Chinese Woman Refusing Sterilization Beaten to Death
Source: French Press Agency (AFP); May 19, 2001

Beijing, China -- A 34-year-old woman in southeast China's Fujian province
was beaten to death by birth-control officials who wanted to sterilize her
against her will, her relatives said on Saturday.

Sun Zhonghua, from a farming family in Xiapu county near the provincial
capital of Fuzhou, was taken away by birth-control officials from her home
by daybreak on Wednesday, a relative told the French Press Agency by
telephone.

The officials told Sun, the mother of two boys aged 12 and 13, that she
was to be taken to the birth-control clinic for sterilization, a procedure
they had previously been pressing her to submit herself to. She refused
vehemently, showing documents obtained from a local hospital in April that
the planned operation was not advisable because of a medical condition.

Despite her and her relatives' protests, she was forced into a waiting car
and driven away.

In the afternoon of the same day, officials informed Sun's relatives that
she had died after jumping from the fourth floor of the building housing
the local birth-control administration.

Family members who were allowed to see her body discovered large bruises
to her head and different parts of her body.

"There is no way she could have received those injuries from jumping to
her death," said the relative.

During the anxious hours on Wednesday while Sun's relatives were waiting
for news about her, they went to the police to report the birth-control
officials' violent manner when taking her from her home. But they were
given the rounds by a string of police officials, who appeared unwilling
to get involved in the case.

"We tried to report the incident, but there was no one to report to," said
the relative.

Already the mother of two, Sun understood that she had to conform with
national population policies and had no plans of giving birth to more
children, her family said. She had gone to the hospital every year since
1992 to make sure she was not pregnant, they said.

China's controversial "one child" policy continues to result in serious
human rights violations 20 years after it became law. In the early years,
the world was shocked by mass campaigns to round up women and sterilize
them almost like cattle.

Such public campaigns are rare now, but the policy is being enforced in
ways that many human rights groups say are equally unjust.

Pressure on China's army of family planning workers to meet the birth
quota in their jurisdiction have led to widespread excesses. Family
planning workers and local officials resort to beating people, locking
them up illegally, confiscating livestock and destroying their homes.

Despite the harsh measures, births are still growing at an annual rate of
10 million and the government has vowed to continue the policy to cap the
population at 1.6 billion by the year 2050. China's population now stands
at nearly 1.3 billion, the largest in the world. Beijing credits the
policy for helping the country avoid 300 million births.