She Was Officially Announced to Have Passed Away, and Tens of Millions of Unborn Fetuses Were Harmed in Connection With Her Actions

Photo: 1985 slogan — “Having only one child is good, the government will support you in old age.”(Screenshot from the internet)

[People News] Former State Councillor of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and former Vice Chairperson of the National People's Congress (NPC), Peng Peiyun, passed away in Beijing on December 21. Notably, Peng Peiyun had led the CPC's family planning department for a decade. Statistics indicate that the CPC's implementation of the family planning policy over the past 36 years has resulted in 400 million fewer births.

According to a report from the CPC's Xinhua News Agency, Peng Peiyun, who was a former State Councillor, former NPC Vice Chairperson, and former Chairperson and Honorary Chairperson of the All-China Women's Federation, passed away due to illness at 6:26 AM on Sunday (December 21) in Beijing, at the age of 96.

Public records show that Peng Peiyun was born in December 1929 in Hunan. She worked at universities in Beijing during her early years and became the Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee at Peking University in 1964. During the Cultural Revolution, she faced persecution. After 1975, she returned to Peking University and held various positions, including head of the First Bureau of the State Science and Technology Commission, Director of the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Education, Vice Minister of Education, and Deputy Director of the National Education Commission.

In 1988, Peng Peiyun was appointed Director of the National Family Planning Commission; in 1993, she was promoted to State Councilor while continuing to serve as Director of the National Family Planning Commission. In March 1998, she became Vice Chairperson of the CPC's National People's Congress, and in September of the same year, she was appointed Chairperson of the All-China Women's Federation. After retiring in March 2003, she continued to serve as Honorary Chairperson of the All-China Women's Federation and President of the Chinese Red Cross Society, among other roles.

On November 19, 2013, the Spanish National Court issued arrest warrants for Peng Peiyun and four other former high-ranking officials, including former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin, on charges of involvement in genocide against Tibet.

The interest in Peng Peiyun's death stems from her tenure as the director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission of the Communist Party of China from 1988 to 1998. During this ten-year period, she was a pivotal figure in the family planning policy that had already been enshrined in the constitution.

Independent commentator Cai Shenkun expressed on X that the decade during which Peng Peiyun managed family planning had a catastrophic impact on China's population, resulting in the harm of tens of millions of fetuses. Everything has a spirit, especially human life. While the so-called atheists among Communist Party officials may disregard the concept of karma, I still vividly recall the poignant moment when Wang Hanbin bid farewell to Peng Peiyun, a white-haired person saying goodbye to a black-haired one. In the authoritarian regime of the Communist Party, family tragedies are inextricably linked to political decisions.

Economist Su Xiaohe remarked that the younger generation of Chinese people is not familiar with Peng Peiyun. However, those from her generation are very well aware of her influence. Peng Peiyun significantly altered the lifestyle of the Chinese people, leaving a lasting impact for decades and causing profound damage to every family in China.

In 1978, the Communist Party enshrined family planning in the constitution, establishing it as a fundamental national policy. In 1979, the National People's Congress proposed to 'encourage couples to have only one child,' and this policy was further reinforced in 1980.

In 1982, family planning was officially included in the constitution, which stated that 'the state implements family planning to ensure that population growth aligns with economic and social development plans.' In 2001, the 'Population and Family Planning Law' was enacted, clearly advocating that 'a couple should have one child.'

By 2016, as China's ageing population became more pronounced, the Communist Party of China was compelled to fully implement the 'two-child policy,' leading to a revision of the 'Population and Family Planning Law' to state that 'the state advocates that a couple should have two children.'

From 1979 to 2015, China enforced a one-child policy for 36 years. A 'one-vote veto' was applied nationwide, resulting in forced abortions, sterilisations, and fines for those who exceeded the birth limit. Official statistics indicate that during this period, around 320 million Chinese women had intrauterine devices (IUDs) inserted, and 107 million women underwent tubal ligation, leading to an estimated 400 million fewer births. This policy has had a profound impact on the lives of several generations of Chinese women.

Beginning in the second half of 1979, family planning became a national policy in China. With very few exceptions for certain rural areas and some ethnic minority populations, forced abortions, mandatory IUD insertions, and sterilisations were implemented as reproductive interventions for women who exceeded the birth limit.

According to publicly available data from the China Health Yearbook, in 1971, prior to the widespread implementation of family planning, the population abortion rate was only 15.23%, but by 1983, it had surged to 69.83%.

As the 1990s began, the family planning policy in China was further reinforced. The total fertility rate, which stood at a high of 5.81 in 1970, gradually declined to 2.31 by 1990, and by 2000, it had dropped to 1.22. Internationally, a fertility rate of 2.1 is commonly accepted as the threshold for population replacement, ensuring a balanced population across generations. A rate below 1.5 is classified as 'very low fertility'.

In recent years, as women who have had intrauterine devices (IUDs) age, there is a significant risk that these long-term devices may deform and penetrate the uterine muscle layer, leading to complications such as uterine perforation, damage to the intestines, ureters, bladder, workplace injuries, and other issues, which can result in organ dysfunction like intestinal obstruction. Many healthcare facilities in China that cater to women and children are actively engaging in community education efforts, urging women with IUDs to have their devices removed after their recommended service period.
△