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• The Chinese government strictly controls the reproductive lives of Chinese women. Since the early 1980s, the government's population planning policy has limited most women in urban areas to bearing one child, while permitting many women in rural China to bear a second child if their first child is female. Officials have coerced compliance with the policy through a system marked by pervasive propaganda, mandatory monitoring of women's reproductive cycles, mandatory contraception, mandatory birth permits, coercive fines for failure to comply, and, in some cases, forced sterilization and abortion.

• The Chinese government's population planning laws and regulations contravene international human rights standards by limiting the number of children that women may bear, by coercing compliance with population targets through heavy fines, and by discriminating against "out-of-plan" children. Local officials have violated Chinese law by punishing citizens, such as legal advocate Chen Guangcheng, who have drawn attention to population planning abuses by government officials.

Population Planning Policy

The Chinese government strictly controls the reproductive lives of Chinese women, but population planning policy varies by locality. Since the early 1980s, the government's population planning policy has limited most women in urban areas to bearing one child, while permitting many women in rural China to bear a second child but generally restricting the additional birth to women whose first child is female.¹ Officials have coerced compliance with the policy through a system marked by pervasive propaganda, mandatory monitoring of women's reproductive cycles, mandatory contraception, mandatory birth permits, coercive fines for failure to comply, and, in some cases, forced sterilization and abortion. Since the early 1980s, population planners have frequently revised provincial and local rules and quotas as the result of evolving national population targets.² Current policies concerning the circumstances under which women may bear two children vary at the provincial and local level, depending on changes in the national plan, on changes in provincial and local quotas, and on whether provinces or localities have met or exceeded previous quotas.³ Local regulations permit ethnic minorities to have additional children. Ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region are permitted to have more than two children if they reside in rural areas, and the Communist Party's official journal, Seeking Truth, has claimed that in the Tibet Autonomous Region there are no restrictions on the number of children that farmers and herders may have.⁴

The government coerces compliance with its restrictions on birth principally through a system of harshly coercive fines, which are termed "social compensation fees."⁵ Provincial-level governments determine the criteria for issuing these fines, their amounts, and the method for collecting them "based on local conditions."⁶ In Beijing municipality, officials file a case, investigate, and deliver a "Social Compensation Fee Decision" to parents when they suspect an illegal birth. The parents must pay in full within 30 days of receiving the "Social Compensation Fee Decision" or file an application to pay the fine in installments. The first payment must be 50 percent of the total fine, and the parents must make full payment within three years. Parents in Beijing who violate regulations on having a second child, or unmarried persons who violate regulations on having a child, are fined 3 to 10 times the area's average annual income. Parents who have a second child in accordance with regulations, but less than four years after the first child, or when the mother is less than 28 years old, are fined one-fifth of the area's average disposable annual income for urban residents, and one-fifth of the area's average gross annual income for rural residents. When the parents' actual income exceeds the area's average income, the regulations provide that the actual income should be the basis for computing the fine. If the parents "practice deception," obstruct official processes, or "exert negative social influence," fines can be doubled.⁷ Practices for assessing fees against parents who violate population planning regulations differ in Shandong province, where incomes are lower than in Beijing municipality. The fine is set at 30 percent of a given area's average annual income.⁸ Families forced to pay these heavy fines can be financially devastated for years. When parents do not pay the fines, population planning officials can file legal cases, and one Chinese media report from 2006 described a local court acting "vigorously" to collect fees and to "uphold the authority" of population planning officials.⁹ Officials also have reportedly destroyed the homes of those who do not pay the fines.¹⁰

Violations of Chinese Law and International Human Rights Standards

The Chinese government's population planning laws and regulations contravene international human rights standards. For example, the Population and Family Planning Law, which became effective in 2002, contravenes the standards set by the 1995 Beijing Declaration and the 1994 Programme of Action of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (1994 Programme) by limiting the number of children that married women may bear and by banning unmarried women from bearing any children.¹¹ Population planning laws coerce compliance by penalizing women who bear an "out-of-plan" child with a "social compensation fee" that ranges from roughly one-half to 10 times an individual's average annual income, based on locality.¹² Moreover, 7 provinces require "termination" of pregnancies that violate provincial regulations, while 10 provinces require unspecified "remedial measures."¹³ The government contravenes the standards set by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights by discriminating against "out-of-plan" children in health care and education.¹⁴ The government also contravenes the 1994 Programme by setting population targets.¹⁵

Some local officials charged with implementing the national population planning policy violate Chinese law by physically coercing abortions and sterilizations. Although physical coercion violates Article 4 of the Population and Family Planning Law,¹⁶ local officials continue to use physical coercion, or the threat of physical coercion, to enforce compliance with population planning laws and regulations. In December 2005, Western media reported that officials in Hebei province forced a Falun Gong practitioner to have an abortion, and in 2006, officials in Chongqing municipality and in Fujian province forcibly sterilized women.¹⁷ In June 2006, Western media reported that a woman fell to her death while fleeing Anhui provincial officials who were attempting to force her to abort twins, since she had previously given birth to one child.¹⁸ Central government personnel policies encourage the coercive practices of local officials by making the local officials' promotions and bonuses dependent on meeting population targets.¹⁹ Little public evidence is available to show that officials who employ physical coercion against pregnant women have been punished for their illegal acts.²⁰ Two committees of the U.S. House of Representatives heard testimony in 2004 and 2006 that some Chinese officials continue to physically coerce compliance with the population planning policy. Witnesses said that the means employed against pregnant women include forced abortion, sterilization, and implantation of contraceptive devices. Other forms of physical coercion are exercised against friends and relatives who try to assist them.²¹ The government uses group rewards and punishments, denying benefits or imposing penalties on entire villages, factories, or work units in the event of a single "out-of-plan" birth. As a result, women with "out-of-plan" pregnancies are ostracized and placed under great pressure to have an abortion.²² These abuses have created an atmosphere of fear in which most Chinese women feel they have little choice but to comply with the population planning policy.²³

Officials charged with implementing these laws and regulations have also violated Chinese law by punishing citizens, such as legal advocate Chen Guangcheng, who have publicized population planning abuses by local authorities.²⁴ In early 2005, authorities in Linyi city, Shandong province, directed a campaign against "out-of-plan" births in which local officials reportedly committed physical abuses, including forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and beatings. The authorities profited from their abuses by charging illegal fees to those detained.²⁵ Although Article 41 of the Chinese Constitution guarantees Chinese citizens "the right to criticize and make suggestions to any state organ or functionary," Chen was beaten, placed under house arrest, detained, arrested, tried, and sentenced to four years and three months in prison for peacefully drawing attention to the abuses in Linyi.²⁶ A number of his relatives, supporters, and attorneys were also harassed, beaten, or detained [see Section V(b)--Rights of Criminal Suspects and Defendants--Arbitrary Detention in the Formal Criminal Process]. In September 2005, an official from the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) responded to international news media attention by admitting that Linyi officials had committed unspecified "practices that violated law" and declaring that "the responsible persons have been removed from their posts."²⁷ In October 2005, however, foreign journalists reported that forced abortions continued in Linyi, and in February 2006, foreign journalists were unable to confirm that any Linyi officials had been punished for these acts.²⁸

Victims and activists have accused officials of other instances of corruption and abuse of power in implementing the population planning program. Article 4 of the Population and Family Planning Law requires officials to perform their administrative duties strictly in accordance with the law, and Article 39 provides that population planning officials may be subject to criminal punishment for "abusing [their] power . . . demanding or accepting bribes. . . ."²⁹ In Hunan province, approximately 60 villagers claimed that population planning officials took 11 adopted and "out-of-plan" children away from their homes and demanded money for their return.³⁰ Xinhua reported that government authorities punished 13 officials in Shaanxi province after investigators found that a population planning official and a village head took bribes from a woman and her husband, supplied them with fraudulent documents, and forged the woman's contraception records.³¹ Some wealthy Chinese choose to pay the fines for "out-of-plan" children to have a large family.³² The head of the NPFPC said in an interview that a minority of wealthy and famous people, as well as leading cadres, violate the birth restrictions and, although they "should be legally punished . . . our supervision has not yet reached the desired level."³³

Social Crises Resulting From the Population Planning Policy

Chinese population planning policies, combined with a cultural preference for sons, produce sex ratio imbalances and, in some cases, lead families to abort female infants. The current male-female birth ratio for first births is 121:100 and 152:100 for second births. Some foreign experts believe that the actual ratios are even more imbalanced,³⁴ and some reports claim that the imbalance is worsening.³⁵ Demographers and population experts consider a normal male-female birth ratio to be between 103 to 107:100.

In June 2006, the National People's Congress (NPC) withdrew a proposed law that would have criminalized sex-selective abortion. Article 35 of the 2002 Population and Family Planning Law prohibits, but does not penalize, sex-selective abortion. The prohibition has been widely ignored by medical personnel and parents.³⁶ In December 2005, the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) reported that the government had submitted a draft Criminal Law amendment to the NPC under which parents or medical personnel involved in sex-selective abortions would face fines and up to three years in prison.³⁷ In an April 2006 interview, Zhang Weiqing, Director of the NPFPC, emphasized the long-term nature of the sex-ratio imbalance and the need to support the draft amendment.³⁸ Xinhua later reported that the proposed amendment had resulted in a "controversial debate" that left the NPC Standing Committee "sharply divided."³⁹ In June, the NPC decided to withdraw the proposed law.⁴⁰ Some officials opposed the law on the grounds that a woman has the right to know the sex of her child, that harsh penalties would create a black market in fetal sex determination, and that prosecution of offenders under the proposed amendment would prove difficult.⁴¹ Yu Xuejun, Director of the NPFPC's Department of Policies and Regulations, told a foreign newspaper that he regretted that the amendment had been withdrawn and that he would continue lobbying for it.⁴² Subsequent reports in the state-run press have not disclosed whether the government plans to submit a similar amendment to the NPC in the future, but stated that curbing the sex ratio imbalance remained a "top priority" and that the imbalance could become a major obstacle to economic development. Other reports have also discussed the means by which the sex-ratio imbalance might be addressed. These included closing more clinics involved in sex-selective abortions; strengthening and geographically expanding implementation of the Care for Girls Program; raising the criteria for licensing medical institutes and practitioners; implementing preferential policies for girls and women in health care, education, and employment; and dispatching 60 teams to evaluate sex ratios, trends, and the efficiency of government policies.⁴³ The government has also said that it plans to create a system to punish local officials who fail to control sex ratio imbalances.⁴⁴

The population planning policy has contributed to an increasing number of elderly Chinese citizens without children to support them financially. Director Zhang of the NPFPC has noted that "[t]here is a definite relationship between the acceleration of the aging of the population and the strict birth control policy."⁴⁵ During the past year, the government established a national program that grants a small sum of money to rural couples who have one child or two daughters.⁴⁶ Some Chinese demographers predict that the aging of the Chinese population and the sex-ratio imbalance will create additional economic and social problems in the future, and therefore advocate moving toward a "two-child policy."⁴⁷ One Chinese demographer at a December 2005 forum contended that the Chinese population is aging faster than expected, while others predicted that the population will begin to decrease earlier and more sharply than expected.⁴⁸ Others predict worsening labor shortages and insufficient numbers of working-age people to cover social insurance and pensions, and foresee economic stagnation or recession in the next 20 years.⁴⁹ Although many provinces have adopted policies that expand the number of people permitted to have two children, not all Chinese demographers agree with these forecasts or advocate a "two-child policy."⁵⁰ NPFPC officials maintain that the population planning policy will not change in the near future and that preventing overpopulation will remain the government's top priority for the foreseeable future.⁵¹ Director Zhang of the NPFPC said in April that the policy was open to change, but not in the short term. He claimed that China faces an impending "baby boom."⁵²