Will Bush Address China's Human Rights Violations?

"Since first introduced in 1979, China's one-child policy has evoked strong concern over human rights abuses. These abuses have reportedly included denial of social benefits, fines, detention, destruction of property, forced abortion and forced sterilization. . .," she wrote. "In 1995, as a participant in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, I heard first hand about these practices and spoke against them. In 2002, China enacted a Population and Family Planning Law aimed at ending human rights violations associated with the one-child policy. However, the 2004 State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices suggests uneven Chinese enforcement of the law, with continuing use of psychological and economic pressure and threats to force women to terminate pregnancies or undergo sterilization."

Sen. Clinton also condemned these human rights abuses in a November 10 speech to the American Bar Association International Rule of Law Symposium.

"I am glad that Sen. Clinton has raised the profile of this official, systematic abuse of the rights of Chinese women and their husbands," said Steven Mosher, President of PRI. "Although Sen. Clinton generally takes the wrong side when it comes to the life issues, we are very pleased that she has not remained silent when it comes to this persecution of Chinese mothers as so many feminist and so-called pro-choice leaders have. Chinese law officially forbids Chinese families from having more than one or two children."

Clinton has been slowly positioning herself as a more moderate abortion advocate, perhaps to make herself more palatable for a 2008 run for President. This latest statement appears part of the effort to redefine herself given the gross inconsistency.

"The problem is that Sen. Clinton still supports U.S. funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)," continued Mosher. "The UNFPA subsidizes China's population control apparatus. Sen. Clinton should join President Bush in opposing funding for this agency until it ceases its financial support for forced abortion and sterilization in China. She should bring her policy into line with her rhetoric."

"We are grateful to Sen. Clinton for choosing to highlight this issue just before President Bush's trip to China," said Joseph A. D'Agostino, Vice President for Communications at PRI. "Too often, discussion of the Communist Chinese government's human rights abuses includes religious and political persecution, but fails to mention the one-child policy, which restricts the rights of every family in China. We are grateful, too, for President Bush's decision earlier this year to withhold U.S. funding from UNFPA. We hope that President Bush, Sen. Clinton, and others will continue to press this issue and propose specific incentives to persuade China to change her oppressive policies."

Source: Population Research Institute Press Release