board77

Imp, there was an infamous video making the rounds in the 1980s. It showed a woman being restrained and carried through the streets screaming on her way to have her second pregnancy terminated. Supposedly the video had been taken surreptitiously and smuggled to the U.S. by Chinese who wanted to help of our churches in obtaining religious freedom for them. It was used to try to scuttle trade relations with China until they disavowed their official communist atheism. It was also used to discredit family planning organizations around the world, implying that birth control is the slippery slope to forced abortion.

Turned out the whole thing was staged by some right-wing fundamentalist group.

I have no doubt that enormous social pressure was brought to bear on Chinese families to adhere to the one-child guideline, particularly given the low value placed on female babies. But the accusations made against the government that all second pregnancies were automatically terminated - this was not true.

Jn

No, definitely not! It was not my intention to imply that the Chinese government enforced this. Certainly some officials, especially in rural areas, were quite ruthless in seeking to uphold the one-child policy for their own reasons (kudos in the eyes of the Party, I guess).

I not see that video - perhaps it did not appear outside the US? Or perhaps I blocked it mentally.