Chinese Village on “Lockdown” After Couple Reveals Officials Abducted Their “Illegal” Baby

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 31, 2013   |   3:20PM   |   Beijing, China

The Chinese people have been dealing with a wide range of human rights abuses associated with the one-child policy in China. Whether it’s forced abortions or sterilizations, loses of jobs or government benefits, labor camps, prison sentences or home detention — those who violate the policy have illegal children face the kind of ramifications most people will never experience who have a child anywhere else in the world.

Now, because a couple in one village dared to speak out about how family planning officials confiscated their “illegal” child, their entire village is on lockdown. Government officials are forbidding strangers from entering a rural village after a disabled couple attempted to draw attention to the 1995 abduction

From the London Telegraph:

A rural village in northern China has reportedly been placed under “curfew” after a disabled couple accused the local government of masterminding the abduction of their 11-day-old baby.

Officials imposed the lockdown after Liu Laogen, 64, and his 50-year-old wife, Xia Fengge, spoke about their daughter being snatched from them by officials they say were working for the family planning bureau almost 20 years ago.

The case is the latest to underline the human cost of China’s one-child policy and the appalling abuses that it has spawned, including forced abortions and child abductions.

The baby was Ms Xia’s third and relations believe family planning officials decided to take the girl in order to discourage other locals from breaking China’s one-child policy.

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Eighteen years on, with the baby’s whereabouts still a mystery, the parents are suing local authorities over the disappearance in the hope of uncovering the truth. “We don’t expect to get our child back. We just want to know whether she is still alive,” Ms Xia said. “All we want is one small glimpse of her so we can die peacefully.”

However, the couple’s decision to go public with their case appears to have infuriated officials from Qiaonan village in Hebei’s Anxin county where they live.

Their son, Liu Lingqun, told The Telegraph: “We now have a curfew in the village and reporters are not allowed to enter. My parents have been feeling unwell over the last few days and didn’t sleep at all last night.” Mr Liu said officials had offered his parents “compensation” of up to 200,000 yuan (about £2,000) if they abandoned the case. “They have also tried to restrict my freedoms and have closely monitored our house.”