The Chinese Government recently relaxed certain aspects of its One Child Policy, leading many to think that the abuses associated with it–including forced abortion, government seizure of children, fines and coerced child abandonment–will soon cease. However, China scholar Kay Johnson counters this assumption. In this DifferenTakes (a publication of PopDev, the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College) she discusses the deeply embedded coercive practices of the policy that have had grave consequences for women’s and children’s rights. These systemic abuses will not go away until the policy is thoroughly abandoned and discredited. This May 28th, take a stand against the policy. It was never necessary and is one of the gravest violations of basic human rights of the past 34 years.
Read the article here.