China’s One-Child Policy Will Continue; Tories Vow to Axe UNFPA Funds
The People’s Republic of China took advantage of the occasion of the birth of Baby 6 Billion to make an unusually frank admission concerning the one-child per couple policy. The South China Morning Post reported that the PRC has no intention of stopping its coercive policy. Minister of the State Family Planning Commission Zhang Weiquing stated that “Even if we continue our one-child policy, there will still be at least a growth of 12 million in the population each year in the coming few years.”
Using words like “strict” and “rigid,” Professor Zheng Xiaoying, of Beijing University justified the policy, saying “the world’s population would have passed six billion four years or at least three years ago” had they not instituted the policy.
Chinese officials claim that 300 million-400 million births were avoided in the past 30 years, due to the enforcement of the one-child policy. Not mentioned in the article was the Cost of this “success” — namely, forced contraception, abortion and infanticide, a bride shortage, as well as government interference in the most private aspects of the lives of Chinese citizens.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin reinforced the emphasis on keeping the population down by any means, stating that population is the biggest problem he faces. “In the past 50 years…we’ve made a lot of achievements. But when you divide these achievements by our 1.25 billion population, the figure becomes really small.”
UNFPA Supports China Policy
On the heels of this statement, UNFPA offered public support for China’s one-child family policy, and announced it would continue to run family planning operations in China.
US binding for UNFPA was restored this year only under the strict condition that UNFPA would not spend funds in China. Papers in UK report that the Tory Party has vowed to axe funding to UNFPA if it does in fact return to China. Last year the British Govt gave $13.12 million to UNFPA. Tory leader, Gary Streeter, speaking at the Party Conference a few weeks ago said:
“It is not for us to decide how many children a family in China should have. We will not trample on cultural beliefs of the people we are trying to help.”
(Vivien Pik-Kwan Chan, “Strict One-Child Policy Will Stay,” South China Morning Post, 12 October 1999; “China Vows to Continue One-Chi1d Po1icy,” LifeSite News (www.lsn.ca), 12 October 1999; “Chinese President Names Population as Country’s Biggest Prob1em,” IPPF, 20 October 1999; David Quinn, The Irish Catholic, 14 October 1999).
Greenspan Eyes Immigration as Fix to Labor Shortage
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal recently proposed immigration as a way to solve the pressing problem of a shortage of American workers. Cities around the country are seeing an increased need for temporary workers. Since unemployment is already low, the article argues, and welfare reform has sent many people back to work, there doesn’t seem to be anywhere else to turn within our borders for additional workers. The Wall Street Journal proposes that immigration is one solution for meeting the demand for additional workers, since “no one’s going to repeal the child-labor laws. Babies don’t grow on trees. Looks like there’s just one quick fix to warding off higher interest rates and recession: Open wider America’s Golden Door.” Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan concurs with this opinion, stating that “extra demand can be met only with increased imports or with new domestic output produced by employing additional workers either from drawing down the pool of those seeking work, or from increasing net immigration.” Also suggested in the WSJ was encouraging seniors to continue working, and privatizing Social Security. Raising the birthrate, as has been suggested by PR], was not listed among the proposed solutions.
(“Immigration for Growth,” Wall Street Journal, 5 November 1999)
USAID Serves Controversial DISH to Ugandans
Uganda is being targeted for population control by the United States Agency for International Development. USAID recently announced that they are giving $16 million to The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs (JHUICCP) to continue funding a program for population control in Uganda. The program is entitled Delivery of Improved Services for Health (DISH II), and is the second half of a joint project to provide integrated health services in Uganda. Integrated health services refer to providing contraceptives to patients who come in for other health services, including prenatal care. Convincing Ugandans that they need contraception is evidently among the goals of the program which will “encourage improved individual health attitudes and behavior.” Among the services to be provided by this program are “long-term and permanent contraceptive methods, emergency contraception (morning-after-pills), emergency obstetric care, post-abortion care, and adolescent reproductive health.” The October 1999 issue of Communication Impact! proudly states that “DISH II efforts are strongly associated with an increase in contraceptive use.” The DISH project increased contraceptive use from 12.6% in 1995 to 18.6% in 1997. At the same time, condom use increased from 7.8% to 1 1.8% among male Ugandans. In addition to encouraging “married men and women to use modern family planning (FP) methods,” the DISH program has “encouraged youths 15–19 years old to wait until marriage to have sex or to use condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS.”
(“US Targets Uganda for Population Control,” LifeSite News (www.1sn.ca), 11 November 1999; “Uganda Communications Campaigns Spur Integrated Health Programs,” Communication Impact!, October 1999)
