The fund, known as UNFPA, has repeatedly called the allegations baseless, and
uses money from other sources for its program in China. It has cited a US
government report that found no evidence that it "knowingly supported or
participated in ... coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization" in China.
But Kelly Ryan, deputy assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of
Population, Refugees and Migration, told UNFPA's executive board Wednesday that
China's population and family planning law adopted in 2001 and its one-child
policies "demonstrate that the birth limitation program clearly has coercive
elements in law and in practice."
"If UNFPA would stop giving the `seal of approval,' I think we could move the
ball along quite a bit more," Ryan said in an interview.
The Bush administration wants China's provinces to abolish regulations that,
among other things, punish unplanned births, require couples to use
contraception and require pregnancies be terminated if prenatal exams show the
fetus to be severely deformed, Ryan said.
She also argued that China's policies violate the platform adopted at the 1994
UN population conference in Cairo which says parents have the right to decide
the size and spacing of their families.
China's deputy UN ambassador Zhang Yishan countered that China's 1.3 billion
people account for one-fifth of the world's population, and its per capita
income is only 2.8% of the United States' so family planning is essential for
development.
Without its policy, he said, China's population over the last 30 years would
have grown by more than 300 million additional people, "which equals the entire
US population," he said.
Zhang said China was adhering to the 1994 UN platform which gives countries the
right to set their own population policy. He stressed that the China's
population and family planning law stipulates that family planning workers "
shall adopt no coercive measures in whatever form."
As a result of China's 26-year cooperation with UNFPA, he said, China has
learned "advanced international concepts on population and development and
management methods" which have raised the level of reproductive health and
family planning services. In 32 counties where pilot programs were conducted,
for example, maternal mortality dropped significantly and AIDS awareness
increased, he said.
"A grievance mechanism has been established to protect people's legitimate
rights and interests, including hot lines at the national, provincial and pilot
county levels," Zhang said.
The UNFPA board meeting was closed but China and the United States provided
their speeches.
UNFPA has proposed spending $27 million in China from 2006-2010 -less than 3%
of what the Chinese put into population programs, said Sultan Aziz, head of
UNFPA's Asia-Pacific bureau.
He said UNFPA programs in China have helped give people "increased choices,
more information and they can determine the spacing of the births."
Dow Jones Newswires
