Guangxi Province Residents Protest China's One-Child Policy, Call For Refunds Of Fines

Main Category: Sexual Health / STDs
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 04 Jun 2007 - 9:00 PDT

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Residents in southwestern China's Guangxi province on Tuesday protested the government's one-child-per-family policy and called for the refund of fines issued for having more than one child, Reuters AlertNet reports (Reuters AlertNet, 5/31). China's one-child-per-family policy seeks to keep the country's population, now 1.3 billion, at about 1.7 billion by 2050. Methods of enforcing the policy, such as fines and work demotions, vary among Chinese provinces and cities.

Dozens of women in southwest China last month reported being forced to undergo abortions as late as nine months into their pregnancies. Some women from Guangxi said they were forced to have abortions because they were unmarried, while other women were married and pregnant with their second child (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/23). According to Reuters AlertNet, the China Daily reported protesters in Guangxi's Yangmei township on Tuesday gathered in front of a family planning office to demand refunds. Similar protests occurred Tuesday in Guangxi's Lingshan township, Reuters reports (Reuters, 5/31). According to Kyodo News, a local government official said protesters smashed furniture in government buildings and set fire to government vehicles (Kyodo News, 5/30).

According to the AP/International Herald Tribune, Xinhua News Agency reported that the protests were triggered by a false government document stating that fines for having a second child would be reduced from a minimum of 10,000 yuan, or about $1,300, to a few thousand yuan. Officials from Rongxian county, which governs Yangmei and Lingshan, said that the document was false and that the current fines are in line with government regulations (AP/International Herald Tribune, 5/30). The riots came weeks after thousands last month protested family planning policies in Guangxi's Bobai county, Reuters AlertNet reports (Reuters AlertNet, 5/31).

The Bobai county government recently increased fines for people who violate the policy and have been seizing or destroying the property of people who cannot pay the fines. Violent clashes between police and residents in Bobai prompted local officials to ease tough measures to enforce the policy, local officials have said (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/23). The Yulin city government, which administers Bobai and Rongxian, on Thursday on its Web site said seven people have been detained for instigating the riots (Reuters AlertNet, 5/31).

Opinion Piece
The "abuse of power" by local officials in Guangxi and the riots are "natural outcomes of China's authoritarian controls," Carl Minzner, an international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, writes in an International Herald Tribune opinion piece. According to Minzner, a recent national directive "clearly emphasized the need to rely on positive financial incentives" and "not coercive measures" to "reward compliance" with the one-child policy.

The "harsh campaign" waged by Guangxi officials to enforce the policy "directly conflicts with the orders of China's top leaders" and shows that "central authorities are not in full control of their country," according to Minzner. The "range of independent, bottom-up channels" that help monitor local governments in other countries do not exist in China, Minzner writes, concluding that without building "independent institutions that can fairly resolve citizen grievances," China's local government abuses and social instability "will continue to worsen" (Minzner, International Herald Tribune, 5/30).

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