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Chinese Sterilization “Incentives” Include Arresting and Jailing Relatives

NIGOU, October 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Though the Chinese government, bowing to international pressure, has made the use of physical force illegal as a means of coercing sterilization, the One Child policy is still in effect and brutal tactics are being used to enforce it in many regions.

In Nigou, families have been arrested and jailed to try to coerce their women relatives to undergo sterilization. A report appearing in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune says that local “family planning” officials claim to know nothing about the illegal detention.

Despite the 2002 law reforms, the Chinese government is as dedicated to its policy as ever. The new law says that only financial “incentives” such as monetary fines up to a year’s wages, can be used to induce compliance. The law, however, failed to define the rights of citizens and, according to activists and outside observers, the central government is turning a blind eye to abuses.

The report quotes an unnamed woman detained in a make-shift prison above a fertilizer store in the rural town. “We cannot leave,” said the woman, who described herself as a 52-year-old farmer. “We have no freedom.”

The Tribune reports that the local chief of the hospital maternity ward confirms that government officials routinely arrest relatives of women fleeing the policy. Dr. Wang Haiyan said her department performs two regular abortions per day and three to four late-term abortions per month.

“What else can they do? They have a job to do,” said Wang.

Which is precisely the point, according to Joseph D’Agostino, spokesman for the Population Research Institute in Front Royal Virginia. D’Agostino told LifeSiteNews.com that the official change in policy is not going to make a lot of difference as long as local population officials are still evaluated by superiors according to how many babies are born in their regions.

“It can be a matter of life and death. Coercion continues and it is still official. And obviously if financial or other incentives don’t work they resort to more brutal methods.”

Chen Guangcheng, a prominent activist in Linyi, one of the areas from which reports of abuses are coming, remains under house arrest after he filed a lawsuit. The suit was on behalf of a group of rural families accusing the local officials of continuing the brutal and coercive practices.

D’Agostino asked LifeSiteNews.com, “So Chen Guangcheng is under house arrest. What has he done? He has embarrassed the government.” Guangcheng asserts that in one area more than 7000 people were sterilized between March and July of this year. Local lawyers told the Tribune that officials plan to charge him with “providing intelligence to foreigners,” a serious crime that brings a lengthy jail term.

Read Chicago Tribune report:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0510020320oct02,1,6054544.sto...

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Chinese Arrests and "Embarrassement" Over Forced Abortions Likely Only Temporary Face Saving
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/sep/05092301.html

Forced Abortion Still A Reality in China Says New Amnesty Report http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/may/05052706.html

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