After years of forced abortions and sterilizations, China has found itself in a demographic winter, as it is not producing enough children to replace the people who are aging out of the work force. For many years, married couples were limited to one child, but that was recently increased to two. Single women were not allowed to have children, but now the country is encouraging them to have their babies.
Steven Mosher of the Population Research Institute, a non-profit research group whose goals are to expose the myth of overpopulation, expose human rights abuses committed in population control programs, and make the case that people are the world's greatest resource, says that indicates China is taking extreme measures.
"They have thinned the herd far too much," he submits. "I put it that way because they don't really regard human beings as anything more than chattel or cattle. The masses, [as] they're called in Communist Party terminology, can be controlled and moved in any direction the party wants it to move in."
The loosened regulations have so far not produced results. In fact, the most recent reporting period shows the birth rate has declined.
"For 40 years, they were told that babies are burdens and not blessings," Mosher notes. "For 40 years, women were hauled away to abortion clinics and [their babies were] forcibly aborted, even up to the ninth month of pregnancy; even up to the point where they were in labor to give birth, their babies were taken, and they were subsequently sterilized."
Since plans to increase the population have not worked, one could wonder whether China will go to the same lengths to force pregnancies as it once did to forbid them.
