12 September 2000
by Stuart Wood

China has recently been shaken by a shocking case of official infanticide where family planners drowned a healthy baby in front of its parents. The actions of the officials in Hubei caused a public outcry which forced the Hubei government into the unprecedented position of speaking out against its own officials carrying out its own policy.

China's famous 'One Child Policy' has been in effect since the early 1970's, when the government intervened to curb population expansion. Policies such as this require enforcement, and an officially sanctioned practice of infanticide has emerged as the response to couples who contravene the one-child rule. Rural families, like Mr and Mrs Liu in Hubei, manage to evade the system sometimes for two or three children, but when Mrs Liu found out she was expecting her fourth baby, she was forcibly injected with a saline intended to induce labour and kill the child.

When the baby was unexpectedly born healthy, family planners ordered the father to kill the child. Unable to end his child's life but fearing for his own safety, Mr Liu left the baby in a nearby office where it was found by a doctor, cleaned and vaccinated, then returned to its mother. When the new family arrived home they found five officials waiting. An argument ensued, during which the officials took the baby to a nearby paddy field and drowned it in front of its parents.

The ensuing outcry was so great that the local Hubei government was brought to account by the local press and forced to pledge punishment of the guilty officials.

Stories of infanticide are relatively commonplace across the world. The practice of abandoning or disposing of unwanted children, especially girls, is well documented and remains harrowing despite its repetition. China and India are particularly notorious, even to the extent that websites exist solely to address the issue (http://www.infanticide.org and http://www.thedyingrooms.com). What makes this story so arresting is first the callousness of the poor child's killers; and second the official response to their actions.

Eugenics
While China is clearly standing by its one-child policy, a little further east in Singapore the drive is to make more and more babies. This is what PM Goh of Singapore said at the recent National Day celebrations:

 I have no authority to order you to get married, or to decide how many children you should have...but as PM, I have to be concerned about the impact of low fertility rates on our society...

...We must therefore create a total environment conducive to raising a family. Our policy is still to have three children, or more if you can afford it. The Government will help reduce the obstacles to your doing so. (http://www.gov.sg)

This amounts to financial help through tax breaks and special allowances, but demonstrates how some national leaders are searching for ways to massage population levels with some urgency. There are those like PM Goh, who use techniques like emotive language and fiscal policy to tackle their problems. It is shocking that China still resorts to the most archane.

People Power
There was a time when locals who witnessed such acts would turn their heads and keep quiet for fear of retribution. Tales would only reach the western press through organisations such as Amnesty or perhaps small scale missionary groups. These days, it seems that reports of increasing democracy in the old communist states are well grounded. Just as in Moscow where President Putin seems rattled by the gathering force of public opinion, so too in China things may be on the move.

A recent header in the Guardian (Online, August 24, 2000) stated: Bill Clinton hailed the internet as a harbinger of democracy. Beijing agrees.

It has been suggested that the revolution is on-screen rather than on the streets, but if the evidence of this incident in Hubei tells us anything, it's that the government may be starting to listen to people wherever they are.