Chinese Officials Dispatched To Handle Complaints Concerning Penalties For One-Child Policy Violations

Recent clashes between police and residents in southwest China's Guangxi province over a campaign to enforce penalties, including fines and forced abortion, for couples who violate China's one-child-per-family policy has prompted the country to dispatch officials to address complaints concerning the penalties, the New York Times reports (Kahn, New York Times, 5/24).

China's one-child-per-family policy seeks to keep the country's population, now 1.3 billion, at about 1.7 billion by 2050. Methods of enforcing the policy, such as fines and work demotions, vary among Chinese provinces and cities. Dozens of women in southwest China last month reported being forced to undergo abortions as late as nine months into their pregnancies. Some women from Guangxi said they were forced to have abortions because they were unmarried, while other women were married and pregnant with their second child.

The Bobai county government in Guangxi recently increased fines for people who violate the policy and have been seizing or destroying the property of people who cannot pay the fines. Several people have said Guangxi officials have issued fines from 500 yuan, or about $65, to 70,000 yuan, or about $9,000, on families who violated the policy at any time since 1980. Some people said the fine, called a "social child-raising fee," was collected despite the fact most violators of the policy had already paid a fine. If violators failed to pay the fine within three days, their homes would be destroyed and their belongings seized.

Residents of Guangxi recently attacked family planning officials, overturned cars and set fire to government buildings. Witnesses and Hong Kong media reported on Monday that riot police entered at least four towns in the province. Twenty-eight residents were detained and are suspected of passing on details of the demonstration, as well as instigating and participating in the riots (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/23).

According to Huang Shaoming, chief of Bobai county, the recent violence is because of "backward ideas about birth control and the rule of law" among residents. He added, "It's also possible that problems exist in the government's birth control work, which led to the frustration of the people." Huang pledged to address residents' complaints and also to push for stricter enforcement of the one-child policy (New York Times, 5/24).

The Los Angeles Times on Thursday examined the situation. The article is available online.

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