Today, LRF executive director Harry Wu testified to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the United States House of Representatives on China's One-Child Policy.  His testimony is below: (PDF version linked to the image on the right)

I am honored to testify here on the coercive population control policy in the People's Republic of China. I appreciate the Commission’s ongoing attention to human rights in China.

In 1998, 2001 and 2004, I testified alongside other witnesses on this issue before the US Congress. Regrettably, the impact of these hearings was minimal, as the coercive population control policy remains essentially unchanged in China, and the violations of human rights associated with this policy are still prevalent throughout the country.

Introduction

Since 1978, the Chinese government has gradually adopted a radical, draconian set of population control measures intended to curb the negative effects of overpopulation in China, home to one-fifth of the world’s population. In 1978, the First Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress introduced the concept of family planning into China’s Constitution. (Read more)