For weeks he was stalked and threatened by police and criminals. According to the authorities, Deng Jiyuan is a "traitor" because he spoke to foreign media about the violence of the one-child law.

Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) - The husband of the woman who a few weeks ago in Zengjia (Shaanxi) was forced forced to abort a fetus of seven months, has been missing for two days. For over a week he and his family have endured controls, pressures and violence. It seems to be an act of revenge by the local government because the couple denounced the violence to the international media.

Deng Jiyuan, the 29 year-old father of the aborted child, was followed for days by police and thugs at home, at the hospital, where his wife is hospitalized, and even in the bathroom. The pressure started when Deng tried to go to Beijing to participate in an online transmission on abortion. The man was threatened and beaten several times. The pressure increased when the family gave an interview to the German magazine Stern. Two days later, on Sunday, June 24, at least 40 people arrived at the hospital shouting and carrying banners that threatened the whole family with the words "Beat the traitors strongly and throw them out of Zengjia". One of the relatives, who tried to photograph the group, was beaten.

On June 2 the agency for population control forced Jianmei Feng, aged 22, to undergo an abortion in the seventh month. Feng and Deng have a five year-old daughter and another child is prohibited by law. The employees of family planning threatened her to pay a fine of 40,000 yuan (about 4,000 euros, four years of wages) or to undergo the abortion. But abortion after the sixth month is also prohibited. Their case has aroused criticism and complaints from all over China, especially after on the internet there appeared pictures of the woman, overwhelmed by the abortion, with alongside her on the bed, the bleeding corpse of the aborted baby.

After the furor in the media, the authorities of Ankang (which have authority over the village of Zengjia) confirmed the violence against Feng Jianmei. They have also suspended the three employees who ordered the forced abortion and gave the family permission to have another child. The woman's husband, Deng Jiyuan said, however, bitterly: "The government should not have the power to tell us when and how to have a child."

 

 

• china
• one
• child
• forced
• abortion
• zengjia