Washington D.C., Nov 11, 2009 / 13:28 pm
After three decades of forced population control in China, Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.) is calling on President Obama to take a stand for human rights in China, ahead of his Thursday trip to the country.
On November 10, 2009, a panel of human rights activists spoke before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission about the Chinese government’s abusive stance towards women and the family. Contributors hoped to pass their concerns along to the president as he prepares for a trip to China this week.
China has a policy limiting each family to one child. To enforce this policy, the Chinese government requires prospective parents to obtain a permit to have a child before they become pregnant, levies enormous fines on families who have more than one child, monitors women’s reproductive cycles, mandates birth control, and in some cases, forces abortions and sterilizations upon women.
Nicholas Eberstadt, a policy expert from the American Enterprise Institute, told the commission, “We have seen the emergence of the one child family and the end of 2,500 years of the traditional Chinese family.” He testified that the current system has destroyed the centuries-old tradition of the Chinese family, as millions of children now have neither brothers and sisters nor aunts and uncles.