Letters to the Editor
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‘Baby Supermarket’
Talia Carner points to a serious human rights and social crisis in China, but is inaccurate when she suggests a lack of interest or involvement in the issue by human rights groups and the American government [Oped, “Baby Supermarket,” February 16, 2007].
For instance, Ms. Carner states that female infanticide “is not even mentioned” in “the 2006 U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China” Annual Report.
In fact, China’s coercive population planning policy and the tragedy of female infanticide is addressed in the commission’s 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006 annual reports. The 2006 report also points the reader to the congressional hearings held on the topic as recently as 2004 and 2006.
The Chinese government’s coercive population planning laws and regulations contravene international human rights standards on many levels, as detailed in the commission’s 2006 Annual Report, and have been the focus of attention and outrage by governments and human rights groups for decades. Even in China, heroic human rights defenders like Chen Guangcheng are now serving lengthy prison sentences for raising worldwide attention to the issue.
China’s coercive population planning policies may be the one human rights issue that affects every family in China. Ms. Carner is right to highlight this issue, but she is wrong to suggest that she stands alone in recognizing it.
DAVID DORMAN
Staff Director, 109th Congress
Congressional-Executive Commission on China
Laurel, Md.
Ms. Carner replies:
My article does not deal with coercive population planning policies, which target adults. The outcome of those policies are gender-neutral and do not affect the gap in the boy-girl ratio. My article refers specifically to gendercide —singling out female infants for death through abandonment, neglect, and outright killing — which contributes to the 1.7 million “missing” girls each year.
I erred in missing the one sentence in the 269-page Congressional-Executive Commission 2006 report that acknowledges infanticide.
Since it was similarly mentioned in the 2002 report, why hasn’t infanticide been investigated? I hope that the 2007 report will cover the fate of higher-birth-order children and those in orphanages and answer such questions as how many institutions are there, what is the life expectancy of these children, and what happens to an infant allocated less than $50 a year?
And where are the reported hundreds of thousands of abandoned children not entitled to social protection?
In short, where are the missing 1.7 million girls?
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