In Zhubao township in the eastern province of Shandong, family planning officials detained and beat the sister of one pregnant woman who had already given birth to one child, the family told RFA’s Cantonese service.
The woman, who lives near Linyi city, where family planning abuses have already been widely documented, is eight months pregnant. She went into hiding with her husband to escape the forced abortion which she says would otherwise be inevitable. When the authorities couldn’t find her, they detained her elder sister.
“After they took her away they were asking her questions about our other sister [the pregnant woman],” a younger sister told reporter Grace Kei Lai-see.
“When she said she didn’t know they would beat her up. We heard from inside sources that the beatings were very severe. We also heard that they beat one woman to death a few years ago, so we are all very worried about her.”
She said the entire family was planning to go into hiding to escape further detentions and beatings.
The pregnant woman said in an interview from her hiding place that she was living in constant fear of being caught.
“Now we are supposedly safe, but I don’t feel safe. I am still very frightened. If they catch me they will force me to have an abortion. I feel very weak because I am anaemic.”
“I feel awful that my sister is suffering because of me. But I don’t know what I can do. I don’t want to go back and have an abortion. And I can’t go back if I don’t have an abortion. So I will have to have the baby and then go back and pay the fines.”
Repeated calls to the Zhubao township family planning office during office hours were misconnected.
Photo: Yuan Weijing and her daughter. Taken by Hu Jia.
Filed under: China, East Asia, Newsdesk, cantonese, china_civil_rights, china_civilrights, china_health, china_rights, east_asia, governance, human_rights, shandong, women | Tagged: chen_guangcheng, china_population, china_rights, family_planning, linyi, one_child_policy, population, shandong, yinan, yuan_weijing
