Refugee Review Tribunal AUSTRALIA

RRT RESEARCH RESPONSE

Research Response Number: CHN34945 Country: Date: 22 May 2009

Keywords: China – Family Planning and

This response was prepared by the Research & Information Services 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. This research response may not, under any circumstance, be cited in a decision or any other document. Anyone wishing to use this information may only cite the primary source material contained herein.

Questions 1. Please advise whether second children are denied household registration in Shandong? How would the parents obtain a registration? 2. How strictly is the one child policy enforced in Shandong? 3. Please advise to what extent are second children denied access to services in Shandong – either with or without registration?

RESPONSE

1. Please advise whether second children are denied household registration in Shandong? How would the parents obtain a registration?

A September 2005 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) report states that an out of plan child born overseas would be able to gain household registration in Shandong if the parents pay a compensation fee. DFAT provide the following advice on family planning penalties and household registration in Shandong province:

A. Chapter 6 of Shandong Province Family Planning Regulations covers penalties (―compensation fees‖) for out-of-plan births (see http://www.cpirc.org.cn/zcfg/zcfg_detail.asp?id=1699 in Chinese only). For urban residents, the compensation fee is half to ten times the previous years average per capita disposable income for urban residents in the province or half to ten times the person‘s actual income in the previous year, whichever is higher. For rural residents, the fee is half to ten times the previous years average per capita net income for rural residents of the province or half to ten times the person‘s actual income in the previous year, whichever is higher. The size of the penalty depends on the nature of the case and severity of violation of the regulations.

…D. The Shandong Family Planning Commission told us that the National Family Planning Commission (NFPC) had separate regulations regarding Chinese nationals resident in other countries. The NFPC told us it had circulated an ―internal regulation‖ (i.e. not for public distribution) to Chinese Embassies saying that students studying overseas were allowed a second child, but would have to pay penalties (at the level set by the province) for a third and any subsequent children. Regulations covering the application of the national Population and Family Planning Law to Chinese citizens who were permanent residents of other countries or were working overseas were yet to be finalised.

E. The child [which was born in Australia and is the third child of Chinese couple from Shandong] would be able to register for a residence permit (“hukou”), provided her parents paid the compensation fee outlined in paragraph A. The Shandong Family Planning Commission told us that all births must be registered with local public security authorities (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2005, DFAT Report 404 – RRT Information Request: CHN17471, 6 September – Attachment 1; for the Tribunal enquiry which elicited this response, see: RRT Country Research 2005, Email to DFAT ‗RRT Country Information Request – China: CHN17471 – Shandong Family Planning Regulations – City‘, 9 August – Attachment 2).

No other information was found in the sources consulted regarding household registration in Shandong for second children or children born out of plan.

2. How strictly is the one child policy enforced in Shandong?

The following reports were found in the sources consulted regarding the enforcement of family planning in Shandong province. The articles report on abuses by family planning officials in Shandong including detentions, forced abortions and forced sterlisations.

 The 2008 US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) report contains some information on abuses by family planning officials in Shandong. The report states that in April 2008 a woman in Shandong was detained and beaten by family planning officials in order to compel the woman‘s sister to abort an unauthorised pregnancy. The report also contains information on , an advocate who was sentenced to four years imprisonment in 2006, who had protested against widespread abuses by family planning officials in city, Shandong. The report states that Chen Guangcheng‘s wife, Yuan Weijing confirmed that ―cases of forced abortion and other abuses have resurfaced in Shandong in 2008‖. The CECC provide the following information on family planning in Shandong:

In April 2008, population planning officials in the town of Zhubao in Shandong province ‗detained and beat‘ the sister of a woman who had illegally conceived a second child, in an attempt to compel the pregnant woman to undergo an abortion. Chen Guangcheng, a legal advocate and rights defender from nearby Linyi city, was sentenced to more than four years in prison in 2006 for exposing widespread abuses by local family planning officials. In April 2008, Chen filed a lawsuit alleging that Linyi officials had ‗trumped up charges‘ against him in ‗retaliation‘ for his efforts to expose their misdeeds. Chen also wrote a detailed letter to the president of the Supreme People‘s Court and the procurator-general at the Supreme People‘s Procuratorate to protest his imprisonment and petition for release. In 2007 and 2008, prison authorities prevented Chen from communicating with his family, refused a request for medical parole, and accused him of having ‗illicit relations with a foreign country.‘ Chen‘s wife, Yuan Weijing, confirmed that cases of forced abortion and other abuses have resurfaced in Shandong in 2008. She remains under constant police surveillance because of her husband‘s prior advocacy (United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2008, Annual Report 2008, CECC website, 31 October, p.98 http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi- bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_house_hearings&docid=f:45233.pdf – Accessed 22 May 2009 – Attachment 3).

 An April 2008 report by Radio Free Asia provides further information on the reported incident in which a woman was detained and beaten by family planning officials in Shandong. The report also contains further information from Yuan Weijing, the wife of activist Chen Guangcheng regarding the enforcement of family planning in Shandong including the continued practise of forced abortions. The following is an extract of the report:

China has pledged to maintain tough family planning policies that limit most of the country‘s families to just one child, in a bid to keep its burgeoning population under control.

Pregnant women who fall foul of the system and civil rights activists are still reporting widespread abuses by officials in many parts of the country, including forced abortions, arbitrary detentions and torture.

In Zhubao township in the eastern province of Shandong, family planning officials detained and beat the sister of one pregnant woman who had already given birth to one child, the family told RFA‘s Cantonese service.

The woman, who lives near Linyi city, where family planning abuses have already been widely documented, is eight months pregnant. She went into hiding with her husband to escape the forced abortion she says appeared inevitable. When the authorities couldn‘t find her, they detained her elder sister.

―After they took her away they were asking her questions about our other sister [the pregnant woman],‖ a younger sister said.

―When she said she didn‘t know, they beat her up. We heard from inside sources that the beatings were very severe. We also heard that they beat one woman to death a few years ago, so we are all very worried about her.‖

She said the entire family was planning to go into hiding to escape further detentions and beatings.

…Yuan Weijing, wife of jailed civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng, said her husband‘s blistering exposure of abuses by family planning officials in Linyi city and nearby Yinan county had brought about some changes for a limited time.

…―It is just the same as it always was here. If you are pregnant without permission, it doesn‘t matter how many months gone you are—they will keep an eye on the pregnancy and then they will arrest you and drag you off for an abortion,‖ said Yuan, who is herself under constant surveillance at the couple‘s home in Yinan county.

―If you run away, they will detain a member of your family and smash up your home. People here are terribly fearful these days,‖ she told RFA‘s Mandarin service.

―I really couldn‘t tell you the real reason for this. To be honest with you, things got a whole lot more relaxed in 2005 after Chen Guangcheng exposed these practices, and pretty much nobody was getting beaten up at that time. The really nasty practices lingered on in some places, however. But this year it has all started up again.‖ (Mudie, L & Ping, C. 2008, ‗China‘s One-Child Policy stays, abuses resurface‘, Radio Free Asia, 2 April – Attachment 4).

 An April 2007 article by Radio Free Asia reports that according to Zhang Ming, the head of the Chinese Federation of House Churches, a forced abortion drive had recently taken place in Shandong province. The report provides the following information:

Authorities in China‘s southwestern region of Guangxi have forced dozens of pregnant women to a hospital in Baise city to undergo abortions, some as late as nine months, the women and their relatives said.

…The head of the Chinese Federation of House Churches Zhang Ming said that a similar forced abortion drive had also recently taken place in the eastern province of Shandong.

―We think that it‘s unreasonable of the Chinese government to carry out forced abortions like this,‖ Zhang said. ―It has been happening in city [Shandong province] as well in recent days‖ (Mudie, L. 2007, ‗Guangxi Officials Carry Out Mass Forced Abortions‘, Radio Free Asia, 22 April http://www.rfa.org/english/china/china_abortions- 20070422.html?searchterm=None – Accessed 31 March 2009 – Attachment 5).

 On 17 April 2007 Christian Aid Association reported that a woman in city in Shandong was being pressured by family planning officials to abort an unauthorised pregnancy. The report states that:

CAA has also learned a Christian woman in Laiyang city, Shandong province is facing a forced abortion. Ms. Hui Xu, 39, became pregnant with her second child accidentally 6 months ago. She and her husband are now facing increasing pressure from the local family planning office to have abortion either voluntarily or coercively. Their home is at Fangyang Village, Tushan Town, Laiyang city, Shandong province (‗Christian women forced to have abortions in Guangxi and Shandong; immediate international intervention urged‘ 2007, Christian Aid Association, 17 April – Attachment 6)

 An article dated 16 October 2005 in The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that people had been detained in Nigou, Shandong because their relatives would not undergo government- ordered sterilisations or abortions:

Above a shuttered fertilizer store in this eastern China town, men and women are locked up because their relatives will not agree to undergo government-ordered sterilization or abortion, according to current and former detainees.

…The jailing of residents suggests abuses might be occurring on a wider scale than had been previously reported, despite central government pledges to curb violations.

Local family-planning officials, whose headquarters face the detention center across the street, say they know nothing about the site.

Yet, the chief of the largest maternity ward in the area said the office jails relatives of peasants who hide to avoid medical procedures because detention is the only way to get some residents to comply.

…The practice of illegally detaining family members to pressure people who flee population- control policies is emerging as a central complaint among peasants chafing under China‘s limits on childbearing. …A 35-year-old peasant who asked to be identified only by his surname, Xu, said his wife is eight months pregnant and in hiding to avoid an involuntary abortion. He said local authorities detained his father at the site in downtown Nigou for four weeks this summer in an effort to force the daughter-in-law to return.

In the end, the family paid fines and fees of $617 — more than an average farmer makes in a year in this province — to secure his release, the son said.

Teng Biao, a Beijing-based scholar who visited Linyi in Augut to investigate the allegations, said descriptions of the detention center in Nigou appeared to fit the pattern of coercive practices in Linyi, though residents here have not banded together to bring light to the issue.

― may have the same situation, but it is very hard for people there to get information to lawyers and the media,‖ said Teng, a lecturer at the China University of Political Science and Law. ―The local authorities will try their best to make sure nobody knows about it (Osnos, E. 2005, ‗One-child policy still a force in China; If peasants reject sterilization or abortion, relatives may be jailed to bring them around‘, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 16 October – Attachment 7).

 The USDOS Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2006 – China states that international press reports allege that in 2005 in Linyi, Shandong local officials detained approximately 130, 000 people and forced them to have abortions and sterilisations. The report notes that Chen Guangcheng for imprisoned after publicising the family planning abuses. The UDSOS states that:

Central government policy formally prohibits the use of physical coercion to compel persons to submit to abortion or sterilization, although reports of physical coercion to meet birth targets continued.

…The most egregious reports occurred in 2005 in Linyi, Shandong Province. International press reports alleged that local official detained some 130,000 persons and forced them to submit to abortions or sterilization procedures. At least 7,000 persons were forcibly sterilized. Local officials profited from this illegal system by charging detention fees. Local rights activists documented several cases of forced late-term abortions.

According to law, citizens may sue officials who exceed their authority in implementing birth-planning policy. However, local officials retaliated with impunity against whistleblower Chen Guangcheng for his work in exposing the Linyi family planning abuses. In August Chen was sentenced to four years‘ and three months‘ imprisonment on dubious charges of obstructing traffic and damaging public property (US Department of State 2007, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2006 – China, 6 March, Section 1.f – Attachment 8).

 An article dated 12 September 2005 in Time Magazine provides further information on the campaign of forced abortions and sterilisations in Linyi, Shandong:

At a provincial meeting last year, Linyi officials were castigated for having the highest rate of extra births in all of Shandong, according to lawyers familiar with the situation. The dressing- down galvanized what appears to be one of the most brutal mass sterilization and abortion campaigns in years. Starting in March, family-planning officials in Linyi‘s nine counties and three districts trawled villages, looking to force women pregnant with illegal children to abort, and to sterilize those who already had the maximum allotment of children under the local family-planning policy. According to that regulation, which exists in a similar form in most rural areas, women with a son are not allowed to bear more children, whereas mothers whose first child is handicapped or a girl are allowed to have a second baby.

Many women refused to undergo the procedures. Others hid, often in family members‘ homes. The crackdown intensified. Relatives of women who resisted sterilization or abortion were detained and forced to pay for ―study sessions‖ in which they had to admit their ―wrong thinking,‖ says Teng Biao, an instructor at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, who visited Linyi last month to investigate the coercive campaign. In the Linyi county of Yinan alone, at least 7,000 people were forced to undergo sterilization between March and July, according to lawyers who spoke with local family-planning officials. Several villagers, the lawyers allege, were beaten to death while under detention for trying to help family members avoid sterilization.

Officials in Linyi deny that anything improper has happened. ―All these things are either exaggerated, distorted or not based on facts,‖ says an official surnamed Yao (he wouldn‘t give his full name) at the Linyi municipal family-planning commission. But national-level cadres concede that something has gone terribly wrong. ―We have heard about the situation in Shandong, and it‘s totally against national law,‖ a member of the State Family Planning Commission‘s secretariat in Beijing told TIME. ―We are investigating the situation now.‖ A public statement from the commission said that central and provincial authorities have cautioned Linyi officials to follow national regulations, vowing to punish lawbreakers (Beech, H. 2005, ‗Enemies of the State?‘, Time Magazine, 12 September http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1103579,00.html – Accessed 31 October 2005 – Attachment 9).

 A September 2005 DFAT report states that according to the Shandong Family Planning Commission family planning is strictly enforced in Shandong. DFAT provide the following advice on family planning penalties in Shandong province:

The Shandong Family Planning Commission informed us that it strictly enforces family planning regulations in Shandong and it had no practice of waiving or reducing the compensation fee. But if the families are under a certain income threshold, the compensation fee can be postponed or paid by instalment. We have not been able to find any evidence of authorities waiving these penalties, but this does not rule out the possibility of waiver or reduction (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2005, DFAT Report 404 – RRT Information Request: CHN17471, 6 September – Attachment 1).

3. Please advise to what extent are second children denied access to services in Shandong – either with or without registration?

DFAT provided the following advice in September 2005 regarding access education and health care for unregistered children in Shandong:

China does not have a national medical health insurance system, thus registration is not relevant to accessing health care. We understand unregistered children can attend school in most cases, but may face restrictions on which schools they can attend and must pay higher tuition fees (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2005, DFAT Report 404 – RRT Information Request: CHN17471, 6 September – Attachment 1)

No other information was found in the sources consulted regarding access to services for second children in Shandong. Similarly, no other information was found in the sources consulted regarding access to services for unregistered children or ‗black children‘ in Shandong.

List of Sources Consulted

Internet Sources:

Government Information & Reports Immigration & Refugee Board of Canada http://www.irb.gc.ca/ UK Home Office http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk US Congressional-Executive Commission on China http://cecc.gov/ US Department of State http://www.state.gov/ US Department of State website http://www.state.gov United Nations (UN) UNHCR http://www.unhchr.ch/ Non-Government Organisations Amnesty International website http://www.amnesty.org/ Freedom House http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=1 Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/ International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights http://www.ihf-hr.org/welcome.php Human Rights Internet (HRI) website http://www.hri.ca International News & Politics BBC News website http://news.bbc.co.uk/ Radio Free Asia http://www.rfa.org/english/ Time Magazine http://www.time.com/time/ Region Specific Links Shandong Provincial Family Planning Commission – http://www.qkw.gov.cn/Search Engines 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

List of Attachments

1. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2005, DFAT Report 404 – RRT Information Request: CHN17471, 6 September.

2. RRT Country Research 2005, Email to DFAT ‗RRT Country Information Request – China: CHN17471 – Shandong Family Planning Regulations – Jinan City‘, 9 August.

3. United States Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2008, Annual Report 2008, CECC website, 31 October, http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi- bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_house_hearings&docid=f:45233.pdf – Accessed 22 May 2009.

4. Mudie, L & Ping, C. 2008, ‗China‘s One-Child Policy stays, abuses resurface‘, Radio Free Asia, 2 April. 5. Mudie, L. 2007, ‗Guangxi Officials Carry Out Mass Forced Abortions‘, Radio Free Asia, 22 April http://www.rfa.org/english/china/china_abortions- 20070422.html?searchterm=None – Accessed 31 March 2009.

6. ‗Christian women forced to have abortions in Guangxi and Shandong; immediate international intervention urged‘ 2007, Christian Aid Association, 17 April.

7. Osnos, E. 2005, ‗One-child policy still a force in China; If peasants reject sterilization or abortion, relatives may be jailed to bring them around‘, St. Paul Pioneer Press, 16 October.

8. US Department of State 2007, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2006 – China, 6 March.

9. Beech, H. 2005, ‗Enemies of the State?‘, Time Magazine, 12 September http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1103579,00.html – Accessed 31