Tuesday, May 10, 2011

New Report of Family Planning Officials Taking Children in China

In 2009, the LA Times reported family planning officials in Guizhou Province confiscated over-quota children and sent them to the local orphanage in exchange for a share of the adoption fees.  Now, there's a similar report from Hunan Province, reported in a Chinese magazine, Caixin Century, titled In Hunan, Family Planning Turns to Plunder:
On a long journey in search of his lost child, Yang Libing carries a single photograph. It's a faded snapshot of his daughter Yang Ling, who this year turns seven years old.

Family planning agency cadres in the poor mountain town where Yang Libing lived with his wife Cao Zhimei seized their daughter in 2005 and shipped her to an orphanage because they didn't pay afford a 6,000 yuan penalty – so-called "social support compensation" – for violating China's one-child policy.

The nearly three-decade-old policy limits parents to a single offspring with certain exceptions. Authorities decided that the family of Yang Ling had overstepped strict bounds imposed by family planners in their hometown Gaoping and Longhui County, near the city of Shaoyang in Hunan Province.

Local officials decided to take a tough – arguably inhumane – stand for central government population controls by claiming rights to the toddler and, as the parents have argued since 2009, allowing her to be sold into adoption abroad.

Not only did the decision to confiscate the little girl serve to punish the parents, leaving them with mere memories and a worn baby photo, but it also provided operating cash for the local government.

Indeed, a Caixin investigation found that children in many parts of Hunan have been sold in recent years and wound up, sometimes with help from document forgers and complacent authorities, being raised by overseas families who think they adopted Chinese orphans.
Read the whole thing -- it traces the money motive in birth planning fines and confiscations and shows how powerful birth planning authorities are.

After the LA Times article, one can't be surprised to hear of these confiscations.  What does surprise me, though, is that the story is being reported in China, in Chinese.

15 comments:

Reena said...

Government Sanctioned Child Trafficking.

What else is there to call it?

Anonymous said...

There is some speculation that the article has been fabricated.

Research-China.Org said...

Anon:

The only people who speculate that the article was fabricated are the uninformed. The Dutch did a documentary story on this village in 2008, the listing of the children taken from Gaoping was provided by the orphanage, the people involved are well-known. There is no question that this story took place.

Jet said...

Research-China is right. This story is well known in Holland and not fabricated!!!

Jet
from Holland

Anonymous said...

oh Brian. had to ring in huh? I know your slant and your mission. You can't be vredible when you also lie about who you are and have such an agenda.

Jessica Pegis said...

Anon, what's your source and your information, and why are you "anon" if you are so convinced?

Truly Blessed said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Truly Blessed said...

Sorry, that deleted comment was mine, I wanted to edit something to it.

This story is not new, stories like this have circulated since 2008 and reprinted every year. Many believe that this story, along with the Hunan child trafficking scandal of 2006 are the reason for the slowdown in China adoptions.

"Anonymous" (8:43), why the anonymity? Many people disagree with Brian or with his "agenda" but why not do it under your real google ID/name? He's a big boy and he can take it and defend his stance (or not). Anonymous accusations are so cowardly - and provacative at times...maybe that's what you're trying to accomplish?

Dawn said...

There are allegations that an incentive program was used at my daughter's orphanage. Stuy was the first to bring this to light and at the time I was very skeptical. However I have gone back to my daughter's orphanage and several parents from her orphanage hired private investigators to try and get more information. Based on what they found, how they were treated and threatened and some additional research I have done, I think Brian was spot on in his allegations about trafficking at my daughter's orphanage. This case sickens me as does the information about my daughter's orphanage and I would love the Chinese authority to do a full investigation of this kid of corruption.

Yoli said...

To Anon:

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."— Flannery O'Connor

Anonymous said...

Being anon is not okay but brian posting to RQ under an assumed name is?

If anon is so objectionable why is it an option?

malinda said...

Accusation is not proof. Someone on RQ posted about this story, someone else opined that it was Brian using a false name. He denied it. Any proof it was Brian?

Yeah. Didn't think so.

malinda said...

Oh, BTW, that poster on RQ? Just chimed in to say he's Chinese and thought that adoptive parents would want to know what he was able to read in Chinese newspapers and blogs about this case. He's now figured out that adoptive parents don't want to hear it.

Anonymous said...

Interesting that my other comments were removed.

malinda said...

Anon -- I do not remove comments. When it says a comment has been deleted by the author, that means its been removed by the person who posted it. The only other time a post might not show is if blogger thinks it is spam. I've checked the spam folder and no posts are listed there.

Please feel free to repost the comment you believe is missing.