In 1978, China introduced its one-child policy which restricts urban couples from having more than one child unless they are willing to pay enormous fines. In 2007, China’s vice-minister at the National Population and Family Planning Commission noted that 35.9 percent of China’s population fell under the one-child policy while 52.9 percent of the country’s population (typically couples from rural areas) were allowed to have a second child, but only if the first child was a girl and 9.6 percent of the country were allowed a second child regardless of the first child’s gender. Only 1.6 percent of China’s population was allowed to have more than two children.
The controversial Chinese policy has many detractors, but the authoritarian Chinese government quickly silences those who speak out against the one-child policy and how the policy is enforced. One person the local government officials have attempted to silence for nearly a decade is Chen Guangcheng.
Since 2005, Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught lawyer from China, has had only a handful of moments of freedom. Chen’s crime? He spoke out against local government authorities who were forcing women to have abortions, often in the third trimester. Before being arrested Chen set up community meetings in which victims of the local government would speak out about what they went through and exposed how authorities in the city of Linyi were forcing thousands of women to have abortions. Local authorities would also often intimidate and harass family members of couples who were pregnant with an illegal child until the pregnant woman was located.
In May of 2012, Chen made worldwide headlines after he released a video of himself free from his home detention. Miraculously, he escaped his home confinement after tricking his guards into believing he was bedridden. His escape included scaling walls, going without food and water for 17 hours and resting in pig pens. Chen eventually found someone willing to contact his friends who then brought him to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
While Chen may have escaped house arrest, he has still not been allowed to leave China. For a number of weeks he has been confined in a hospital while he waits to hear if government officials will allow him to leave with his family to the United States. Chen left the protection of the U.S. Embassy to be with his family, who he felt were in danger. U.S. officials have not been allowed to see him with regularity.
While we do not know how Chen’s case will end up, we can hope that his escape and the news it generated shed a light on China’s atrocious one-child policy and the horrific practice of forced abortion.
