China: no reason to welcome Two Child Policy as forced abortions continue

Thousands of girls have been killed under China's one-child policy

As of January 1, Communist officials say China will let all married couples have two children instead of one - prompting a slew of media headlines hailing that China has "ended," "abandoned," or "ditched" the infamous One Child Policy. But thus commences a whole new media battle to hold China to task for its system of forced population control, advocates warn - a system as severe as ever under the Two Child Policy.

As blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng said in October: "This is nothing to be happy about. First the CCP would kill any baby after one. Now they will kill any baby after two."

Any unmarried woman who becomes pregnant is forced to have an abortion.

Ever since the United States reversed course by granting China "Most Favored Nation" trade status in 1994, despite its well-known human rights abuses, the defense of the Communist Party's many victims has been left to much smaller NGOs calling for change.

At a hearing for the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China last month, several experts joined with Congressional leaders in calling on China to end the forced population control still in force despite the change in name.

"Coercion is the core of the policy," said Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers, who urged a "world laden with compassion fatigue" not to let China off the hook.

Littlejohn said the Chinese government wouldn't give up forced population control without further pressure for many reasons, such as the opportunity for terror-based control through the infamous Family Planning Police, especially amid increasing public upheaval.

"Regardless of the number of children allowed, women who get pregnant without permission will still be dragged out of their homes, strapped down to tables, and forced to abort babies that they want," said Littlejohn.

A Chinese woman at the hearing shared her story of having to flee to America in order to escape the forced abortion of her second child - even though the Two Child Policy had already been announced.

Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute noted that the Two Child Policy merely continued the longstanding policy of jihua shengyu ('planned birth'), instituted by Chairman Mao Tsetung in the 1950s. Jihua shengyu, the panelists said, continues to result in well-documented forced abortions, forced sterilizations, crippling "terror fines," and other forms of torture.

The law has led to not only the hukuo system effectively banishing "illegal" children from society, but the severe gender imbalance of China's population, due to the selective abortions of baby girls thanks to cultural son-preference and a limited window for childbearing.

All this, said panelists, is set to continue in 2016.

"Foreign observers have generally greeted the apparent end of the one-child policy with euphoria, as if it somehow represents a new birth of reproductive freedom in China," said Mosher.

Political economist Dr Nicholas Eberstadt concurred that "Beijing is not relinquishing its claim that the state, rather than parents, is the proper authority for deciding how many children China's families may have."

"Let us not abandon the women of China, who continue to face forced abortion, and the baby girls of China, who continue to face sex-selective abortion and abandonment under the new Two-Child Policy," Littlejohn concluded.

Related links:

Reggie Littlejohn's Testimony before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China: "China's Two-Child Policy: New Number, Same Violence Against Women." www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/blog/?p=2130

Congressional-Executive Commission on China Hearing of December 3, 2015: China's New Two-Child Policy & the Continuation of Massive Crimes Against Women and Children. www.cecc.gov/events/hearings/china%E2%80%99s-new-%E2%80%9Ctwo-child-policy%E2%80%9D-the-continuation-of-massive-crimes-against-women-and

Shanghaiist: "Human Rights Abuses Will Continue" - Chen Guangcheng tweets out against China's new two-child policy. http://shanghaiist.com/2015/10/30/chen_guangcheng_tweets_on_two_child_policy.php

Sign our petition to end forced abortion here: http://womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition

Watch: Stop Forced Abortion: China's War Against Women www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/?nav=stop-forced-abortion