Posted on 07/17/2002 10:57:30 PM PDT by tallhappy
Chinese brides of Taiwanese men who went to China to visit their families were ordered by Beijing to have abortions or to undergo surgery to have their fallopian tubes tied. They were also fined and threatened with punishment under China's one-child policy if they had more children, a Taiwan official said yesterday.
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF, ®ü°ò·|) yesterday distributed a news release to reporters saying that, since the beginning of last year, the foundation has received six complaints regarding such cases.
Patricia Lin (ªL²Q¶{), director of the SEF's Department of Legal Services, said yesterday the victims told the foundation that, if Chinese birth-control personnel found that a Chinese bride of a Taiwanese man already had one child, they would force her to undergo a pregnancy test and tell her to have an abortion if she is found to be pregnant.
According to Lin, Chinese birth-control personnel also told Chinese brides who already had given birth to two children to undergo surgery to have their fallopian tubes tied. The women were also fined and their children's identification cards were confiscated as punishment for violating China's family planning regulations.
In addition, even if such a bride was pregnant with her first child, the Chinese birth-control personnel would tell her to have an abortion because "they did not get permission from the government to give birth," which is required in China.
"The victims only described what the Chinese officials told them to do, but we don't know for a fact if anyone was truly forced to have an abortion because they keep it private," Lin said.
Lin said that China's birth-control personnel might not fully understand Taiwanese law, and viewed the Taiwan-based brides' babies as an added burden on an overpopulated China.
"Under current Taiwanese regulations, children from cross-strait marriages can be registered as permanent residents of Taiwan, so they won't be a burden to China," Lin said.
She added that China's actions have seriously abused the rights of those who are bound together in cross-strait marriages.
The SEF reminded these couples to prepare for similar treatment if they intend to visit China.
The foundation also sent a letter last week to its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS, ®ü¨ó·|), to ask it to protect the rights of Chinese brides.
One regarding a now defunct page about Phyllis Piotrow's being a key faculty member of their institute at Johns Hopkins, one going off on their provision of abortifacient birth control. (Though most are just the usual digs at those always romantic libertarians.)
(Sigh ... it's never posted anymore. Kinda sad.)
But Roscoe's is probably the best as it zeroes in on the Foundation's support of Planned Parenthood.
Did anybody else pick up on this? Government issued id's turn into something that is used to control you. The children probably have no future without them.
The children can have their id's when their are 7 years old if their parents really can't pay the penalty.
There two types of laws regarding the one-child policy in China. The central government imposes a general regulation that asks the provincial governments to control their population growth within certain limits. The results will be directly related to the funding to those provinces and the promotion of the officials of the provinces. Therefore the local governments of the provinces will set up specific regulations to enforce one-child policy, including financial penalty. In general the couple who have more than one child are subjected to the fine equal to three-year household income per extra child. If you are in cities and live on salary, that will the amount you can't afford. For those peasants that's not a big deal because you can't calculate their hidden income while their norminal income is really low. That's why the one-child policy is hard to enforce in countyside. Also when the kids turn to the age for school, they need id's. You can't hold the kids hostage forever because that's not their fault. You have to give them id's after you conficate whatever is valuable in their houses if their parents fail to pay the panelty.
Many homes destroyed and one 34-year old woman beaten to death by birth control officials for refusing to be sterilized. A man tortured (his genitals cut off, I believe) for refusing to disclose the whereabouts of his wife, suspected of being pregnant without permission.
You have to wonder about these really brutal incidents. Tip of the iceberg or isolated incidents. Who can say?
I'm still looking for someone's being summarily executed. (Though I'm not ruling it out ... China's got it's own "get tough of crime" alacrity for the State's dispensing death.)
You'd think, with the deficit we're running, they'd have their own cash to spare on issues so clearly dear to their hearts.
How fortunate US taxpayers are so generous.
No more US taxpayer money for Chinese 'reproductive studies'"The United States has no business giving money to China for any reason," said American Life League president Judie Brown, in response to the latest revelations of U.S. involvement in China's reproductive policies. Congressional researchers recently uncovered an ongoing grant program with the Peking University Health Science Center for the study of the "promotion of optimal birth outcomes." The Chinese research center is in line for another one million dollar U.S. grant to study "interventions directed toward the prevention of birth defects and adverse pregnancy outcomes." Among other things, these "interventions" include forced abortions and sterilizations. "China's one-child policy amounts to state-sponsored terrorism," said Mrs. Brown. "This maniacal policy is often enforced by tracking down pregnant women and forcing them to abort. If we are serious about our anti-terrorism campaign, then we have to send a strong statement to China. President Bush has the opportunity to cut all U.S. funding to China, whether it's through direct research programs or through the United Nations." Release issued: 1 Mar 02 |
Violations Resulting from Family Planning Policy:The Chinese Constitution mandates the duty of couples to practice family planning. Since 1979, the central government has attempted to implement a family planning policy in China and Tibet that the government states is "intended to control population quantity and improve its quality." Central to this initiative is the "one child per couple" policy. Central authorities have verbally condemned the use of physical force in implementing the one-child policy; however, its implementation is left to local laws and regulations.
To enforce compliance, local authorities employ incentives such as medical, educational and housing benefits, and punishments including fines, confiscation of property, salary cuts or even dismissal. Officials also may refuse to issue residence cards to "out of plan" children, thereby denying them education and other state benefits.
Methods employed to ensure compliance have also included the forced use of contraceptives, primarily the I.U.D., and forced abortion for pregnant women who already have one child. In Zheijang Province, for example, the family planning ordinance states that "fertile couples must use reliable birth control according to the provisions. In case of pregnancies in default of the plan, measures must be taken to terminate them."
As an official "minority", Tibetans are legally allowed to have more than one child. However, there have been reports of forced abortions and sterilizations of Tibetan women who have had only one child. There are also reports of widespread sterilization of certain categories of women, including those suffering from mental illness, retardation and communicable or hereditary diseases.
Under previous local regulations superseded by the 1994 Maternal and Infant Health Care Law, such sterilization was mandatory in certain provinces. Under the new law, certain categories of people still may be prevented from bearing children.
Not that you can't be put to death for just about anything.
Lake is a ChiCom propagandist on the net.
He usually, but not always lies overtly.
He always distorts -- even if he doesn't have to.
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