Family Planning Campaign

HUANG, S.-m. (1998). The Spiral Road. Change in a Chinese Village trough the eyes of a Communist Party Leader. Boulder, Westview Press. Pàg. 175-183.

In the middle of May 1985, rumors began to circulate among villagers that a new birth control campaign would soon be launched by the national government. The rumored new policy was to allow only one child per family in rural areas, instead of the current two-child policy. It was also claimed that all pregnant women who were carrying their second child would be taken to the rural hospital for induced abortion.
The moment came one evening at the end of May, through the loudspeaker systems, with a terse, stern, and detached voice broadcast throughout the village:
"The village government has received instructions from higher authorities to change current family planning policies. From now on, village families will be allowed to have only one child per couple. The village government has formulated the following rules to ensure compliance of all villagers with this new policy: First, any villager getting married without permission from proper authorities will be fined RMB$300. Second, from this day on, any village couple who has a second child without proper permission from the authorities will be fined RMB$800. This illegally conceived child will not be recorded on the village household registers. He (or she) will not be covered by village medical insurance, and will not be accepted by the village primary school. Without proper registration, this person will not be eligible for rationed goods. Third, all village women who have already given birth to one or more children must come to the village office for examination at 2 PM. one week from today. Those who do not come will be fined RMB$10 per day for each day of delay. Finally, any village family who does not comply with this new policy will be cut off from the village office's regular business operations."
This announcement hit the village like a bombshell suddenly shattering a tranquil, pre-dusk moment of leisure and relaxation that most village families enjoyed before their evening meal. Even though most villagers were anticipating this announcement, they seemed to be stunned by its harshness. I was chatting with my landlord, Lin Qishan, in his living room when this new regulation was broadcast. He listened intently, and fell silent when it was over. A few moments later, he shook his head and sighed, "This is tough, very tough. Few villagers will dare to challenge this new regulation."
"You mean because of punishment for those who don't comply?" I asked.
"Yes," Lin confirmed, "especially the last point: Any family violating this new regulation will be disassociated from the village government. Frankly, the first three measures would have very little effect on the villagers. Most families now have a lot of cash. If they were allowed to have another child and thus carry on the family line, they would probably be more than willing to pay the RMB$800 fine. As far as the household registration or rationing are concerned, very few people care much about them either. The government is doing away with rationing systems. There is only rice rationing left in the countryside. Most people believe that even this will be abolished next year."
"But why would villagers worry so much about being disassociated from the village government?"
"This is so because most village families are engaged in non-farm production. For instance, there are more than 100 hand tractors in this village now. One of every two village families has a hand tractor operator, who earns at least RMB$300 per month. To buy a hand tractor, which now costs about RMB$4,500, most villagers borrow money from the government's land bank or agricultural credit cooperative. Another example is that recently seven villagers raised RMB$20,000 to set up a heavy machine shop in the village. Half of their investment funds came from government loans and credits. To apply for such loans a family must have the village government's stamp of approval. Without that, financial institutions will not consider any individual loan applications. The village government thus controls the villagers' investment plans. Unless a village family is content with farming on its meager contract land, which most villagers do not consider adequate now, it will have to deal with the village government in one way or another. That is why the last measure will ensure villagers' compliance with this new policy."
After that I went to see Party Secretary Ye. I took a chair across the table from him and said, "So, all the rumors about this new birth control policy were true!"
"Yes," Ye replied. "But I couldn't tell you anything before because I didn't want to create unnecessary panic in our village."
"How do you think villagers will respond to this new policy?" I tried to steer the conversation to test Lin Qishan's view that economic punishment was the most effective enforcement weapon.
"To be honest with you, all villagers hate it," Ye answered without hesitation. He then confidently predicted, "But they will all eventually comply with this new policy."
"How can you be so sure?" I insisted.
"For two reasons," Ye replied carefully, as if he had been preparing for the question. "First of all, this is not the first time we have had birth control regulations in our village. The first time was the most difficult, just like when you put a yoke on an ox's back for the first time. It will resist and struggle. But once the yoke is accepted by the ox, you can tighten it repeatedly, even to the point of choking it to death. Peasants are like oxen. Once they accept something as inevitable, you can continue to tighten the screw. They will complain at first, but will come to terms with reality. The second reason I am confident the villagers will comply with this new regulation is that we threatened to. ostracize any family who dares to challenge this new rule from the village's financial activities. Investment in private enterprises is the biggest concern of all village families now. Without the village government's approval, no village family could possibly borrow money from government banks or credit associations."
So Lin Qishan was correct after all, I told myself. I also found Ye's analogy between this birth control policy imposed on peasants and that of putting a yoke on an ox interesting. "When was the first time that birth control plans were implemented in Lin Village?" I asked.
"It started in the early 1970s.' In 1974, the government began to promote a three-child family policy in the countryside. It was definitely the most difficult one. At that time there was strong resistance to this restriction in the countryside. Not only were the peasants against it, many rural cadres also refused to follow this policy. Work teams were sent down periodically from the commune office to check and enforce this campaign. Women found to be in their fourth pregnancy were dragged to the commune hospital for induced abortion. After the delivery of a third child a woman was fitted with an IUD [intrauterine device] or had a tubal ligation. Those who accepted tubal ligation voluntarily were awarded some cash or gifts. Party cadres who failed to comply with this new regulation or refused to enforce it were promptly fired from their posts. Once the peasants realized that the government was determined to carry out this policy, they grudgingly accepted it.
"This three-child policy lasted for about three years, until 1977. After that, the government reduced the number from three to two per family. Not only were newlyweds allowed to have only two children, but they had to wait for at least three years between children. At that time there was still strong resistance in our village against this policy change. It was my most difficult task during my years in public service. Under this new policy, after the birth of the first child, a woman would have an IUD implanted at the commune hospital until two years after the first delivery. The IUD would then be removed for the second conception. If the woman conceived before this two-year waiting period, she would be required to have an abortion. If the family refused to obey the regulation and had a second child too soon, the brigade would fine this family RMB$10 for each month this second child was born ahead of schedule. At that point most village families were still poor, and RMB$10 was a stiff fine."
"What would happen to a woman after giving birth to the second child?" I asked.
"Four months after the delivery of the second child, the woman would be taken to the commune hospital for a tubal ligation. This was far more reliable than an IUD, which is not 100 percent foolproof. It could also be removed easily. So, after fulfilling the quota of two children, the women underwent surgery. In 1982, the government imposed further restrictions by extending the interval between the first and second child from three to four years. Many villagers were disgruntled about this new policy, but resistance was minimum. They seemed to realize that there was nothing they could do, so they accepted it with resignation. This two-child family policy lasted until now, when the government imposed this one-child-per-family policy in rural areas."
"Now, who actually formulates these policies? Is it the national government that issues a policy for the entire country, or the local government making its own rules? Somehow I have the feeling that the punishment adopted in Lin Village was formulated by the local government," I prompted Ye.
"You are both right and wrong, as usual," Ye replied in his half-teasing tone. "The national government only sets guidelines for birth control. For instance, the national government may set a growth rate target of eleven per thousand for the next year, and ask the provincial government to comply with the goal. The provincial authorities, upon receiving this goal, then figure out how many births can occur in this province during the following year. They then established rules for the entire province to meet this goal. In Fujian Province, for instance, the provincial government stipulated during the current campaign that all rural families can now have only one child per family. But under certain conditions a couple is allowed to have their second child. One condition is that the average farmland per person in an area exceeds 30 mou or more. Only a few counties in the western part of the province, where there are a lot of mountains and few residents, meet this condition. Another condition is allowing the miners to have a second child because the accidental death rate among coal miners is high. A high birthrate allows coal mining communities to replenish the labor force needed for mining. The third condition for an exemption is if both the husband and wife were only children. They are then allowed to have two children so that each family will have an heir to carry on the family line. Even if one or both children are girls, the family can keep the girl at home and bring in a husband for her to carry on the family line. These specific, detailed regulations are formulated by the provincial government based on actual conditions in the province.
"While the provincial government sets the rules, it is left to the local governments at the township and village level to meet the goals. In our case, the village government decided what the most effective measures were to enforce this new ruling. In our village, business investment is the biggest concern among village families. We can threaten people with cutting off their business ties. But in a poor village where there are few business activities, this stipulation would be ineffective. Different localities have to develop different strategies in order to carry out the policy."
I seemed to remember that urban residents in China had adopted the one-child policy a long time ago, and didn't seem to resist it as strongly as the country people. I asked Ye, "Was it true that city residents adopted this one-child policy much earlier? How come this policy was so readily accepted by city people?"
"Cities in China adopted a one-child family policy in 1979." Ye scratched his head as if in search of the proper answer. "City people can easily adopt the one-child-per-family policy for practical reasons. First of all, city people generally don't have enough living space. For instance, the average living space for residents in Xiamen City is about two square meters per person. It is already very crowded. Besides, all city residents work in government offices or enterprises. By the time they retire, the elderly can live on their retirement pensions, which amount to 70 to 80 percent of their regular wage. They don't have to rely on their children to support them in old age.
"The situation in the countryside is completely different. Our living space is not restricted. The average housing space in our village now is about twenty square meters per person. Most city families don't even have that much space for the entire family. In addition, we peasants live on our labor. We have no retirement pension to draw on when we grow old. Who is going to support me if not one of my sons? We peasants are not prejudiced against girls or women. But, the fact is that girls are generally married out to another family when they grow up. You need to have at least one son to stay on with the family.
"In other words, unless the government can develop a comprehensive pension system for peasants, until then I feel the government should allow a peasant family to have two children. Even if you have two girls, you can still marry out one daughter and keep one home. The girl who stays home can take in a husband from another family that has two sons. This way we can solve the problem of old-age support."
"How is the family planning policy carried out in Lin Village?" I changed the subject a bit. "Who actually enforces it?"
"I normally stay aloof from this birth control business," Ye lit a cigarette and answered. "I allow the head of the Women's League, Hou Lingli, to deal with this problem. She keeps records on all village women about the number of children, IUD implants, and tubal ligations. Because Hou is in charge of the village-wide family planning program, she also takes care of village men who are willing to undergo a vasectomy. It is amusing to see Hou accompanying men to the commune hospital for the operation. Sometimes a newly transferred nurse or doctor, who doesn't know Hou's official responsibility, might ask her, 'Are you related to this man? Are you his wife? Why do you come with him if you are not related?' She says she is often embarrassed by these questions. There are only seven men who have had vasectomies in this village. Vasectomy is not popular here because men believe the operation could make them impotent. These seven men have had a vasectomy either because they are dedicated Party members who responded to the call of the government to act as other people's models, or because their wives were in poor health and thus unsuitable for tubal ligation. Villagers believe that any cut in the body means the loss of essential bodily essence (qi). Both vasectomy and tubal ligation are considered detrimental to a person's health. That is one additional reason why villagers hate this birth control policy."
"But why can't the government promote pills or condoms, which are not as harmful to the body?" I asked about possible alternatives.
"The government doesn't believe the peasants would use contraceptive devices voluntarily," Ye responded. "This would be like inviting a wolf to guard the sheepfold. Peasants would do anything possible to have an additional child. Even when a woman has an IUD, she might have this device removed by an illegal midwife. I heard that in this area there is a midwife who comes to our village periodically to perform this service for RMB$10 per person. That is why we need to round up all the women in the brigade once in a while for checkups to make sure their IUDs are in place. Of course tubal ligation is the safest method preventing unwanted births. But the government is reluctant to perform it liberally for practical considerations. A woman may have given birth to the maximum number of children she is allowed. But one of the children may die. When that happens the woman is entitled to have another child. Tubal ligation is very difficult to reverse, thus making it difficult for the woman to become pregnant again."
It was now quite late at night. I said goodbye to Ye and returned to my apartment.
The week following the announcement of this new one-child family policy, horrible stories circulated among villagers about how this campaign was being conducted in other villages. I was told, for instance, in Hongshan Village, a work team headed by a deputy township mayor and a handful of cadres from the township office arrived with a van on the first day of June. Upon hearing of the arrival of the work team, several families with pregnant women fled, mostly to the women's birthplaces in other counties. A few families hid their pregnant women under the bed and locked the door as if no one was home.
The work team forced its way into the homes. If they found a woman hiding inside, they took her for a pregnancy test. All those with positive results were taken to the township hospital for abortion. If the entire family had fled, the work team would take household valuables-such as a television set, a sewing machine, or a bicycle-to the township headquarters. It would then leave word for the owner that if this family didn't come to claim these valuables in person at township headquarters within three days, the township office would simply confiscate all goods. For poor families that didn't have anything of value, the work team dismantled their house doors or windows as collateral.
On June 6, the day the birth control work team was to come to Lin Village, the village was unusually calm and quiet. All activity in the village ceased and villagers anxiously awaited their fate. A shiny blue van arrived at the village office at 9 A.M., carrying a deputy township mayor and three township office cadres, who formed the most dreaded work team. Party Secretay Ye and other village officials greeted them at the office and immediately had a closed-door meeting with them for the entire morning.
It was half past one after lunch, and there were already many villagers gathered around the office, mostly women. All twenty-seven women who had already had one child but who had not been sterilized were there.
That evening I heard fragmented reports from villagers that a few women who were taken to the hospital were forced to have abortions. But other than that, everything else seemed to work out fine.