The BBC reports that in March a man in China became the first to file a lawsuit under a new law in that country that guarantees both men and women equal say in having children.

As part of its extreme family planning policies, China approved a law that makes both spouses in a marriage equally responsible for family planning decisions. In this case, a man his wife because she aborted her pregnancy despite his desire to see her carry the pregnancy to term.

The law was apparently passed due to concern that the brunt of enforcement of China’s one-child policy was falling largely on women. Health experts called on men to take more active of a role, and the government responded with a law granting men and women equal legal status in making decisions about when to have children.

The BBC reports that a Chinese court recommended that the man’s lawsuit be allowed to proceed.

Chinese man sues wife over abortion. Vickie Maximova, The BBC, March 20, 2002.

Columnist Chris Weinkopf recently surveyed the controversy over the U.S. contribution to the United Nations Population Fund and makes a compelling case that the U.S. President George W. Bush should withhold all $34 million allocated for that purpose by Congress.

Normally the authorization for the UNFPA funding includes a provision that deducts from the total however much the UNFPA uses in China. So if Congress approves $30 million and the UNFPA spends $2 million in China, the amount the United States gives the UNFPA would be $28 million.

When the Congress passed funding for then UNFPA in December 2001, however, it removed that automatic provision and instead left it to the president’s discretion to decide how much of the $34 million actually makes its way to the UNFPA.

At a minimum, Bush should withhold an amount equal to what the UNFPA plans to spend in China. The United States should not subsidize China’s hideous one-child policy.

Source:

Where “Choice” and “Life” Should Agree, but Don’t. Chris Weinkopf, FrontPageMagazine.Com, January 30, 2002.

The BBC recently reported on a dispute between Canadian researchers and China over China’s official fish catch figures.

The Canadian researchers published a study in Nature recently suggesting that world fish stocks were likely much lower than previously estimated, largely because the researchers contended that China’s figures on its annual fish catch were unreliable and exaggerated.

Over the past ten years, the Chinese fish catch has steadily increased which the researchers claimed was “unrealistic.”

For its part, China responded by claiming that the statistics are in fact. Chinese official Yang Jian told the BBC that fishing was such a small part of the Chinese economy that there wouldn’t be any incentive for local officials to falsify data.

On the other hand, exaggerating data seems to be endemic among Chinese bureaucrats, so they might just be exaggerating such data out of sheer habit.

Source:

China says ‘fake’ fishery statistics correct. The BBC, December 18, 2001.