China One-Child Policy Designed to 'Divide, Conquer'
WASHINGTON -- An ardent fighter against China's one-child policy says the Chinese no longer need the policy, arguing that it's robbing China of millions of workers and women it will need in the near future.
Reggie Littlejohn of Women's Rights Without Frontiers suggests the reason the onerous policy still exists is for much more nefarious purposes.
"I believe it's a way for the Chinese Communist Party to demonstrate to every human being in China that the arm of its power extends from Beijing to every single womb in China to declare life or death over the baby in there," Littlejohn told CBN News in an exclusive interview.
She testified before a joint U.S. Senate/House Commission Thursday that the deadly policy rips apart the bonds of trust between the Chinese people.
"Women are constantly being spied on by their neighbors, their friends, their co-workers, people who are hired in the villages just to watch women's abdomens to see if anybody looks pregnant," Littlejohn told CBN News just before she testified. "Anyone can inform on them."
Littlejohn sees this as a way for the party to keep people from organizing future Tianamen Square-type thrusts for democracy.
"What that does is it ruptures all the relationships of trust in Chinese society," Littlejohn stated. "And if you can't trust anyone, you can't organize for democracy. So I believe this is a divide and conquer strategy by the Chinese Communist Party."
Littlejohn also told Congress that beyond the politics of this, there's a fortune being made off the exorbitant fines Chinese families are charged for having "illegal" babies.
"The Chinese Communist Party has taken in $314 billion since the institution of the One Child Policy," she cited one estimate.
"And it's like the Wild West out there," she told CBN News. "These fines are not uniform throughout the country. It all depends on what family planning police officer shows up at your door what your fine is going to be."
"And there's no accounting for it either," Littlejohn added. "And so a lot of these fines are just going to line the pockets of the local officials."
