Delegation Findings

At the end of their trip, the interfaith delegation members prepared a formal report which included the following findings:

• It is reasonable to be concerned about and to monitor China's family planning policies and practices; it is even more important to assist and engage the Chinese on these matters. The US government's approach of criticism and punishment does nothing to change the situation.
• China is taking active steps to end the use of coercion in its family planning activity. Force or threats are barred and penalized by law, and there was no credible evidence of physically coercive practices.
• UNFPA has been and remains a major force and a vital catalyst in achieving China's tran-sition to a fully voluntary and non-coercive family planning program. Although UNFPA's spending is tiny compared to China's overall effort, its influence has been enormous-and popular: 90 counties competed for the 30 new slots in UNFPA's 2003-2005 program, and more than 800 counties have adopted aspects of the voluntary approach.
• Abortion and sterilization rates are declining as contraceptive choice increases, in some cases by a factor of ten. At 30 per 100 live births, official national abortion rates approach the US rate, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, and are much lower than the US rate in UNFPA's project counties, at 11 per 100 live births.
• Contrary to the Bush administration analysis, UNFPA in no way "supports or participates" in managing or implementing China's family planning program, including the Social Compensation Fee. In fact, UNFPA has been pressing for the fee's elimination since it was created.
• The language that US officials and other critics use in describing the fee is factually and ethically wrong, but the fee remains a negative element in the Chinese family planning program. While neither "crushing" nor "draconian," as the Bush administration described it, the fee is still a barrier to free choice and has outlived any usefulness it may have had. UNFPA'S program of quality contraceptive options, education and counseling provide better incentives for family planning.
• The desire for small families is becoming the norm in China, chiefly for economic reasons. Intense government propaganda plus a booming economy and rapid social change are transforming China in many ways, but the shift is common worldwide wherever women are being educated and integrated into the workforce. Chinese in this way sound very much like Americans: they want their children to have opportunities they lacked.

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