Population Control
New Initiative in Xinjiang Rewards Fewer Births, Focuses on Ethnic Minorities
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) released from the hospital a Uyghur woman who is six months pregnant with her third child, after cancelling plans to subject her to a forced abortion for violating the region's population planning regulations, according to reports from Radio Free Asia (RFA). Unable to pay a 45,000 yuan (US$6,591) fine for exceeding the number of births permitted under the region's population planning system, Arzigul (Arzugül) Tursun, a villager from Ghulja county, initially fled home to avoid being forced to have an abortion in place of paying the fine, RFA reported on November 13. After pressuring Arzigul Tursun's family to locate her, authorities also coerced Arzigul Tursun's husband into signing papers to approve the abortion, RFA reported.
China's National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) has altered its population planning slogans to reflect a less strident tone, according to an October 11 Xinhua article and a July 19 circular posted on the NPFPC Web site. The NPFPC eliminated older slogans like "Raise fewer babies but more piggies" and "One more baby means one more tomb" that drew controversy and created a "misunderstanding about the [population planning] policy and even tarnish[ed] the image of the government," according to the NPFPC, as cited in the Xinhua article.
The Yinan County People's Court in Linyi city, Shandong province, conducted a retrial of the Chen Guangcheng case on November 27, and on December 1 imposed the same guilty verdict and sentence that they had reached in his original trial, according to a December 1 Xinhua report (via the China Internet Information Center) and various international NGO and news media reports. The court found Chen guilty of "intentional destruction of property" (a crime under Article 275 of the Criminal Law) and "gathering people to disturb traffic order" (a crime under Article 291 of the Criminal Law), and sentenced him to four years and three months in prison.
The intermediate people's court in Linyi city, Shandong province, has vacated the trial court judgment and ordered a new trial in the criminal case of Chen Guangcheng, according to reports (in English and Chinese) by Radio Free Asia (RFA) on October 31. Chen Guangcheng is a self-trained legal advocate who drew international news media attention in 2005 to population planning abuses in Linyi. Li Jinsong, who previously led Chen's criminal defense team, will continue to represent Chen and will soon travel to Linyi for a meeting with his client, according to RFA's Chinese-language report.
Authorities from the Yinan County People's Court have postponed Chen Guangcheng's trial indefinitely, according to a July 19 Chinese Rights Defenders (CRD) report (in Chinese). Chen Guangcheng is a self-trained legal advocate who drew international news media attention to population planning abuses in Linyi city, Shandong province in 2005. Local authorities placed Chen under house arrest in September 2005 and arrested Chen on June 21, 2006.
Public security officials in Yinan county, Shandong province, formally arrested legal advocate Chen Guangcheng on June 21, on charges of "intentional destruction or damage to property" and "gathering people to disturb traffic order," according to a June 25 Boxun report (in Chinese) containing the text of the notice of arrest. On March 11, about 100 security officials detained Chen after physically blocking him from seeking out Yinan county officials, according to a June 3 Chinese Rights Defenders (CRD) report. Chen and his relatives had planned to report the beating of Chen's cousin Chen Guangyu by four unidentified men earlier that day.
The National People’s Congress (NPC) withdrew a proposed amendment to the Criminal Law that would have penalized sex-selective abortions, according to a June 26 Xinhua article. Parents or medical personnel involved in a sex-selective abortion would have faced fines and up to three years in prison under the proposed amendment. Zhou Kunren, Vice Chairman of the Law Committee of the NPC Standing Committee, announced that NPC Standing Committee members as well as government officials had disagreed over the proposed amendment, according to a June 24 Xinhua article.
Government authorities punished 13 officials in Shaanxi province after a woman was found to have given birth to nine children, according to a May 5 Xinhua report. Investigators found that a family planning official and a village head took bribes from the woman and her husband, supplied them with fraudulent documents, and forged the woman's contraception records. Xinhua reported that the two officials were detained for "misuse of authority" and 11 other family planning and township officials were dismissed "for negligence and other reasons."