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According to the Chinese government, over 336 million forced and coerced abortions have taken place under the One-Child Policy, the majority being girls due to a cultural preference for boys.  The result has been disastrous for the Chinese people.  In addition to the statistics below about the policy, we encourage visitors to view these pages: Frequently Asked Questions and Research Articles on Gendercide and the One-Child Policy.

(Photo: Feng Jianmei after the forced abortion of her 7-month-old baby in June 2012.)

One-Child Policy Statistics

One-Child Policy Punishment in China

Mandatory abortion, which is often referred to as “remedial measures” (bujiu cuoshi) in government reports, is endorsed explicitly as an official policy instrument in the regulations of 18 of China's 31 provincial-level jurisdictions.[i]

Severe government fines pose a dilemma between undergoing an unwanted abortion and incurring potentially overwhelming financial costs.[ii]

Children may go without household registration (hukou) in China because they are born out of plan and their parents do not pay the necessary fines.  Lack of a valid hukou raises barriers to access to social benefits typically linked to the hukou, including subsidized healthcare and public education.[iii]

There are 300,000 officials whose job is to enforce the One-Child Policy, and a total of 92 million members who help out with enforcement.[iv]

Officials are given a financial incentive structure to meet abortion and sterilization quotas, leading to extortion and coercion.[v]

The vaginas of rural women are routinely checked to ensure that there was no recent birth.[vi]

The law states that family-planning bureaus will conduct pregnancy tests on married women and provide them with unspecified "follow-up" services. Some provinces fined women who did not undergo periodic pregnancy tests.[vii]

In 2008, Chongqing out-of-quota residents were imposed fines of between 5,000 yuan (US$731) and 10,000 yuan (US$1,464) if they refused to perform an abortion, in addition to the ordinary social compensation fee of 2,000 yuan (US$293) to 5,000 yuan (US$731).[viii]

In 2008, Shanxi couples were assessed a social compensation fee equal to 20% of a couple’s combined income once each year for seven years; for a third child, the fine rose to 40% of combined income for 14 years.[ix]

According to economist Ebenstein, higher fines lead to an increased sex ratio.  He calculates that a 100% increase in the fine for an additional child leads to about a 1% increase in the fraction of male births.[x]

Local governments offer monetary incentives to citizen informants who report violations of population planning regulations.[xi]

In one case, Qianxi officials face a penalty of 1,000 yuan (US$147) for each woman with two children that they fail to sterilize, and conversely, they are promised a reward of the same amount for each tubal ligation that they see through to completion.[xii]

Many provinces link job promotion with an officials ability to meet or exceed population planning targets, thus providing a powerful structural incentive for officials to employ coercive measures in order to meet population goals.[xiii]

An example of abortion quotas: in 2009, Yunnan officials developed a implementation plan that outlined abortion targets for specific groups: ‘‘strictly prohibit the birth of multiple children; for women who have multiple out-of-plan children and become pregnant again, the abortion rate must reach 100 percent; for women who have two out-of-plan children and become pregnant again, the abortion rate must exceed 90 percent; for women who have one out-of-plan child and become pregnant again, the abortion rate must exceed 85 percent.’’[xiv]

In 2007, Hubei expelled 500 cadres and dismissed 395 government officials, including 3 provincial

lawmakers and 4 members of the local Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), for having ‘‘unauthorized’’children.[xv]

From February to April, 2010, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province was the site of a high-profile court proceeding in which a 30-year-old female plaintiff sued the local Family Planning Bureau, claiming that she had been barred from a civil service position in the county government for giving birth to a child before marriage. Although she married the father soon after the child's birth, the court ruled that the Family Planning

Bureau's original decree citing the birth as out of wedlock held, which did make her ineligible for the government position.[xvi]

Teachers who violate birth quotas are at risk of losing their retirement benefits.[xvii]

In one province, officials in 2010 vowed to engage in a “100-day battle” in which they would “insist without wavering on the principle of IUD insertion after the first child, surgical sterilization after the second child, and abortion of out-of-plan pregnancies.”[xviii]

One Guangdong law gives these orders to officials:  “Strictly prohibit out-of-plan second births or multiple births; those who have out-of-plan pregnancies must adopt abortion measures, force those who exceed birth limits to have an abortion. Out-of-plan children will not be allowed to enjoy benefits for villagers; for a period of 15 years, parents of out-of-plan children will not be allowed to enjoy benefits for villagers, gain employment at a village-run enterprise, or be granted documents.”[xix]

When the Family Planning Police sterilize women for violating the One-Child Policy, these sterilizations are most often not performed by highly trained gynecological surgeons, especially in the countryside. Often, there are infections and other complications.[xx]

The One-Child Policy seems to be causally linked to the increased sex ratio in China. Mothers who face stricter restrictions and higher fines are more likely to have a son once they are facing possible punishment.  One example is the birth rates of women who have had a single daughter.  The sex ratio of children born after this first daughter changes based on the policy being enforced, with the mothers in the one child area being 3 percentage points more likely to have a son.[xxi]

One-Child Policy Laws in China

Li Bin, the head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said after the 30^th Anniversary of the One-Child Policy that China will not drop the policy, and that it will “stick to the family-planning policy in the coming decades.”[xxii]

Local governments in some Chinese provinces mandate termination of pregnancies for out-of-plan pregnancies.[xxiii]

Following the 12 May 2008, earthquake, the Chinese government admitted that citizens must have a birth permit to be allowed to give birth, that sterilization occurs under the One-Child Policy, and that a whole population of unregistered children—who have no access to education or health care—exist.[xxiv]

After their first child, most mothers must receive an IUD implantation and have quarterly check-ups to ensure the IUD remains in place.[xxv]

Nearly two-thirds of all Chinese couples (900 million people, or almost 3x the US population) are under the jurisdiction of the policy.[xxvi]

Government funding for the One-Child Policy increased 3.6 times in the 1990’s alone, from

1.34 billion yuan in 1990 to 4.82 billion yuan in 1998—a rate of increase faster than that for economic construction or national defense.[xxvii]

According to the Ministry of Finance, per capita funding of the One-Child Policy increased from 2.64 yuan in 1995 to 8.93 yuan in 2002 at the central government level.[xxviii]

In 1980, China had about 60,000 full-time personnel working for the One-Child Policy. By 1995, this number rose to over 400,000, nearly a 7x increase.[xxix]

Most government ministries were required to cut employees by 50% in the late 1990’s, but the One-Child Policy system was able to get away with a cut of only 25%, keeping 300,000 on the government payroll.[xxx]

China commits over 4.82 billion yuan ($708.8 million) each year towards birth control programs.[xxxi]

Economic and social changes have been more influential than the One-Child Policy in reducing fertility rates.[xxxii]

China’s Family Planning Association claims a membership of 92 million, organized into more than a million branches.[xxxiii]

Only 52.4% of urban women of childbearing age and 9.6% of rural women have received post-abortion contraception instructions, thus leading to unavoidable repeat pregnancies.[xxxiv]

There is an 88.2% chance of infertility in patients with a history of induced abortion, and more than four repeat abortions can increase the incidence of infertility up to 92%.[xxxv]

Dissatisfaction About One-Child Policy Within China

In March 2007, 29 delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference called for eliminating the One-Child Policy entirely because of the developmental and social problems that it caused China’s youth.[xxxvi]

In February 2008, Zhao Baige, Vice-Minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), told reporters that the government was considering changing the population planning policy ‘‘incrementally.’’  Shortly thereafter, a deputy to the National People’s Congress called for replacing the current policy with a new formula that encourages all couples to have one child, allows them to have two, prohibits them from having three, and rewards them for having none.[xxxvii]

A debate in the Chinese media is emerging about possible reform of the One-Child Policy, but the government has not yet taken action to introduce national reform measures.[xxxviii]

In 2010, Chinese experts and officials engaged in a relatively open exchange in the state-run media

about how to address demographic trends that are expected to detrimentally impact China’s future development.[xxxix]

The Beijing News reported in January, 2010, that the municipal government would soon allow all couples to have two children, but within hours, the Beijing Population and Family Planning Commission denied the earlier report.[xl]

The One-Child Policy is being criticized by the Chinese people more and more.  In fact, in 2011, Zhang Feng, director of Guangdong’s Population and Family Planning Commission, asked for the policy to be relaxed in his province.  Specifically he asked that couples would be allowed two children if one of them was an only child.[xli]

Chinese couples show a strong and persistent preference for two children.[xlii]

A Family Planning Commission survey in 2006 showed that 70 percent of the women questioned want to be allowed to have two or more children.[xliii]

Dissatisfaction with the policy has driven some women to take a medication that is supposed to stimulate ovulation, increasing their chance to have multiple births.[xliv]

One-Child Policy Violations of Chinese Law and International Treaties

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which China is a signatory, celebrated its 60th Anniversary on December 10; 2008.  China’s coercive enforcement of its One-Child Policy violates the spirit and the letter of this Universal Declaration, which protects the rights of women, children, and the family.[xlv]

The One- Child Policy violates provisions of the “Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women” (CEDAW), which China ratified in September 1980, and also the “Declaration of the Fourth World Conference on Women” held in Beijing in 1995.[xlvi]

One-Child Policy is not consistent with the standards set by the 1994 Programme of Action of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development.[xlvii]

Controls imposed on Chinese women and their families and additional abuses engendered by the system, from forced abortion to discriminatory policies against ‘‘out-of-plan’’ children, also violate standards in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[xlviii]

China's 2002 Population and Family Planning Law states in Article 4 that officials “shall perform their administrative duties strictly in accordance with the law, and enforce the law in a civil manner, and they may not infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of citizens.'' The law also states in Article 39 that ``any functionary of a State organ who commits one of the following acts in the work of family planning, if the act constitutes a crime, shall be investigated for criminal liability in accordance with the law; if it does not constitute a crime, he shall be given an administrative sanction with law; his unlawful gains, if any, shall be confiscated: (1) infringing on a citizen's personal rights, property rights, or other legitimate rights and interests; (2) abusing his power, neglecting his duty, or engaging in malpractices for personal gain.”[xlix]

Law and International Standards that the Chinese government has committed to abiding by:

• 2002 Population and Family Planning Law (http://www.gov.cn/english/laws/2005-10/11/content_75954.htm)
• 1995 Beijing Declaration (http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/declar.htm)
• 1994 Programme of Action of the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (http://unfpa.org/public/site/global/lang/en/pid/1973)
• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm)
• Convention on the Rights of the Child (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm)
• International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm)

Photo Evidence of One-Child Policy in China

Families abiding by the One-Child Policy are given a “One-Child Parent Glory Certificate” after the wife accepts tubal ligation (surgical sterilization).[l]

Pregnancy Check Service Situation Records, on the left is the check for birth control, the right is where the inspector places their name.[li]

The banner reads:  “When you are required by policies to get an abortion, but you don’t. Your house will be destroyed and your buffalo will be confiscated.”[lii]

The banner reads: “We would rather have blood flow like river, than allow one extra baby to be born.”[liii]

Strictness of One-Child Policy by Province[liv]

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