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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>China's "pregnant guerillas" pay the price for a
second child</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dec 22, 2005</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Having a baby boy is a cause for celebration among
rural Chinese families, but the birth of Hu Jiapeng to a family in Hunan
province illustrates the enormous human cost it involved.</FONT></DIV><FONT
face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><BR>The baby‘s father, 26 year old Hu Houwen, was fired by the Liuyang
Municipal Bureau of Communication and fined 45,000 yuan (C$6,400) after the
birth. His 300 colleagues also each lost 1,000 yuan (C$142).</DIV>
<DIV><BR>“It was just because I flouted the ‘one-child policy‘ in our country. I
already had a one and half year old daughter, Hu Jiamei,“ Hu said, according to
the South China Morning Post.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>“My boss, the director of the bureau, even lost his qualification to
run for vice mayor of Liuyang city after my son‘s birth.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>“He was accused of neglect of duty because he failed to stop me from
having a second child.“</DIV>
<DIV><BR>According to the regulations of Hunan Provincial Family Planning
Commission, leaders of all government organs are responsible for ensuring the
implementation of the one-child policy. Failure to do so means lost promotions
and no bonuses.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>But Hu does not regret the action he and his wife, Zhang Yulan, have
taken.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>“Compared with my wife, all the losses are nothing,“ he said. “She
suffered much more than me or my colleagues.“</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Zhang, 26, is a typical “pregnant guerilla,“ the mainland term for
women who contravene the one-child policy. She almost lost her life while on the
run from a forced abortion.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Her trials began after an ultrasound revealed she was carrying a
boy.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>“To be the wife of a farmer family, I have the responsibility to give
birth to a boy,“ she said.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>To hide her pregnancy from Hunan officials, Zhang left her family to
live in a string of farmers‘ homes in neighbouring Jiangxi for five months. But
at eight months, she was caught and sent to Liuyang People‘s Hospital for a
forced abortion.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>“In order to save my boy, I fled from the operation table and ran away
alone with my potbelly and bare feet to Jiangxi when my family raised a ruckus
at the hospital,“ she said. “To avoid being recaptured, I gave birth one month
early through Caesarean section in a small clinic because no hospital in Hunan
would have dared to accept me.“</DIV>
<DIV><BR>The couple also lost their party memberships after the birth of their
son.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Tests to reveal the gender of an embryo are banned on the mainland but
remain popular, with many farmer families having the tests carried out in secret
at a cost of hundreds of yuan.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Under the one child policy, in force since the mid1970s, couples in
urban areas are allowed only one child. Farmers can have a second child, four
years later, if their first child is a girl.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>According to the United Nations, the mainland‘s population would be 100
million greater if the policy had not been adopted.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Forced abortion has become a tactic authorities use in some rural
areas, where birth control results are a key factor in the promotion prospects
of officials.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Another 26 year old couple, Tang Jian and Liu Guixiang from Cangfang
village in Hunan, were victims of the one-child policy.<BR>Liu was forced to
abort her eight month old fetus by local family planning officials in January
when she was also caught hiding in Jiangxi.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>“We are entitled to have a second child because our first child is a
girl. But my wife was pregnant when my daughter was only three years old, not
four,“ Tang said.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Liu said that the medical officials would only stop an abortion if an
expectant mother was in labour.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Peking University Population Research Institute professor Lu Jiehua
said it was illegal for the Liuyang officials to interfere in the pregnancy at
such a late stage.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>He blamed the practice on the imperfect retirement system in rural
areas, where traditional thinking emphasises “raising sons to support old
age“.</DIV>
<DIV><BR>“The lack of comprehensive social support for senior citizens,
especially in rural areas, has to be blamed,” he said.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Asian Pacific Post - <A
href="http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/1022.html">http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/1022.html</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>--<BR>Stephen Korsman<BR><A
href="mailto:skorsman@theotokos.co.za">skorsman@theotokos.co.za</A><BR><A
href="http://www.theotokos.co.za">www.theotokos.co.za</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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