Daily Lessons from Life 03 July 2009

"Baby girls taken and sold for adoption Families given the ultimatum: Give away their little daughter or pay fines of about 20,000 yuan ($2,928). -Fri, Jul 03, 2009 China Daily/Asia News Network

About 80 newborn baby girls from a county of Guizhou Province in southwest China have been removed from their families by local officials since 2001, and most have been handed over to foreign adoptive parents as orphans at a price of $3,000 each, the Southern Metropolis News reported on Wednesday.


Among the 80 families are Lu Xiande and Yang Shuiying, a poor farming couple whose fifth daughter was removed by local family planning officials when they didn't pay the appropriate fine, it reported.

Like every other father in Zhenyuan, Lu wanted a boy, who finally arrived after three daughters. His wife then gave birth to another girl, and the couple had to support five children with a yearly income of about 5,000 yuan ($732).


Shi Guangying, a local family planning official, gave them an ultimatum: Give away their little daughter or pay fines of about 20,000 yuan ($2,928). "This is the policy", Shi said. "You pay, or you let the government take care of the baby," he was quoted by the newspaper on Wednesday. But instead of being raised as promised, the girl was taken to the Zhenyuan orphanage and later adopted out to a foreign family, at a reported price of $3,000.

At least 78 girls have been handed over to foreign families in the past eight years. Two children with disabilities remain at the orphanage.


It's believed authorities forged documents stating the babies were orphans and adoption fees were split between the orphanage and officials.

"It is legal that they can charge fines, as the parents did violate the law by giving birth to more than one child. But that doesn't mean they can take away the child. The fines can be paid later or reduced", he said.


Tang Jian, an official of the Zhenyuan family planning bureau, said: "According to our investigation, it is true that babies who have parents were forced into the orphanage and then abroad".

"The most important thing is that we need so many other government departments, so many, to help us in the investigation," Liang Honghao, director of the Zhenyuan police bureau, was quoted by the Guangdong-based Time Weekly yesterday."

It is another one of those 'I could not believed they did that!' stories that come out of prospering China! An economic giant who could not wait to claim its place in the world stage!! A China that many foreign commentators with eyes for economic growth only don't quite care to acknowledge. Well, eventually, they will find out that China is a vast country and there are still many places outside Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chongqing, and the 2nd and 3rd tier cities are NOT like them at all!!

Lessons for me are:

1. when there are injustice, there will normally money involved! Greed can be found anywhere. Not just at the Wall Streets!!;

2. when there are injustice, people who were given the power to act normally abused the authority given to them. They have betrayed the trust vested and the responsibility bestowed on them! When the leaders wavered and fell, great harms can come to more people! Hence, a leader must be held to a higher level of moral standard and stricter accountability than anyone else! It is the privilege to serve and a curse to wander astray!;

3. when there are injustice, words will eventually leak out. You can fooled some people sometimes but you cannot fooled everyone all the time! You can get away with doing the unjust actions in the short term without the fear or care of ever being found out. But you will be found out eventually. It is not if you will be found out but WHEN!! With this in mind, perhaps those who harbored the thought of: "Maybe I am not so unlucky! Maybe I can try my luck!", will never ever want to try his or her luck!!

May those kids given away find peace and happiness with the adoptive parents and homes. For those who can claim them back, good and well and hope that the kids can readjust back to the 'original' household. May China continue to progress with any wrongs righted along the way though not in the swiftest of manner!! Plod along...