China’s One-Child Policy Becomes Presidential Campaign Issue

By Lisa Correnti | December 22, 2011

China’s one-child policy has surfaced in the current presidential race for the GOP nomination. And rightfully so, says Chai Ling, Founder of All Girls Allowed, a humanitarian organization whose mission is to expose the injustice of the one-child policy.

“For years, it should have mattered in national presidential debates that millions of mothers were forced to abort, and that whole villages were being sterilized in China,” says Ling.

A new presidential ad sponsored by a Super PAC and airing in Iowa this week calls in to question the record of former Speaker Newt Gingrich on China’s one-child policy due to his co-sponsoring legislation that funded $60 million annually to the UN Population Fund – a claim that Gingrich says is false.

Gov. Jon Huntsman former Ambassador to China under the Obama Administration was asked recently what should be done by the United States to encourage China to change its “one child” policy.  Huntsman responded in an interview with RedState that he “probably did more than anybody” to help change China’s policy.  He believes the knowledge among the Chinese people that he and his wife adopted a baby girl provided a powerful example.

“I dare to say that our one act of adopting a girl, as United States Ambassador to China, in many minds – and this would be impossible to quantify – but I tell you, may have had more of an impact in that country, one thing, than all the speeches combined of U.S. government officials over the years,” said Huntsman.

In August when Vice President Biden traveled to China and made remarks that he would not “second-guess” China’s brutal one-child policy, it drew criticism from three of the GOP presidential candidates; Romney, Perry and Huntsman.

Gov. Perry remarked that “China’s one child policy has led to the great human tragedy of forced abortions throughout China, and Vice President Biden’s refusal to ‘second-guess’ this horrendous policy demonstrates great moral indifference on the part of the Obama Administration.”

Speaking at the Values Voter Summit in October, Gov. Romney said, “The compassionate instincts of this country should not be silent in the face of injustices like China’s one-child policy.” “And if I’m president, you will never hear me or my vice president tell the Chinese government that we understand or won’t second-guess compulsory sterilization and forced abortion.”

Ling wants the issue brought up in presidential debates. “Everybody wants to know what is going to be done with China, and where each candidate stands on the human rights atrocity that many have deemed ‘the greatest crime ever committed against humanity.'”

China’s coercive family planning policy is responsible for 400 million fewer people.  Couples in violation of the policy have suffered human rights abuses including forced abortion and sterilizations, fines four to nine times a couples annual income, and denial of education and health benefits for “out of plan” children.

 

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