
       Using threats, coercion, destruction of property, 
     detention, forced abortion, infanticide, involuntary use of 
     birth control (IUDs), and involuntary sterilization as its 
     enforcement mechanisms, China's population control policy is, 
     at its core, depriving Chinese the right to give birth. 
     Police, secret police, military, courts, social services, 
     schools, and hospitals coordinate efforts to ensure maximum 
     compliance.
       Official one-child policy propaganda offers a variety of 
     distasteful and cruel slogans; One Sterilization Honors Whole 
     Family! (Shandong), One Over-birth, Whole Village Sterilized! 
     (Chuxiong, Yunnan); Sterilization Dodgers Wanted! (Sichuan); 
     Better One Family Ruined Than Whole Nation Devastated 
     (Shandong); Induced Delivery and Abortion Wherever Possible, 
     But Never Birth! (Shandong); Better Ten Graves Than One 
     Birth! (Anhui); Better One River of Blood than One Over-
     birth! (Jiangsu).
       Women are often forced to use IUDs or undergo 
     sterilization, sometimes even before they have had their 
     first child. Parents and their children who violate planning 
     laws become outcasts, ineligible for government services and 
     benefits.
       This policy has created a culture where forced abortions, 
     infanticide, and orphaned children are commonplace.
       No government documents ever explicitly stipulates that an 
     offender's house can be ransacked/demolished. However, this 
     happens in several rural areas.
       Most family-planning offices in Fujian rural areas have 
     their own detention facilities, one for men and one for 
     women. Most detainees are women, some are pregnant without 
     ``birth-permitted certificates,'' some are to be sterilized 
     or be fined. If a woman cannot be seized, her husband, 
     brothers or parents are taken. Women are generally not 
     released until they give consent to sterilization or 
     abortion.
       Some women bribed physicians and received falsified 
     sterilization certificates. However, if Yonghe office 
     suspects the certificates, the women are given acid with 
     water flushed through their oviducts.
       The traditional predilection for male offspring, combined 
     with coercive nature of the one child policy, has created an 
     environment where females are simply unwanted. As China 
     prohibits the use of sonograms, the decision to keep one's 
     child is not made until after the child is born. As a result, 
     gender-based infanticide and child abandonment are 
     commonplace. In addition, there is a healthy black market for 
     infants and fetuses (used in soup/cosmetics) in China.

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