China Reform Monitor: No. 1117

July 22:

Recent reports of local officials coercing women into late-term abortions and levying heavy fines on families who have multiple children have pushed China’s population control policies into the spotlight, the New York Times reports. Enforcement leads to widespread abuses because many local governments reward officials based on the success of their population control programs. In one highly publicized case posted on Sina, a local official hired thugs to seize an eight-month pregnant woman from her grocery store. They imprisoned her for four days then forced her to a hospital for an abortion. There are no reliable estimates on the number of forced abortions and sterilizations in China, but recent cases show overzealous enforcement remains a problem. Forcing women in their third trimester to have an abortion is illegal in China.

An aging population and dwindling pool of young, cheap labor will slow China’s economic growth. “An aging working population is resulting in a labor shortage, a less innovative and less energetic economy, and a more difficult path to industrial upgrading,” demographics analyst He Yafu told the New York Times. China’s population is the world’s largest and the central government remains intent on limiting that number through the one-child policy. Yet, even abolishing the policy might not be enough to bring the birthrate up to a “healthy” level because of other factors, He said. Liang Jianzhang and Li Jianxin, a demographer at Peking University, estimate that by 2040 the number of Chinese over 60 will be 411 million, up from 171 million today and the working population – people between the ages of 20 and 60 – will drop to 696 million from 817 million today.

July 25:

A man with a knife has killed two family planning bureau officials and injured four others in Dongxing, Guangxi. The official Global Times reports that, according to local villagers, he was retaliating against the local family planning bureau: “The man was promised by the bureau that his daughter can be registered with a hukou should his wife receive sterilization operations. However, frequent visits to the bureau during the three months after the sterilization still bore no fruit.” Dongxing authorities, however, deny the claim and insist the man went to the bureau to register his fourth child for residency but refused to pay the fine for having multiple children and began slashing people. To attend school and qualify for government benefits a child must be registered. In 2010 the government certified the man as disabled because of mental illness.

July 29:

Yunnan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Tibet, Xinjiang and Sichuan will build new highways for city clusters and rural areas as part of a new national drive to increase road construction. The government has earmarked 186.9 billion yuan from vehicle purchase tax receipts to fund transportation projects this year and the Ministry of Finance has announced a further 66.9 billion yuan to build roads and defense-related highways. Over the next 5-8 years Tibet alone will spend 200 billion yuan on a road network for Lhasa and extend its highways to over 110,000 km. Projects will be funded using “multiple channels” including corporate bonds, the official Global Times reports. The National Development and Reform Commission has approved an 8.5 billion yuan corporate bond issuance by Hubei Provincial Communications Investment Co., Ltd., the largest corporate bond sale of its kind to date.

July 30:

Beijing-controlled Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao and Xinhua have published an editorial arguing that Egypt will pay a “bloody price” for promoting “American style democracy.” The column claims that Egypt’s “second revolution” triggered by the fall of Mohammed Morsi’s government shows the country’s “democratization process is already a failure.” It claims the U.S.’ “laissez-faire policy” over the Egypt’s military coup d’état is “conspicuous support” for the military to take over political power and suppress street riots. The column contends that “American style democracy,” which has been worshiped as a “panacea” for all problems, is “not accustomed to the climate” of the Islamic world.