Congressman Chris Smith questioned U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a congressional hearing this week of the House Foreign Affairs Committee about human rights in China, specifically about its brutal one-child per couple policy.
At the hearing Tuesday, Smith (NJ-04), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee with immediate jurisdiction on global human rights, questioned Secretary Clinton on the Obama Administration’s position on forced sterilizations and forced abortions in China.
Smith, as well as Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CA-46), asked Clinton if she or the President raised the issue of forced abortion in China when President Hu was in Washington in January.
Clinton replied “I cannot answer that yes or no on that particular visit,” going on to say “we consistently raise it in our highest diplomatic encounters with our Chinese counterparts.” Pressed further about whether President Obama has ever brought up the subject of women forced to undergo abortions against their wills, Clinton said “I will have to get an answer for you.”
Smith told Clinton that for 30 years, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)—which receives U.S. taxpayer dollars—has vigorously supported, funded, and promoted the one-child policy. Any Chinese, Tibetan, or Uyghur mothers without a birth permit are put under coercive pressure to abort their unborn babies, and if needed, are rounded up and physically forced to endure a forced abortion, he said.
“All unwed moms are compelled to abort,” Smith said. “In what can only be described as a ‘search and destroy’ mission, disabled children are aborted as part of a nationwide eugenics program.” Click here to read Smith’s hearing statement.
“There is no doubt that the UNFPA-supported one child per couple policy in China has led to the worst gender disparity in any nation in history,” Smith said. “Where are the missing girls of China? Dead, aborted because they were female, systematically destroyed over 30 years by sex-selected abortion. Today, there may be as many as 100 million missing girls in China.”
According to the World Health Organization, about 500 Chinese women commit suicide every day, Smith said, the highest in the world and the only place where the female suicide rate exceeds the male rate. China has also become a magnet for sex trafficking in large measure due to the ‘missing girls.”
