China faces dilemma over birth-control abuse
When reports surfaced last summer of horrific abuses by officials in charge of curbing population growth in eastern China's Shandong Province, the National Population and Family Planning Commission swung into action.
The commission launched an investigation into allegations of forced late-term abortions, compulsory sterilisations and beatings in Shandong's Linyi city - and then issued a rare admission that the law had been broken and officials were being disciplined.
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A year later, however, there is little sign of any serious attempt to address the causes of the abuses or even to give a public account of their scope and seriousness.
The legal activist who exposed the illegal conduct has been jailed. No details have been released of the punished officials, and the family planning commission dismisses the Linyi abuses as an isolated issue that is out of its hands.
"It's not up to us to punish them [Linyi officials]," says Yu Xuejun, a senior commission official.
"Who gets punished and how this gets administered is a local matter."
The occurrences in Linyi are a graphic illustration of the gulf that can exist between China's statements on its population policies and local realities.
In the 1980s, abuses such as those in Linyi were common throughout China.
But a national family planning law that went into effect in 2002, and regulations passed since then, require that people be given an "informed choice" in reproductive matters. While the overall situation has improved, officials still have tremendous leeway in carrying out Beijing's policies.
Local governments are judged by how well they meet population targets, and sometimes use illegal means to achieve their ends. The central government believes maintaining a low birth rate for its 1.3bn population, which is expected to grow for another 30 years, is essential for continued economic progress.
Since 1979, Beijing has drastically limited births, with a "one-child" policy in cities and various restrictions on the number of children permitted to rural families and among ethnic minority groups.
China's total fertility rate, the average number of children born per female, has fallen from 5.8 in 1970 to 1.8, according to Mr Yu. Experts say urban families now predominantly have one child and rural families have two.
Zhang Weiqing, head of the family planning commission, estimates that the one-child policy and other restrictive measures have in the past three decades prevented 400m births.
But the severity of enforcement is far from uniform.
A report by UK and Chinese experts in the New England Journal of Medicine argues central government policies are "underpinned by a system of rewards and penalties, which are largely meted-out at the discretion of local officials and hence vary widely".
Mr Yu says local authorities, usually at province or city level, have the power to devise their own population control strategies - and the most effective methods can then be adopted nationally.
However, he admits some local cadres remain wedded to the brutal practices of the 1980s and are unfamiliar with the 2002 law, which forbids forced abortions and sterilisations.
"Many people still think doing things that way [coercively] is correct," he says.
The family planning commission's ability to provide meaningful oversight appears limited. It has only 132 staff in Beijing, compared with an estimated 1m people - including local family planning workers and volunteers - involved in implementing its policies around the country.
The commission, which operates directly under the State Council, or cabinet, is pushing for greater use of incentives such as financial rewards for fewer births, especially in rural areas.
But such calls have limited effect when local officials come under great pressure to reduce the number of births quickly, as Mr Yu suggests happened last year in Shandong, the country's second most populated province after central Henan.
Mr Yu says Linyi's large population of about 10m and the area's poverty made it more likely for officials there to resort to extreme methods.
The commission has sought to distance itself from the case of Chen Guangcheng, the blind legal activist who brought the Linyi abuses to light.
After trying to bring legal action against local population control officials, Mr Chen was subjected to months of extra-legal detention and was last month jailed for four years for "wilfully damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic".
Mr Yu says Linyi's top leaders probably deserve punishment for the abuses in their area, but admits that, as far as the commission is aware, no more than five local officials have been called to account.
中国：计划生育的经济手段
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年夏天，当有报道称，中国山东省负责计划生育的官员存在严重侵犯公民权益的行为时，中国国家人口与计划生育委员会(NPFPC，国家人口计生委)立即采取了行动。
国家人口计生委对山东临沂市涉嫌强迫晚期堕胎、强制绝育和使用暴力的问题进行了调查，并在随后发表了非常罕见的声明，承认临沂市的计划生育管理确实存在违法行为，并称相关官员已受到处分。
然而，一年过去了，几乎没有迹象表明中国政府真正试图从根本上解决这些侵犯公民权益的问题，甚至没有就这些事件的波及范围和严重性予以公开说明。
揭发这一违法行为的法律维权人士已经入狱。相关部门一直没有公布被处罚官员的详细情况，而国家人口计生委也将临沂侵犯公民权益事件列为一个孤立事件，称其不在自己的管辖范围内。
国家人口计生委高级官员于学军表示，“我们无权处罚他们（临沂的相关官员）。”
“处罚谁，怎么处罚，都是地方政府的事。”
临沂发生此类侵犯公民权益事件，极好地说明了中国人口政策的官方说辞与地方实际情况之间存在多大差距。
上世纪80年代，像临沂这种侵犯公民权益的事件在中国各地颇为普遍。
不过，2002年开始施行的《人口与计划生育法》及此后通过各种规定，都要求公民在避孕节育措施上应享有“知情选择”的权利。尽管整体情况已经有所改善，但各地官员在执行中央政策时仍出现严重偏差。
人口控制情况是地方政府的政绩考核指标之一，有时，他们会运用一些违法手段来达到目的。中央政府认为，中国人口维持低出生率，对经济持续发展至关重要。中国目前有13亿人口，预计未来30年还将保持增长。
自1979年以来，中国政府大力限制出生率，在城市推行“独生子女”政策，并采取各种措施限制农村和少数民族家庭可以生育的子女数量。
于学军表示，中国的整体生育率（每个妇女生育孩子的平均数量）已从1970年的5.8下降至1.8。专家表示，中国城市家庭目前普遍都只有一个孩子，农村家庭是两个孩子。
国家人口计生委主任张维庆估计，过去30年来，独生子女政策及其它限制措施让中国少出生了4亿人。
但各地执行中央政府人口政策的情况差别很大。
来自中国和英国的专家在《新英格兰医学杂志》(New England Journal of Medicine)上发表的一份报告称，中国中央政府的政策“建立在一套奖惩机制基础上，而这套机制如何执行，很大程度上由地方官员自行决定，因此各地差别很大。”
于学军表示，地方当局（通常是省、市一级的政府）有权制定当地的人口控制政策，而最有效的手段随后可能会在全国推行。
不过，他承认，一些地方干部仍在沿用上世纪80年代的野蛮做法，对2002年施行的《人口与计划生育法》并不熟悉。这部法律禁止强制堕胎和绝育。
他表示：“很多人仍然认为这种（强制）做法是正确的。”
国家人口计生委实施有效监督的能力似乎很有限。该机构在北京仅有132名工作人员，但全国参与执行计划生育政策的工作者估计约有100万（包括地方政府计划生育部门的工作人员和志愿者）。
作为中国国务院(State Council)的直属机构，国家人口计生委大力提倡采用鼓励措施，比如对少生孩子的家庭进行经济奖励，尤其是在农村地区。
但这种号召的效果极为有限，因为地方官员面临着尽快减少人口出生数量的巨大压力。于学军暗示，去年发生在山东的事件就是因为这个问题。山东是中国排名第二的人口大省，仅次于河南。
于学军表示，临沂的人口数量已达1000万左右，而这一地区比较贫穷，这使得当地官员更有可能采取极端措施。
国家人口计生委有意将自己从陈光诚一案中撇清责任――这名双目失明的法律维权人士揭发了临沂发生的侵犯公民权益事件。
由于试图对当地的计划生育官员提起法律诉讼，陈光诚遭到了长达数月的非法拘禁，并于上个月被判处四年监禁，罪名是“蓄意破坏财产和聚众扰乱交通”。
于学军表示，临沂发生侵犯公民权益事件，当地高层领导或许应该为此受处分，但他承认，据国家人口计生委所知，目前最多只有5名当地官员受到质询。
