The Daily Telegraph reported April 16th on a new and terrible population control measure in China. Officials in southern China have launched a campaign to sterilise nearly 10,000 people as part of a crackdown on parents who violate the country's strict birth control policies.
Family planning authorities in Puning, a city in the southern province of Guangdong, have detained more than 1,300 people in the drive, the Nanfang Countryside Daily said in an investigative report. Those detained included parents who refused to undergo the surgical procedure and their "relatives", the report said.
They were being held in local government buildings and lectured on family planning rules, it said. China's family planning policy generally limits families to one child, with some exceptions for rural farmers, ethnic minorities and other groups.
The 20-day campaign launched last week is targeting 9,559 people considered the "most severe violators of the family planning policy in Puning," the Global Times said. So far half the couples targeted had consented to sterilisation, the paper said.
Huang Ruifeng, a 64-year-old father of three, said he was contacted by a local official ordering him or his wife to have the surgical procedure, When Mr Huang refused, claiming he was too busy his father was taken away.
Authorities said they were using "extraordinary measures" to encourage couples to undergo sterilisation, such as refusing to provide the children proper registration documents, which effectively denies the children access to public services such as health insurance and free schooling.
Se also timesonline article
