Representative Christopher Smith (R-N.J.)

No U.S. Support for
Forced Abortion Programs

From 1985 until 1993 the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) was denied U.S. funding because of its support for and participation in China's coercive population control policy. This condition on UNFPA funding was rescinded by President Clinton 1993.

For the last several years, Congress has attempted to ban funding for the UNFPA unless it ceases its operations in the People's Republic of China (PRC), or the President certifies that the PRC has ended its coercive population control policy. These conditions on UNFPA funding were included in the last four appropriations bills passed by the House, but were never enacted into law. In 1998, however, the House Appropriations Committee took a different approach and simply barred U.S. funding of the UNFPA altogether. This language eventually became law for the current fiscal year.

The successful effort to cut off UNFPA funding was a direct result of the UNFPA's long collaboration with and defense of the People's Republic of China's coercive population control program. The UNFPA has a 20-year record of uninterrupted, gushing support of the PRC "one-child-per-couple" program. This program literally makes brothers and sisters illegal, and secures compliance with its harsh mandate by forcing women to be sterilized and to abort their unborn children. In 1994, the Clinton Administration promised that once the UNFPA's 15-year China program ended in 1995 - - and unless there were significant improvements in the Chinese population control program - - the U.S. would oppose any future UNFPA programs in China.

Late last year, however, the UNFPA signed a new four-year, $20 million agreement with the PRC population control commissars - - with the acquiescence of the United States representatives on the UNFPA governing board. (The U.S. could have blocked the China program, because UNFPA governing board decisions are made by consensus, but our delegation chose not to do so.)

Supporters of UNFPA funding have long spoken of the "moderating influence" that the presence of the United Nations Population Fund supposedly has in China. But there is no evidence that the UNFPA sees anything in China's program that needs to be moderated.

UNFPA Executive Director Nafis Sadik, like her predecessor, Rafael Salas, continues to deny that China's program is coercive. The UNFPA has been, and continues to be, the leading international supporter and apologist for China's program.

The truth is that the policy, if anything, has grown more oppressive. In the face of evidence of widespread coercion officials of the Chinese government have pointed to the support they have received from the UNFPA to deflect congressional criticism.

Now UNFPA supporters argue once again that UNFPA's program is part of the solution, not part of the problem. They claim that their new program will make the Chinese program more "voluntary." We are told that they have selected 32 counties in which local officials will agree to eschew coercion. This is supposed to show that genuinely voluntary programs will really work.

Unfortunately for the UNFPA, high-level Chinese officials don't always follow the same script. Following the announcement of the UNFPA's new contract in the PRC, these officials went out of their way to state that they were not going to "loosen" their policy. To quote from a February report from the official Chinese news agency, XINHUA

State Councilor Peng Peiyun stressed here today that China will spare no efforts to pursue its strict family planning policy in the coming years. "China will not slacken its family planning policy in the next century," Peng, also minister in charge of the State Family Planning Commission (SFPC), told Xinhua.

She denied a recent rumor spread by the Western media that China would loosen its birth control policy. "China's family planning policy and its target for population control will not change," she stressed. ("Strict Family Planning Policy' To Continue," XINHUA, February 23, 1998).

The UNFPA can never seem to find enough good things to say about the China program. The UN gave China its first UN Population Award in 1983 "for the most outstanding contribution to the awareness of population questions." In 1983, the Beijing Review reported China's family planning minister as saying that his award was "a symbol of UN support and encouragement for China's family planning program."

Nor does the UNFPA's support go unnoticed by those whose rights are violated. Renowned Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng testified on this before Congress on February 3, 1998.

[I]n general the Chinese people have a very serious view of all U.N. activities in China in the field of population control. ... When the United Nations gave the Chinese government population control award, the Chinese people were flabbergasted. They were asking, is the U.N. on the side of the Chinese government? And so the Chinese people have a very negative image of the U.N. organization in this field.

Below are a few quotes from the most recent UNFPA executive directors.

"China has every reason to feel proud of and pleased with its remarkable achievements made in its family planning policy and control of its population growth over the past 10 years. Now the country could offer its experiences and special experts to help other countries."

Nafis Sadik, executive director of the UNFPA, as reported in XINHUA, April 11, 1991

"The implementation of the policy [in China] and the acceptance of the policy is purely voluntary. There is no such thing as, you know, a license to have a birth and so on."

Statement by Nafis Sadik on CBS Nightwatch, November 21, 1989

"The UNFPA firmly believes, and so does the government of the People's Republic of China, that their program is a totally voluntary program."

Statement by Nafis Sadik at a Capitol Hill luncheon on May 24, 1989

"Sadik went on to dismiss the criticism of China's program by other countries. She attributed these criticisms to China's ' failure to give effective explanations' and the 'occasional misuse of words.'

"According to Aprodicio Laquian, China program director of the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, China's population policy is realistic and suits its current conditions."

Foreign Broadcast Information Service translation of an April 16, 1989, XINHUA article

"We have no reports, really, of violations in this respect. And if you refer to China, I am very sure that the Chinese themselves will say that, within their cultural norms, they are not at all coercive. Maybe from certain Western standards, these might not be totally acceptable. But then, each country must determine that for themselves."

Rafael Salas, then executive director of the UNFPA, addressing a forum on Capitol Hill, April 8, 1986

"Salas said he and his colleagues had come to reiterate their support of China's population activities. 'China should be proud of the achievements it scored in family planning.'"

China Daily, April 26, 1985

"China provides a superb example of integrating population programs with the goals of national development."

Statement of Rafael Salas, then-executive director of UNFPA, in Popline, Vol. 3, No. 11, November 1981

These quotes span 10 years - - 10 years during which there were several serious and detailed exposés of Beijing's implementation of its coercive policies. There have been reliable reports of government-mandated abortions and involuntary sterilizations in the PRC ever since the "one-child" policy was adopted in 1979.

In recent years, the evidence has multiplied that these coercive practices are not isolated abuses by local officials, but rather that they are in fact an integral part of China's stringent "birth quota" policy.

In addition to forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations, there have been numerous news accounts of confiscation of property, physical torture and beatings, and other severe treatment of women and men who refuse to "voluntarily" obtain abortions or become sterilized.

We now know - - because of a recent defection by the head of a birth control clinic who appeared on Nightline and testified before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights - - that the PRC program is more coercive than ever.

There are even prison cells in the birth control clinics to detain women (and sometimes their family members) until they agree to have abortions or be sterilized. The reality of China's crimes against its people is widely recognized.

Nevertheless, even today, you will not hear Nafis Sadik speak critically of China's practices.

The PRC program has got nothing to do women's health or with women's rights. This program is about force, about brutality, about violating the human rights of women. And yet the UNFPA continues to be part of it. The UNFPA not only continues to sing the praises of the PRC program, it has also pumped over $100 million into the program.

The Chinese program will never change unless the top leadership wants it to change. And they have made it quite clear that they do not. The UNFPA's presence in China just enhances the power and the international prestige of this brutal program. U.S. support of the UNFPA (even with bookkeeping tricks that make it look like we have nothing to do with the China program) empowers and enriches the organization that in turn empowers and enriches the PRC population control apparatus.

Giving lip service to voluntariness in family planning is not enough. We must conform our policies to our rhetoric. A retreat on forced abortion is a retreat on the human rights of women. The United States must not back down on this.

Congressman Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) is the chairman of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights and co- chairman of the House Pro-Life Caucus.