News

Little Chance of Honest Compliance by the Communist Government with Investigation

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2002 (LSN.ca) – The State Department announced yesterday the selection of a three-member team that will visit China this month to provide an assessment of the activities of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The release said the team will be gathering information to assist the Administration in determining whether or not the United Nations Population Fund’s China program is in violation of Kemp-Kasten Amendment which forbids US funds from supporting coercive abortion.

Independent clandestine investigations have found concrete evidence of UNFPA’s involvement in coerced abortion. The Population Research Institute (PRI) sent an investigation team to China that returned with videotaped evidence proving the links.  However, pro-life observers suggest that the official US field visit will have little chance of obtaining objective information since the investigation will be conducted publicly. The Communist government is highly likely to ensure the investigators will not encounter incriminating situations.  Steve Mosher, president of PRI – the leading group that exposed the coercive abortion support of UNFPA – told LifeSite recently he was encouraged by the Bush Administration commitment to address the issue but was under no illusions about a successful compliance by the Chinese government. “Let’s be realistic, they will be dealing with top officials of the world’s most oppressive and totalitarian regime who are habituated in the art of double speak.”

The field visit is planned for the last two weeks in May, with completion of the report by late June.  The assessment team members are: Ambassador William Brown, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs and Ambassador to Thailand and Israel, who currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Ms. Bonnie Glick, who served 11 years as a career Foreign Service Officer with overseas postings in Ethiopia and Nicaragua, as well as with the State Department, White House, and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations; and Dr. Theodore Tong, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs and Professor of Public Health at the University of Arizona.  See the State Department release:  https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/9887.htm