Much has been written about the totalitarian government ruling China. As examples of the horrors following acquisition of absolute power by a cadre of criminals, the nation’s brutal twists and turns over the past six decades regarding population should never be forgotten. The kind of power they illustrate should frighten any sensible individual.
The Chinese people fell under Communist control in 1949. Their new leader, the mass murdering Mao Zedong, initiated a reign of terror that saw government liquidate between 15 and 30 million Chinese people over the next ten years. Because he also wanted recruits for the People’s Liberation Army, Mao then encouraged families to produce more children who could, in time, beef up his army and boost the number of laborers. Having successfully eliminated the potential for internal uprisings, he encouraged younger Chinese to produce larger families for all of his needs. He even forbade abortion and outlawed using contraceptives. The population soared past one billion in three decades.
Mao died in 1976 and Deng Xiaoping soon inaugurated a new family policy. Emphasizing economic growth, the new Chinese leader initiated a cap on population. Each family was now allowed only one child although some exceptions were made if the firstborn turned out to be female. Couples had to obtain a permit to bring a child into the world. Those who accepted the mandate and produced only one son or daughter were frequently given preferred housing and other awards. Ruthless state jurisdiction enforced the one-child policy with forced abortion and infanticide. Estimates place the number of infant victims at 400,000. And sterilization became the fate of women caught with a second child.
Especially were female infants targeted by the one-child rule. Today, as many as 30 million young Chinese men face the real possibility of being unable to find a woman to marry. Some have actually gone to South Korea, kidnapped a female, and brought her back to China. Add to these outrages brought on by the totalitarian regime’s social engineering are China’s aging populace and shrinking labor pool.
Faced with these new difficulties, Chinese officials recently decided to allow families to have a second child. Not a third or more of course! Some China watchers mockingly wonder now if there will be fines for those who have only one child. Others wonder if childless couples will be jailed.
There is hardly any right more basic than marrying and building a family. China’s rulers throw a dark blanket over this right. Anyone claiming to be an advocate of freedom should have nothing to do with such totalitarian monsters — and that includes the leaders of our own government who regularly treat them with undeserved respect.
John F. McManus is president of The John Birch Society and publisher of The New American. This column appeared originally at the insideJBS blog and is reprinted here with permission.
