China's Minister of National Population and Family Planning in low-profile visit to the UK

 

China's Minister of National Population and Family Planning Madam Li Bin visited the UK on 18 and 19 May.

Free Tibet has strong concerns regarding China's population control policies in Tibet and China that violate women's most fundamental human rights, particularly concerning reproductive rights. The result of these policies is often violence against women.Specifically Free Tibet shares concerns with the United Nations and other bodies working in Tibet and China that Tibetan and Chinese women are subject to:

  • Violence and coercion by Chinese officials in order to implement population control policies, including
  • Forced sterilisations, forced abortions, forced use of contraception
  • Sterilisations performed by personnel who are inadequately trained and under unsterile conditions
  • Direct state involvement in personal reproductive decions.

A report in 2008 by the United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China reports that:

"Local officials and state-run work units monitor women’s reproductive cycles in order to prevent unauthorized births. The government requires married couples to obtain a birth permit before they can lawfully bear a child and forces them to use contraception at other times. Violators of the policy are routinely punished with exorbitant fines, and in some cases, subjected to forced sterilization, forced abortion, arbitrary detention, and torture... ‘Out-of-plan’ children in China, those whose birth violated population planning regulations, are frequently denied access to education and face hurdles to finding legitimate employment.”

The CECC reports the case of a Tibetan woman in Tongwei County in Gansu who was allegedly forcibly sterilised so that local population officials could meet their quotas for sterilisations and receive a financial bonus equivalent to three months' pay. The Tibetan woman was also detained for two months even though she had complied with local population planning requirements.