Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA

RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE

Research Response Number: CHN31026 Country: Date: 15 December 2006

Keywords: China – – Family Planning – Hidden children

This response was prepared by the Country Research Section of the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the RRT within time constraints. This response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Questions 1. How many excess children are there in a family of two girls and then a son? 2. What would be the “social compensation fees” in a case like this? 3. Does a child born out of wedlock and/or outside a hospital receive a birth certificate and household registration? 4. Would the second daughter be entitled to a birth certificate? 5. Is there any evidence of hidden births or children? 6. What evidence is there that tubal ligations are required in Fujian? 7. How liberally or strictly is the One Child Policy applied in rural Fujian?

RSPONSE

1. How many excess children are there in a family of two girls and then a son?

Definitive information on this question was not found in the sources consulted. Under family planning regulations permission for the birth of additional children may vary according to the parents’ circumstances and their location. Sources indicate that in many provinces rural couples are allowed to have a second child if the first is a girl. In respect of Fujian, the current family planning regulations were adopted in 2002. Other family regulations were in place during the 1990s.

Under Fujian’s 2002 Family Planning Regulation, Article 9 sets out the circumstances a second child is allowed:

Article 9 A couple may give birth to a second child under any one of the following circumstances if they apply for it and are approved by the administrative department of the county in charge of family planning:

(1) Husband and wife are both the only child in the family; (2) Either husband or wife is the only child of a martyr; (3) The couple were once diagnosed as sterile, adopted a child and becomes pregnant; (4) The first child cannot develop into a normal laborer due to his non-inherited disability technically appraised by the municipal district family planning administrative department. The couple are medically proved to be able to give birth to a normal infant; (5) Either husband or wife becomes disabled because of work accident with the disability grade at 2A and above; (6) Husband and wife are both residents from Hong Kong, Macao and who have returned and reside in this province for less than six years (7) Remarried couple with one party never having any child and the other party having one child before remarriage; or one party of the remarried couple has lost the spouse and the remarried couple each have a child before remarriage that meets the requirement of the family planning regulation, in such cases, they shall be approved to have another child (Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

Article 10 of the regulation refers to rural couples:

Article 10 A rural couple may apply for permission to give birth to a second child under any one of the following circumstances:

(1) Either husband or wife is the only child in the family; (2) Husband’s brothers have no children at all and are all sterile; (3) The wife has not brother and has one only sister and the husband goes to reside with the wife’s family and support the wife’s parents; (4) Both husband and wife live in a township whose population density is less than fifty people per square kilometer and the average arable land for each person is more than two mu or the average forest land for each person is over thirty mu; (5) The couple has got only one daughter;

Both husband and wife are fisherman and fisherwoman or either husband or wife is a mine worker working underground for over five years and is still working underground and has only one daughter; they may follow the stipulations of the preceding paragraph (5) (Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

During the 1990s, Article Six of the earlier Fujian Birth Planning Regulations covered rural couples. A copy of these regulations is attached (Greenhalgh, Susan and Winkler, Edwin A. 2001, Chinese State Birth Planning in the 1990s and Beyond, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Resource Information Center, US Department of Justice, Perspective Series, September, pp.187-188 – Attachment 2).

In respect of rural families sources have indicated that in many provinces couples are allowed to have a second child if their first child is a girl (‘Thirteen officials in NW China punished for family planning failure’ 2006, Xinhua News Agency, 5 May – Attachment 3; Coonan, Clifford 2006, ‘China’s hard line on family planning’, Irish Times, 9 May – Attachment 4).

DFAT has advised that in the rural areas of Fujian more than half of all families have more than one child (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2004, DFAT Report 287 – RRT Information Request: CHN16609, 22 April – Attachment 5).

On people who give birth to a child before marriage, Article 14 of the 2002 regulation states:

Article 14 It is forbidden to give birth to a child out of an extramarital affair or before the time stipulated by this Regulation.

Under any of the following circumstances, the child born is regarded as born before the stipulated time by the Regulation:

(1) Those who give birth to a child before they get married (including those who become pregnant before they reach legally marrying age); (2) Those who give birth to a second child without reaching the time span between the two children; (3) Those who meet the requirement to give birth to another child and fail to obtain the permission.

Those who illegally adopt, give and abandon a child shall be viewed as childbirth in violation of family planning. Those who abandon children shall not be approved to give birth to any children (Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

In addition the regulations mention obtaining family planning certificates by fake marriage (Article 41) and covering up of those who give birth to children outside family planning (Article 42) (Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

Article 50 of the Fujian family planning regulation provides for “children adopted, given and abandoned” to be included in the “number of children” under that regulation (Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

2. What would be the “social compensation fees” in a case like this?

Article 39 of the 2002 Fujian family planning regulations sets out the parameters for the payment of a social compensation fee as follows:

Article 39 Anyone who violates this Regulation by one of the acts listed below shall be ordered to pay the corresponding number of times of the average annual disposable income of the urban residents or the net average annual income of the rural peasants of the county in the previous year when the child is born in violation of this regulation as social compensation fee by family planning administrative department of the county or by township people’s government or urban neighborhood office appointed by such administrative department:

(1) A social compensation of zero point six to one time shall be imposed on those who give birth to a child ahead of the schedule; (2) A social compensation of two to three times shall be imposed on those who give birth to the first additional child. A social compensation of four to six times shall be imposed on those who give birth to the second additional child. A much more heavy social compensation fee shall be imposed on those who give birth to the third or more additional child. (3) A social compensation of four to six times shall be imposed on those who give birth to a child born out of an extramarital affair. A much more heavy social compensation fee shall be imposed on those who give birth to the second child born out of an extramarital affair.

If the actual annual income of the parties concerned exceeds the average annual disposable income of the urban residents or the net average annual income of the rural peasants of the county in the previous year, the actual income shall be used as the base to calculate the number of the social compensation fees.

The decision in writing to impose social compensation fee shall be made by the family planning administrative department of the county. Such department may appoint the people’s government of township or town or the urban neighborhood office to make such decisions (Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

A 2004 US State Department profile reported on the payment of social compensation fees in Fujian:

[122] According to the FPFPC, [Fujian Provincial Family Planning Committee] social compensation fees are based on per capita disposable income levels for rural households and per capita net income for urban households (the ‘baseline’). The exact figure is based on country-level statistics, so the baseline varies throughout the province. For households with incomes significantly greater than the relevant income baselines, the local family planning commission can increase the social compensation fees. Social compensation fees range from the baseline or less for an unmarried couple that has a child to greater than size times the baseline for couples with four children or more and are determined by the local family planning committee in the city or country where the couple resides. In 2003, urban per capita net income in Changle City and Lianjiang County was approximately 10,050 renminbi (about $1,210) and rural disposable per capita income was approximately 4,401 renminbi (about $530). However, one woman with five children from Changle, Fujian, told U.S. officials in Guangzhou that she was fined a flat 50 renminbi (about $60) for each child after her first child born without a special circumstance birth permit.

[123] According to the FPFPC, couples unable to pay the fee immediately are allowed to pay in installments. Local family committees have the power to sue families that refuse to pay the requisite fees, but they cannot garnish wages. The FPFPC asserts that parents cannot be sterilized if they are unable to refuse to pay the fee (US Department of State 2004, China: Profile of Asylum Claims and Country Conditions, June, paras.122-123 http://www.pards.org/chinareportjune2004.doc – Accessed 2 November 2005 – Attachment 6).

During the 1990s, Article Thirty-six of the earlier Fujian Birth Planning Regulations covered out-of-plan birth fines. A copy of these regulations is attached (Greenhalgh, Susan and Winkler, Edwin A. 2001, Chinese State Birth Planning in the 1990s and Beyond, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Resource Information Center, US Department of Justice, Perspective Series, September, p.194 – Attachment 2).

3. Does a child born out of wedlock and/or outside a hospital receive a birth certificate and household registration?

Information on this question was not found in the sources consulted. However, available information suggests that children born out of wedlock and/or outside a hospital are able to receive birth certificates and household registration.

Children born out of wedlock

Under Article 25 of the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China children born out of wedlock shall enjoy the same rights as children born in wedlock. The article states that no- one may harm or discriminate against them (Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China, Adopted at the Third Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress on 10 September 1980 and amended in accordance with “Decision Regarding the Amendment (of Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China)” passed at 21st Session of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People’s Congress on 28 April 2001, Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in New York website http://www.nyconsulate.prchina.org/eng/lsqz/laws/t42222.htm#M – Accessed 4 May 2004 – Attachment 7).

Children born outside a hospital

China’s Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care allows for medical certificates to be issued for children born at home and reported to the public health department. Article 23 states:

Article 23. Medical and health institutions and midwives engaged in home delivery shall, as prescribed by the administrative department of public health under the State Council, issue uniformly prepared medical certificates for childbirths, and report to the administrative department of public health, if a lying-in woman or an infant dies or a defective baby is born (Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care, Adopted at the Tenth Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People’s Congress on 27 October 1994, promulgated by Order No.33 of the President of the People’s Republic of China on 27 October 1994, and effective as of 1 June 1995 http://unescap.org/esid/psis/population/database/poplaws/law_china/ch_record006.htm#Chapt er%20III. – Accessed 5 December 2006 – Attachment 8).

The People’s Daily Online states:

According to the law, birth certificates issued by delivery institutions are legal medical documents to testify newborn babies’ postnatal condition and blood relations, as well as for applying for nationality, residence registration and identification cards (‘New birth certificate issued to fight forgeries’ 2004, People’s Daily Online, 20 October http://english.people.com.cn/200410/20/eng20041020_160941.html – Accessed 5 December 2006 – Attachment 9).

Birth Certificates

According to a Canadian government office, the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa has stated that the Ministry of Health, or its authorised offices, is responsible for issuing birth certificates; the Household Registration Office retains records of birth certificates (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2004, CHN42391.E – China: Information contained in birth and notarial certificates; reason why a person might obtain a notarial certificate rather than a notarised copy of the original birth records, 8 April – Attachment 10).

It continued that birth certificates contain the following information:

…the person’s name, sex, date of birth, place of birth, health status at birth, type of birth place, number of the certificate, name and stamp of the issuing office, date of issue, names [of the individual’s mother and father], race of the mother and father, identification number and nationality…(Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2004, CHN42391.E – China: Information contained in birth and notarial certificates; reason why a person might obtain a notarial certificate rather than a notarised copy of the original birth records, 8 April – Attachment 10).

In respect of birth certificates in Fujian the family planning regulation provides:

Article 15 Those who give birth to a child should receive a birth certificate. The specific measures for receiving birth certificate shall be formulated by the family planning administrative department of the province (Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

No information was found in the sources consulted on the measures required for receiving a birth certificate mentioned under Article 15.

Household registration (hukou)

In 2004, Liu Huawen writing for the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights noted that China has always emphasised the importance of birth registration. He writes that birth registration is a part of the household registration system (Huawen, Liu 2004, The Child’s Right to Birth Registration – International and Chinese Perspectives, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, p.15 http://www.humanrights.uio.no/forskning/publ/rn/2004/0504.pdf – Accessed 4 December 2006 – Attachment 11).

Liu Huawen continued:

China has a comprehensive system for birth registration. According to PRC laws and regulations, the household head, relative, foster person or neighbour of the newborn infant should report to the relevant household registration organ within 1 month after the birth. The parents/guardians or relevant foster organ should apply for birth registration. Any child who dies after birth and before birth registration should be reported for complete birth registration and death registration simultaneously. Children born out of wedlock and children born in wedlock have equal rights to birth registration. Generally Chinese citizens are free to choose the place of birth registration, but it must be at either of the parents’ permanent resident household registered locations…(Huawen, Liu 2004, The Child’s Right to Birth Registration – International and Chinese Perspectives, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, pp.15-16 http://www.humanrights.uio.no/forskning/publ/rn/2004/0504.pdf – Accessed 4 December 2006 – Attachment 11).

UNICEF states in respect of China:

…In China, parents have to register their children in their official place of residence. This requirement poses a major problem for the millions of migrant workers within China (UNICEF 2006, Q&A: Universal Birth Registration in Asia and Pacific, 3 March http://www.unicef.org/eapro/UBR_in_AsiaPacific_3mar06.pdf – Accessed 4 December 2006 – Attachment 12).

Sources in an Issue Paper on household registration prepared by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada note that each individual must be registered at birth with the local hukou authorities. It states that a hukou is mandatory for all Chinese citizens aged one month and over. In order to acquire hukou registration, one must produce birth papers. However, some children born outside of the family planning quota (mainly in the countryside) may not have been registered with the authorities (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2005, China: Reforms of the Household Registration System (Hukou) (1998-2004), February, p.3,11-12 – Attachment 13).

On household registration a recent article noted that the head of each household, or the person concerned, is responsible for reporting population changes, such as births. However, under- registration may take several forms including “omitting the out-of-plan birth” (Zhang, Guangyu Zhao 2006, ‘Reexamining China’s fertility puzzle: data collection and quality over the last two decades’, Population and Development Review, Vol. 32, Iss. 2, 1 June – Attachment 14).

However, Liu Huawen notes that existing laws do not demand that birth registration for newborn babies, especially in rural areas, be done “‘immediately’” in the strict sense as conveyed in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Huawen, Liu 2004, The Child’s Right to Birth Registration – International and Chinese Perspectives, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, p.21 http://www.humanrights.uio.no/forskning/publ/rn/2004/0504.pdf – Accessed 4 December 2006 – Attachment 11).

In 2000 DFAT advised on fines paid before children can be registered:

…Couples having children outside the regulations are meant to pay fines before the children can be registered. These fines vary from place to place but appear to be substantial. There are conflicting reports about how effectively these fines are applied in practice. Officials have told us that rural families are unswayed by the fines, regarding them simply as one of the necessary costs of having a large family; others have said the fines are rarely applied, or are applied only in a token fashion (e.g. choosing to use the mother’s income as a basis for determining the level of the fine, because the mother has no permanent job, and thus a much lower income than the father) (DIMA Country Information Service 2000, Country Information Report No. 554/00 – China – Treatment of ‘Black Children’, (sourced from DFAT advice of 3 November 2000), 7 November – Attachment 15).

As cited in the most recent UK Home Office report, a January 2001 article states that officials may be “‘persuaded’” to add or issue a hukou for “children born contrary to the ‘one-child policy’”, however, a bribe is often required (UK Home Office 2006, Country of Origin Information Report: China, UK Home Office website, 29 September, para.31.18 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/china_041006.doc – Accessed 1 November 2006 – Attachment 16).

A Professor of Asian Studies is cited in a 1999 Canadian advice concerning an adopted person without registration obtaining a hukou:

…children who have been adopted without registration, particularly “out of plan” adoptees, face the same problems from state officials and policies as children living with their natural parents who are born “out of plan,” including difficulties obtaining a hukou, registering for school and for medical treatment. However, registered adoptees do not face these problems (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 1999, CHN33502.E – China: Treatment of adopted persons, particularly in Changle, Fujian; official or societal prejudices towards adopted persons (1990-1999), 30 December – Attachment 17).

4. Would the second daughter be entitled to a birth certificate?

No information was found in the sources consulted on this question. See question 3 above.

5. Is there any evidence of hidden births or children?

Country information indicates that girls may be hidden or adopted for a variety of reasons including giving birth to boys and avoiding fines.

One conclusion reached by Weiguo Zhang, in a March 2006 article based on a 2001 survey of 425 adoptive families and published in the Journal of Family Issues, is:

Present adoption practices have been strongly influenced by the government family planning programs implemented during the previous decades. The implementation of birth restriction programs, especially the one-child policy in the 1980s and the 1990s, has enhanced the extent of informal transactions of children among rural families. It makes more children, especially girls, available for adoption in the society and, at the same time, creates an increasing demand for adoption at the family level. Families with daughters frequently give up one or more of their girls to give birth to boys. Families with sons usually stop producing more children but opt to adopt girls. In addition, many couples adopt when they still prefer having more children, or having a child of missing gender, after having gone through sterilization largely because of official family planning programs. Almost one half of adoptive families in the current sample had sterilization prior to their adoptions (Zhang, Weiguo 2006, ‘Child Adoption in Contemporary Rural China’, Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 27, No. 3, March, p.332 – Attachment 18).

Weiguo Zhang defined “adoption” as:

…“any customary and optional procedure for taking as one’s own a child of other parents” (Zhang, Weiguo 2006, ‘Child Adoption in Contemporary Rural China’, Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 27, No. 3, March, p.303– Attachment 18).

It is of interest that Weiguo Zhang also writes on “Who Adopted Children” (pp.314–315), “Did Families Adopt Boys or Girls” (pp.316-318) and “From Whom Were the Children Adopted” (pp.318-320) (Zhang, Weiguo 2006, ‘Child Adoption in Contemporary Rural China’, Journal of Family Issues, Vol. 27, No. 3, March, pp.314–315, 316-318, 318-320 Attachment 18).

Liu Huawen writes that family planning is considered to be a factor negatively affecting birth registration – parents of an additional child may be worried about being fined and do not report for birth registration (Huawen, Liu 2004, The Child’s Right to Birth Registration – International and Chinese Perspectives, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, p.18 http://www.humanrights.uio.no/forskning/publ/rn/2004/0504.pdf – Accessed 4 December 2006 – Attachment 11).

A Time Pacific article dated January 2001, stated in respect of Yunnan:

Girls, two-week-old bundles with shocks of black hair, cost $25 each. Boys, traditionally favored, sell for $50. The chicken trade, by contrast, brings in only $2 for the plumpest fowl. In a mountainous region where drought has stymied farmers, the baby trade is feeding citizens in a way that Yunnan province’s cracked red earth no longer can. Some mothers, who have no knowledge of birth control, are giving up “extra” children that violate the nation’s family-planning policy. Others, from the most desperately poor villages, have turned into full-time baby machines, squeezing out children-for-sale in the shadows of their dirt-floor shacks. “Before, we made money by raising pigs,” says a 23-year-old woman who sold two children just days after they were born. “But it takes a year to raise a pig and it’s expensive to feed. A baby takes only nine months and doesn’t cost any money.” (Xicheng, Hannah Beech 2001, ‘China’s infant cash crop: In rural Yunnan, poverty and a strict family- planning policy spawn a harrowing black market in babies’, Time Pacific, 29 January http://www.time.com/time/pacific/magazine/20010129/china.htm l – Accessed 27 February 2003 – Attachment 19).

The following two sources report that girls are hidden from the authorities.

In a May 2001 Washington Post Foreign Service article:

…Strict limits on births have forced millions of parents to hide unapproved children, resulting in what Chinese call a “black population” of as many as 6 million unregistered children. Many of these children are believed to be girls (Pomfret, John 2001, ‘In China’s countryside, ‘It’s a boy!’ too often’, Washington Post Foreign Service, 29 May – Attachment 20).

A July 1998 DFAT advised:

A 1994 population sample survey revealed a sex ratio at birth of 116.3 males to 100 females. This unnatural pattern is the direct result of the interaction between China’s one-child policy and the strong preference in rural China for male offspring. At its most extreme, this is manifested in female infanticide, but the ratio is also the product of selective abortion of females foetuses (use of ultrasound equipment to determine sex is illegal, but nevertheless goes on) and families having a second child (which is against the law) because the first was a girl. Experts argue that the skewed ratio also reflects the fact that female children are often hidden from census-takers and officials. As their births are not registered, these girls never exist in the official system – they are unlikely to attend school, being kept at home as extra workers. The prospects for these girls of improving their lot in adulthood are very limited (DIMA Country Information Service 1998, Country Information Report No. 311/98 – China: Human Rights: Women, (sourced from DFAT advice of 31 July 1998), 1 December – Attachment 21).

In Fujian, children “adopted, given and abandoned” are included in the number of children under the family planning regulations:

Article 50 The number of children referred in this Regulation includes the number of children adopted, given and abandoned. If the law stipulates otherwise, the law shall govern (Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

6. What evidence is there that tubal ligations are required in Fujian?

Under the Fujian family planning regulations tubal ligations are available to those that practice family planning. A January 2000 fact-finding mission to Fujian by the Canadian Embassy in Beijing reported that sterilisation by tubal ligation is encouraged but not required.

Under Article 19 of the regulations:

Article 19 Couples who practice family planning shall enjoy the following technical services free of charge: … (4) Medical inspection on vasoligation and tubal ligation and other inspections stipulated in technical regulations;…(Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002 – Attachment 1).

The fact-finding mission to Fujian by the Canadian Embassy reported:

6. Meetings with Fujian Provincial and Local Government Officials … b. To encourage couples to comply with family planning policies various incentives are offered to couples willing to sign a pledge to follow State policy. Political Counsellor was furnished with examples of cards given to families pledging to follow Gov’t birth control policy: one offering 5% off grocery purchases at a local supermarket (excepting tobacco and alcoholic beverages), another allowing 10% off membership in a women’s health club and, most intriguingly, a card offering a 20% discount for treatment for venereal disease at a local clinic. Other incentives include 20% discounts on home electricity and reductions in school fees. Ninetythree per cent of Fujian families with women of childbearing age are estimated to use some regular method of birth control. Eighty per cent of local women use the IUD as their method of birthcontrol. After two children, sterilization by tubal ligation is encouraged, but not required. The operation is typically done at a Clinic near the woman’s home. For those couples who prefer use of condoms or birth control pills, these are also available at no cost (with a small supplementary charge for imported condoms) (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2000, CHN34099.E – China: Report of a fact-finding mission to by Political Counsellor, Canadian Embassy, Beijing, 23 March – Attachment 22).

On enforced sterilisation DFAT advised in September 2004:

We understand that compulsory abortions and sterilisations occur in Fujian, but that such measures are much rarer than in the 1980s. Fujian’s provincial regulations on population and family planning do not impose compulsory abortion or sterilisation for people with a history of out-of-quota births, but rather observe that guidance on birth control methods and family planning should be available to all to prevent out-of-quota births. Furthermore, in present day China, particularly in provinces such as Fujian and Guangdong, sanctions relating to family planning can be avoided through payment of a fee to local authorities, parts of which may be both above and below the table. Such fees are generally not excessive by middle-class Chinese standards, though fees vary from locality to locality (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2004, DFAT Report 317 – RRT Information Request: CHN16905, 2 September – Attachment 23).

A 2004 US State Department report writes:

The provincial government vigorously defends its population policies. According to the Fujian Provincial Family Planning Committee (FPFPC), there have been no cases of forced abortion or sterilization in Fujian in the last 10 years, but it is impossible to confirm this claim. The FPFPC acknowledges that during the 1980s and early 1990s there were isolated cases of forced abortion and sterilization. Since that time, the FPFC asserts that it has insisted that all men and women who undergo surgical procedures provide informed, written consent before surgery. Local physicians in contact with the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou report that they have not seen signs of forced abortions or sterilization among their patients from Fujian and Guangzhou Provinces since the 1980s. Consulate General officials visiting Fujian have found that coercion through public and other pressure has been used but they did not find any cases of physical force employed in connection with abortion or sterilization. In interviews with visa applicants from Fujian, Consulate officers have found that many violators of the one-child policy paid fines but no evidence of forced abortion or property confiscation. However, a hospital director in Changle, Fujian, recently said that the hospital would take ‘measures’ (unspecified) to induce some patients to undergo abortions in the name of compliance with the family planning law (US Department of State 2004, China: Profile of Asylum Claims and Country Conditions, June, para.120 http://www.pards.org/chinareportjune2004.doc – Accessed 2 November 2005 – Attachment 6).

In April 2004 DFAT advised that the post had not found any record of enforced sterilisation of women in Fujian since the early 1990s (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2004, DFAT Report 287 – RRT Information Request: CHN16609, 22 April – Attachment 5).

7. How liberally or strictly is the One Child Policy applied in rural Fujian?

In 2004 DFAT advised that:

The Family Planning Law in Fujian is regulated by a mixture of national, provincial and local laws and rules. Enforcement is by local authorities and evidence suggests that some local governments enforce family planning rules more vigorously than others. This has created a patchwork of different rules and enforcement across the province. Family planning rules are more strictly enforced in the larger cities such as and Fuzhou, than in the poorer countryside. The rules are also more strictly enforced in areas where state-owned industry is stronger, such as the steel making city of , than in the mountainous or coastal fishing areas. In general, however, Fujian has one of the least coercive family planning regimes in China. In rural areas of Fujian more then half of all families have more than one child. The number of one child families is greater in the larger cities. However, even here, multiple child families are not unknown (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2004, DFAT Report 287 – RRT Information Request: CHN16609, 22 April – Attachment 5).

In Fujian, during the 1990s, Greenhalgh and Winckler write:

…Until about 1990, Fujian’s birth program implementation was distinctly lax, relying too much on crash campaigns and too little on routine work. During the 1990s, the program received higher priority and more funds, as a result of which implementation became both more strict and more lawful. Within Fujian, program implementation is solid in most of the advanced coastal plain, but not all of it. Enforcement remains weak in poor mountainous rural areas and among urban migrants. Fuzhou City has generally strong implementation, but its coastal counties are notoriously unruly and resistant to the demands of municipal and provincial birth planners (Greenhalgh, Susan and Winkler, Edwin A. 2001, Chinese State Birth Planning in the 1990s and Beyond , Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)Resource Information Center, US Department of Justice, Perspective Series, September, p.xvii – Attachment 24).

Other information on family planning is included in:

• RRT Research Response CHN17646 provides information on family planning in China. Information on family planning practices in Fujian is on pages 22-23 of the response (RRT Country Research 2005, Research Response CHN17646, 3 November – Attachment 25).

• RRT Research Response CHN17298 covers enforcement, abortions, sterilisations and penalties in Fujian (RRT Country Research 2005, Research Response CHN17298, 5 April – Attachment 26).

• The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board provides information on family planning in Fujian in the late 1990s (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 1999, CHN33035.EX – China: Update to various aspects of family and family planning law and policy, particularly as it affects Fujian province, 18 October – Attachment 27).

List of Sources Consulted

Internet Sources: CIAONET Google Scholar Google search engine http://www.google.com.au/

Databases: FACTIVA (news database) BACIS (DIMA Country Information database) REFINFO (IRBDC (Canada) Country Information database) ISYS (RRT Country Research database, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US Department of State Reports) RRT Library Catalogue Poston, Dudley L. and others (eds) 2006, Fertility, Family Planning, and Population Policy in China, Routledge, London

List of Attachments

1. Population and Family Planning Regulation of Fujian Province, Adopted by the 33rd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Provincial People’s Congress on 26 July 2002.

2. Greenhalgh, Susan and Winkler, Edwin A. 2001, Chinese State Birth Planning in the 1990s and Beyond, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Resource Information Center, US Department of Justice, Perspective Series, September.

3. ‘Thirteen officials in NW China punished for family planning failure’ 2006, Xinhua News Agency, 5 May. (FACTIVA)

4. Coonan, Clifford 2006, ‘China’s hard line on family planning’, Irish Times, 9 May. (FACTIVA)

5. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2004, DFAT Report 287 – RRT Information Request: CHN16609, 22 April.

6. US Department of State 2004, China: Profile of Asylum Claims and Country Conditions, June, paras. 120-125 http://www.pards.org/chinareportjune2004.doc – Accessed 2 November 2005.

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19. Xicheng, Hannah Beech 2001, ‘China’s infant cash crop: In rural Yunnan, poverty and a strict family-planning policy spawn a harrowing black market in babies’, Time Pacific, 29 January http://www.time.com/time/pacific/magazine/20010129/china.htm l – Accessed 27 February 2003. (CISNET China CX76111)

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24. Greenhalgh, Susan and Winkler, Edwin A. 2001, Chinese State Birth Planning in the 1990s and Beyond , Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)Resource Information Center, US Department of Justice, Perspective Series, September.

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27. Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 1999, CHN33035.EX – China: Update to various aspects of family and family planning law and policy, particularly as it affects Fujian province, 18 October. (REFINFO)