Clashes In Southwest China Over One-Child Policy Prompt Officials To Ease Penalties

Recent violent clashes between police and 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 local officials to ease "tough measures," officials said on Wednesday, Reuters AlertNet reports. Officials added that they will continue efforts to curb population growth (Buckley, Reuters AlertNet, 5/23).

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 (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/22). According to Xinhua News Agency, 28 residents were detained and are suspected of passing on details of the demonstration, as well as instigating and participating in the riots, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports (AP/International Herald Tribune, 5/23).

"Family planning is a national policy, and Yulin City has demanded that residents stop flouting laws and regulations," a Bobai official -- who only gave his surname, Luo -- said, adding, "There has been a lot of pressure on officials who don't understand family planning work and the situation got out of hand, but that's stopped now." Luo said the goal of curbing population growth "won't change, but the methods will be adjusted" (Reuters AlertNet, 5/23).

Washington Post Examines Events Leading to Clashes
The Washington Post on Wednesday examined actions taken on enforcing the family planning policy in the region and details of the clashes. According to the Post, the "brutal fine-collection drive" is the "latest example of abusive local enforcement" of the one-child policy (Cody, Washington Post, 5/23).


NBC's "Nightly News" on Tuesday reported on the clashes in southwest China. The segment includes comments from Carl Minzner of the Council on Foreign Relations (Mullen, "Nightly News," NBC, 5/22). Video of the segment is available online.

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