Congress Approves Resolution Asking China to Stop Forced Abortion Campaign

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jul 30, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Congress Approves Resolution Asking China to Stop Forced Abortion Campaign

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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 30
, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Just one week before the Summer Olympics kick off in Beijing, the House of Representatives approved legislation calling on the Chinese government stop its brutal campaign of forced abortions. They accompany the coercive one-child family planning policy that has earned the nation worldwide scorn.

The House approved the resolution on a 419 to 1 vote.

The Congressional-approved measure asks China to “end abuses of human rights of its citizens” in order to ensure that the Olympic games take place “in an atmosphere that honors the Olympic traditions of freedom and openness.”

Rep. Chris Smith, the leading co-sponsor of the resolution, said China has more human rights abuses than can be adequately tracked.

In his speech on the floor of the House during the debate on the resolution, Smith focused on two amendments he successfully attached to the bill during the House Foreign Affairs Committee markup last week.

One amendment calls on the Chinese government to abandon its coercive population control policy that includes forced abortion.

“China’s coercive population control program has imposed unspeakable violence, pain and humiliation on hundreds of millions of Chinese women, many of whom suffer lifelong depression as a consequence," he said, in a statement provided to LifeNews.com.

"Massively violated by the state, it is no wonder more women commit suicide in China than anywhere else in the world," he explained.

Smith has held more than 25 hearings on human rights abuses in China as chairman of House human rights committees and has become an expert on the forced abortion situation there.

“As a direct result of the government’s one child policy, tens of millions of girls are missing today—dead due to sex selection abortions—creating a huge gender disparity," he explained. "The lost girls of China is gendercide."

"With its heavy reliance on forced abortion, involuntary sterilization and ruinous fines for illegal children, the policy, in effect since 1979, constitutes one of the greatest continuous crimes against humanity in human history,” he continued.

“My amendment seeks to bring some additional focus on the barbaric, cruel and hideous crime of China’s coercive population control program,” Smith said.

Smith said the human rights abuses in China got worse before the Olympics.

“In recent months, the Chinese Government has been filling its jails, watching, intimidating, house arresting and warning all known dissidents,” Smith.

Smith said he saw the pre-Olympics crackdown firsthand when he had his own trip to China disrupted earlier this month when several human rights lawyers were detained by the Chinese police when they attempted to meet with Smith and Rep. Frank Wolf.

“Tragically, but predictably, the Olympics have been the occasion of a massive crackdown designed to silence and put beyond reach all those Chinese whose views differ from the government line,” said Smith.

Rep. Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, was the only member of the body to vote against the resolution. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, voted present. Both are former presidential candidates.

 

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