人民日报旗下全国性英文日报《The Global times》是《环球时报》（中国发行量最大的日报之一）英文版，是继China daily （中国日报）之后中国第二份面向全国（以及海外地区）发行的英语综合性报纸。
2010年4月15日的《The Global times》发表了对我的采访文章《Baby steps》（http://special.globaltimes.cn/2010-04/522268.html），其中第4、5页是采访我的内容，篇首的强制堕胎的案例是我表弟媳肖芳梅。该文图片是计划外出生的一对双胞胎，为了逃避计生员的检查，父亲闻风用其谋生的工具，把孩子匆匆运走躲避。中国计生委以前对国际社会一直宣称中国计划生育是自愿的，不存在强制堕胎。但这次《The Global times》却向英文读者承认了强制堕胎（这应该是中国官方媒体第一次报道）。
2006年我表弟和他太太肖芳梅因为没有办理准生证而怀孕头胎（并不算超生，其实他们也不想多生）。我给我父母打电话的时候，我舅舅刚好在我家，他说他儿媳只差几天就要生孩子了，我向他表示祝贺。我表弟的户口是在湖南省怀化市下属的洪江市塘湾镇，而我表弟媳的户口在湖南省邵阳市下属洞口县，孕妇躲在湖南省邵阳市下属绥宁县，但还是被塘湾镇干部侦查到（不知通过何种渠道），出动近百人、十部左右车，辗转两个地区的三个县（从此可见计划生育的行政成本之高），深夜将孕妇抓到塘湾镇，当时已经临产，紧急运往县人民医院进行堕胎，未打麻药，直接从腹部注射到胎儿头部处死胎儿。并下文高调宣传。
2006年的时候人民日报另一个记者以及国家发改委《改革内参》编辑和记者就知道了此事。这次人民日报记者一再要采访报道。
《The Global times》在做这篇报道的时候，他们领导非常慎重，因为毕竟是第一次进行类似报道，反复修改、删减。这篇报道是公正、负责的，尺度也比较大（比如报道了我明确提出要“立即高调停止计划生育”的观点）。说明国内舆论不再忌讳计划生育，也说明对于停止计划生育是有信心的（不再遮遮掩掩了）。停止计划生育已经时不我待了，舆论应该趁早转向，才能聚集民意，便于顺势而下。
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下面是《Baby steps》译文：
记者：李筱姝
胎儿在踢着她的肚皮，怀孕九个多月的肖芳梅慌张地翻身躲入床下，因为门外有五位大汉夤夜来访。
门“碰”地一声被撞开。
“滚出来，你们没有准生证，不准生育。” 一位计生办工作人员冲着肖芳梅和她的丈夫吼叫。
尽管肖凤梅拼命地抓住任何能抓住的东西，还是被四条壮汉拽住头发，生生地拖了出来。他们将肖芳梅举起，摔到门前的石头地上。
肖凤梅用尽全身气力，爬起来向外跑去。但她却正好撞上了一辆计生委等在这里的面包车的尾部。
肖凤梅醒来时她已经在绥宁县的一栋政府大楼，绥宁隶属湖南省邵阳市。然后被送往计划生育诊所堕胎。
四年后的今天，想起当初那个被强行引产的恐怖之夜，肖凤梅仍泣不成声。
“他们摁住我的手，没有打麻药，就给我注射毒针将孩子打出来。”她对环球时报说，“非常粗暴，非常疼痛。”
事过境迁，肖凤梅总结到，早知如此，她当年就不应该挑战这个已经被大家接受了的“利国利民” 的基本国策。
“其实，一个儿子也挺好。”她说。
在国际控制人口的思潮推动下，中国从1979年之后实行独生子女政策。肖芳梅的经历是这个时代的缩影。
1974年在布加勒斯特召开的第三次世界人口大会上通过了《世界人口行动计划》，提出个人的生殖行为应该与社会的需求相协调。
中国社科院人口研究所研究员李小平对环球时报说：“诸如肖芳梅般林林总总各色事件说明了人口增长与发展政策之间的冲突。”
李小平说：作为世界上人口最多的国家，中国付出了很大代价才认识到追求更美好生活的含义。
“我们不应该将中国面临的困境简单化，任何国家都发现，控制人口是艰巨的。”
呼唤重新审视
违反生育政策的人要缴纳“社会抚养费”，有时是个人年收的十倍，这样才能给计划外出生的孩子上户口。有了户口，才能享受到诸如教育，医疗、社会福利之类的公共服务。
不愿或不能缴纳罚款的家庭有的离乡背井远走他方；有的将孩子藏起，变成所谓的“黑人”。不愿意这么做的家庭则面临与计生部门的正面交锋，计生部门会对他们进行各种“劝告”：从较文明的诱哄，到各种罚款，再到令西方媒体诧舌的暴力。
三十年过去了，许多人开始悄悄地质疑，中国的计生政策究竟该持续多久。
第六次人口普查领导小组组长、副总理李克强1月19日说：“中国应该实行从人口控制到发展的转变”。对人口政策新政的猜测随之而生。
事实上，1980年，在中共中央的一封公开信中，当局曾经许诺，“三十年后，人口增长过快的压力得到缓解，就可以采取不同的生育政策了。”经济学家胡鞍钢如是表示。胡鞍钢十年前支持一胎化，但是最近他华丽转身了。
他说：“中国应该尽速调整生育政策，获取人力资源的长期红利。否则，政府会面临越来越多的困难。”
“但是，政治惯性很可能碾碎这个机会。”
计生委副主任赵白鸽二月四日宣称：“十二五期间（2011-2015），中国将坚持计划生育政策不动摇。”
赵白鸽在哥本哈根气候会议上说：中国减少了四亿人口，每年可减排1800吨二氧化碳。
在接受环球时报采访时，计生委发言人拒绝评论计生政策是否会有实质性调整。
秘密试点
25年前，山西南部临汾下辖的翼城县，进行了一项秘密的人口试验。符合特定的家庭可以生两个孩子。
实验的设计者是人口学家梁中堂。1985年，在一次会议上，翼城计生委前主任冯才山，对梁中堂表示了忧虑，他担心试验会失控，因为农民总是多生。
最终是当时的党首胡耀邦一槌定音。他移赞梁中堂的方案：“做过深入的调查研究，富有智慧。”胡的唯一要求是：不要公开。
梁中堂解释道：之所以挑选翼城是因为：翼城是一个典型的农业县，收入中等，人口统计准确。
翼城不同的生育政策有严格的条件：婚龄须比全国平均水平高三岁，两胎之间必须差六岁以上；生育二胎后女方必须绝育。
今天全县人口有317,000人，比1985年的27800增长了14%，男女性别比为：104/100。远比全国平均的119/100要正常。
大约12.5%的家庭选择只生一胎，80%的二女户选择不再生育。
常茂春（音）是翼城县人旺村（音）农民，他说：生多了也养不起，尤其是男孩。从2000年开始，该县生育率持续下降到10/1000，接近人口零增长。
梁中堂对环球时报说：“这证明了，允许生两胎不会出现人口膨胀”。
“翼城的二胎模式只是对国家强硬政策的妥协，其实允许人们自主决定生育数量更合理，更人道。”
梁中堂警告说：持续增长的老龄人口、不健全的社会保障、不断萎缩的年轻劳动力是国家未来的“定时炸弹”。
掀起讨论
易富贤，威斯康星大学（麦迪逊分校）妇产科系的中国学者，多年来坚持不懈地呼吁停止计划生育。
易富贤将所有业余时间用来研究中国人口问题。自2002年以来他持续在中国各大论坛上发表自己的研究成果。他说：多数文章都被“审查”过。
易富贤对环球时报说，计划生育造成的人口损失超过历史上任何一次战争。
他说：“应该立刻高调废除计划生育。”
“中国濒临人口负增长。每年出生的人口数被虚增了50%，总和生育率被篡改为1.8，即便如此，仍然低于世代更替水平2.1。”（易富贤注：其实中国的时代更替水平是2.3以上，但可能为了让英文读者更容易理解，记者采纳了发达国家的2.1）
易富贤勇敢的非主流观点渐渐获得了大陆主流媒体的承认，掀起了第一波讨论高潮。新华社采访了他，三大国家官方网站在2004年对他开绿灯，允许他自由地发表观点。
但是，易富贤的观点与国家人口发展战略组的观点相抵触。这个官方研究团队由一批高官和学者领导，如蒋正华（曾于1991-1992年任计生委副主任），宋健（现行计生政策总设计师）。
“中国人口总量将于2010年达到13.6亿，于2033年达到15亿的峰值。” 国家人口发展战略组的报告说：“应该执行更严格的计划生育政策，将总和生育率控制在1.8。”
国家人口发展战略组的结论不但没有使计生政策放松，反而收紧了。
易富贤说：“令人遗憾的是：中央政府错过了调整人口政策的最佳时机，使得今后面临巨大危机。”
“官僚主义惯性保护了计生体制。上次他们赢了。”
易富贤的书《大国空巢—走入歧途的中国计划生育》一度被禁。但是2008年中期以来，渐渐在许多的国家部委里获得认同，尤其是国家统计局。
“从反馈回的消息看，决策层正在重新考虑计划生育政策。”他说。
2008年易富贤通过互联网向温家宝总理上书，痛陈废除计划生育政策的紧迫性，但未获回应。
2010年的两会期间，易富贤加大了游说力度。他向两千多名人大代表及数百名政协委员寄出了信件及宣传资料。
中国女富豪张茵、重庆外科医生田伏洲联名至少三名学者，在今年两会上呼吁放开二胎。
面对汹汹民意，计生专家主张保持计划生育政策的连续性。他们说突然的政策转向“太过危险。”
中国人民大学人口统计学家侯东民表示：“如果不加控制，中国资源与环境无法负担人口自然增长。”
重要的是保持政策连续性，侯东民警告说：“步子太快会造成混乱。”
中国社科院马克思主义研究所主任程恩富说：强有力的计划生育政策保护了世界上人口最多的国家。没有计划生育，就没有中国GDP的快整增长，及人均财富的迅速提高。
国务院参事马力表示：普遍地放松生育限制，目前条件还不成熟。
权利与方式
计生委副主任赵白鸽在1月15日在新闻发布会上表示：“中国的计划生育政策不是强迫性的，人们是在自愿的基础上实施计划生育的。”但是计生委也承认：在执行过程中有偏差。
官方媒体曾经报道：2004年下半年，山东临沂计生人员非法强迫妇女流产、结扎。
揭露临沂暴行的陈光诚曾被软禁，并被沂南县人民法院（以故意破坏财产和聚众扰乱交通罪）判处有期徒刑四年零三个月（易富贤注：陈光诚入选美国时代周刊2006年“塑造世界的一百人”，获得英国查禁目录颁发的言论自由奖，并获得由纽约“洛克菲勒兄弟基金会”的信托人创立，2007年的麦格塞塞奖——“突出表现领袖”）。据国家计生委的消息，临沂暴行的涉案官员于2006年受到惩罚。
北京人权活动人士及律师滕彪表示：“国家利益的实现不能以牺牲基本人权为代价，世界人权宣言和中国宪法必须得到尊重。”
“对违法生育者罚款及人身威胁是2002年以后才合法化的。”
行政法权威湛中乐参与了中国计划生育法的起草，他却说：“计划生育政策仅仅是鼓励一对夫妇一个孩，并没有强迫人们放弃生育权。”
“公民有权对违法的计生委及工作人员提起诉讼。违法行为是因为地方政府错误地设定生育配额。” 湛中乐说。
刘楠来是中国社科院人权研究中心副主任。他拒绝承认在面临空前人口压力的国家里人们有绝对的生育权力。
刘楠来表示：“谈人权，不能离开特定社会的文化、政治及经济条件。不承担相应的责任，就不可能有相应的权利。”
“离开了社会大多数人的利益，片面地强调生育权没有意义。”
刘楠来表示：“联合国人口与发展委员会的所有的报告中都指出：在计划生育这类事情上，政府必须通盘考虑个人利益与集体意志。”
贵州省一位从事计生工作八年的地方计生工作人员表示：他个人生活于“耻辱之中”。
他说：“我担心，一旦人们开始痛恨这项政策，我将不可避免地成为替罪羊。”
翼城县习河水村64岁的车玉莲（音）从事计生工作四十多年了，她不同意上述看法，她说：“我经常被人骂‘死后断香火’。尽管村民不理解计划生育，但是，我对从事这项帮助别人生活得更好的事业仍感到荣幸。任何政策在执行中都不可能十全十美，我不后悔。”
中国人口政策的历史延革：
1957年，在婴儿潮的背景下，经济学家马寅初鼓吹“人口适度增长”，他警告“国家养不活巨量的人口。”领导层并不赞同他的看法。
1971年，国务院将人口计划纳入国家经济计划之中，鼓励晚婚晚育。通过口号、电台、及政策宣讲等方式进行宣传。
1979年，几个省开始明确推行“一胎化”生育政策。
1980年，中共中央发表致共产党员共青团员的公开信，“一胎化”生育政策正式提升到国家层面。
1981年，国家人口与计划生育委员会成立。
1982年，“计划生育”正式写入宪法。
1984年，考虑到农村的劳力需求，生育政策得以修正。允许一女户在保持一定的生育间隔条件下，生育二胎。严禁三胎或多胎。
1985-1989
对农村的生育限制逐步放松。“独女户”可以生育二胎。
1991年，中共中央、国务院下发文件，呼吁“全社会总动员”，重点在农村加紧贯彻计生政策。
2002年，计划生育法颁布实行。
2009年，上海计生委鼓励“双独”家庭生育二胎。
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下面是《The Global times》报道的英文原文：
Baby steps
By Li Xiaoshu
Her baby kicking, nine months\' pregnant Xiao Fangmei rushed to hide under her bed when five men paid her a midnight visit.
The door was smashed open.
Get out! You can\'t have that unapproved girl! a family planning worker yelled at Xiao and her husband.
The other four strong men pulled Xiao out by her hair as she tried to clutch at anything solid. They lifted Xiao up, carried her out of the room and threw her down on the stony ground outside her front door.
Xiao summoned all her strength to stand up and run, but instead ran straight into the back of an official minibus parked outside.
She woke up in a government building in Suining, a county under the prefecture city of Shaoyang, Hunan Province, to be escorted to the family planning clinic.
Four years have passed since that fateful night, but Xiao still wept recalling the forced abortion.
They pressed my hands and gave me an injection with no anesthetic, she told the Global Times. It was tough and painful.
With hindsight, Xiao concluded that she should never have challenged a mutually beneficial State policy that most Chinese have accepted.
In fact, I feel good living with an only boy, she said.
Xiao\'s experience reflects an ambitious demographic engineering policy applied in the Chinese mainland since 1979 to limit all families to one child as part of an international population campaign for rapid socio-economic growth.
Individual reproductive behavior should be reconciled with the needs of society, declared the Plan of Action issued in August 1974 at the third World Population Conference held in Bucharest.
Incidents of the kind (suffered by Xiao) show the conflict between population variables and development policy, Li Xiaoping, a researcher at the Institute of Population Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing, told the Global Times.
As the world\'s most populated country, China paid a price to realize the aspiration for a better quality of life, Li said.
We can\'t simplify China\'s dilemma in this effort. Any state would have found the task very tough.
Call for review
Family planning policy violators pay a social compensation fee, sometimes 10 times a person\'s annual income, to register an additional child into China\'s residency system. A certificate of permanent residency is essential for any child hoping to obtain public services such as schooling, medical care or social welfare.
A family unwilling or unable to pay sometimes runs off or tries to hide their extra child perhaps going as far as creating an unregistered non person. Others stay where they are and risk a standoff with local family planning departments and their many and various approaches toward persuasion: from gentle cajoling through various financial threats to the Western media headline-grabbing extremes of violence.
Three decades on, many have quietly begun to question how much longer the policy should continue on the Chinese mainland.
Speculation over a new regime sprang up after Vice Premier Li Keqiang, head of the Sixth National Census, said on January 19 that China should switch from population control to development.
In fact as long back as September 1980, authorities vowed in an open letter issued by the Communist Party of China\'s Central Committee to adopt a different population policy 30 years later as long as the demographic tension of a runaway birth rate has been relieved, according to economist Hu Angang. Hu supported one child 10 years ago but lately has experienced a change of heart.
China should prompt an adjustment to gain long-term interest from its human resources, Hu said. Otherwise, the government will face more obstacles.
But it\'s very likely political inertia will quash that opportunity.
Vice Minister of National Population and Family Planning Commission of China (NPFPC) Zhao Baige claimed that China will continue family planning policy during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period on February 4.
The nation has seen 400 million fewer births, resulting in 18 million fewer tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, she said at the Copenhagen summit on climate change.
A commission spokesperson declined to comment on whether there would be any substantial policy shift when reached by the Global Times.
Secret pilot
A secret pilot project - allowing families to have two children under certain specific circumstances - was authorized 25 years ago in Yicheng, a county in the prefecture-level city of Linfen in southern Shanxi Province.
At a meeting in 1985, Feng Caishan, former director of the Yicheng Population and Family Planning Commission, expressed worries to demographer Liang Zhongtang, initiator of the plan, that the experiment might run out of control as villagers tend to breed more.
The fears of the cadre were finally banished when told that the then Party chief Hu Yaobang supported Liang\'s experiment with the unusually swift response: well-researched and insightful. Hu\'s only requirement was not to publicize the decision.
Yicheng was chosen because it was a typical farming county with moderate incomes and clear population statistics, Liang explained.
The separate birth policy had rigorous rules: Couples must marry three years older than the national average and must also leave a six-year gap between their first and second child; women should accept sterilization after two births.
Today the county has a population of 317,000, 14 percent up the 1985 figure of 278,000, while the male-female birth ratio is 104:100. This compares favorably with 119:100 national figure.
Some 12.5 percent of the parents preferred to raise one child while 80 percent ended up with two daughters.
We don\'t have the financial capacity to rear many children, especially boys, said Chang Maochun, a farmer in the village of Renwang, Yicheng county.
Since 2000, the county\'s birth rate fell continuously to 10 per 1,000 people: nearly zero population growth.
This proves that there wouldn\'t be any population explosion even if people were allowed two children, Liang Zhongtang told the Global Times.
The Yicheng model was a compromise against the headstrong national practice. It\'s more reasonable and humane to let common people decide how many children they should have.
A growing, aging population with inadequate social security and a shrinking number of young workers was a time bomb for the nation, Liang warned.
Stirring debate
Yi Fuxian, a Chinese associate scientist at the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Wisconsin (Madison), is a tireless advocate of relaxation.
Yi uses every spare minute to research China\'s population and he started posting his findings on popular Internet bulletin boards on the Chinese mainland since 2002, although most were censored, he said.
The population control campaign outweighs any war in the number of lives lost, Yi told the Global Times.
It should be abandoned immediately, in a high-profile announcement, he said.
China\'s on the brink of negative population growth. Its total fertility rate (TFR) is falsified at 1.8 by adding an arbitrary 50 percent to the number of annual births, which is still below the sustainable replacement level of about 2.1.
Yi\'s brave unorthodoxy has slowly broken into mainstream mainland publications, creating the first stirrings of national debate. The Xinhua News Agency interviewed Yi and three State-owned websites gave him the green light to air his views almost freely in 2004.
However, Yi\'s views directly contradict the findings of a special research team led by prestigious officials and experts including Jiang Zhenghua, former vice minister of the NPFPC in 1991 to 1992 and Song Jian, architect of the current policy.
China\'s population will reach 1.36 billion in 2010 and peak at 1.5 billion in 2033, the team reported. The country should strictly carry out family planning to maintain its TFR at 1.8.
Their bold assertion actually intensified family planning measures rather than relaxing them.
It\'s a pity that the central government missed the best timing to curb the greatest trouble ahead, Yi said.
There is a bureaucratic machinery that protects the existing system. That definitely won.
Yi claimed his once-banned book A Big Country in an Empty Nest - The Wrong Direction of China\'s Birth Control Policy has gained gradual acceptance since mid-2008 in several government departments, particularly the National Bureau of Statistics.
My return signaled that the top leaders were reconsidering family planning, he said.
Yi mooted the urgency of abolishing the policy online to Premier Wen Jiabao in 2008, but received no reply.
He also ramped up lobbying efforts at the 2010 two sessions by sending letters and materials to more than 2,000 deputies of the National People\'s Congress and hundreds of members of the Chinese People\'s Political Consultative Conference.
China\'s wealthiest woman Zhang Yin and Tian Fuzhou, a Chengdu surgeon, along with at least three other scholars, appealed for a two-child transitional policy at the annual meeting.
A sudden reversal of policy is too dangerous, remaining the consistent counter argument of the opposing camp of mainstream family planning experts.
China\'s resources and environment cannot sustain natural population growth without administrative intervention, said Hou Dongmin, a demographer at Renmin University of China in Beijing.
The importance of maintaining a clear and consistent policy is critical, he warned. A great leap will produce chaos among the people, he said.
The policy had been highly effective in protecting the world\'s most populated country, said Cheng Enfu, director of the Academy of Marxism under CASS.
Without it, China couldn\'t have achieved its GDP boost and high allocation of resources per capita.
The country lacks the requisite conditions on the ground to relax planned birth on a macro scale, said Ma Li, a counselor to the State Council.
Rights and means
China\'s family planning policy is based on the people\'s will and is not compulsory, said NPFPC Vice Minister Zhao Baige at a press conference on January 15, but the commission also conceded inevitable wrongdoings in the field.
County family planning employees illegally coerced women to have abortions or undergo sterilizations since late 2004 in Linyi of southern Shandong Province, official media reported.
The activist who exposed the Linyi atrocity - Chen Guangcheng - was placed under house arrest, tried and sentenced to four years and three months\' imprisonment by a Linyi court in 2007. The Linyi officials responsible for this extreme policy were sacked in 2006, according to the NPFPC.
Policy makers shouldn\'t elevate the State interest at the expense of fundamental human rights, disrespecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution, said Teng Biao, a human rights activist and lawyer in Beijing.
Neither fines nor physical threats for policy violators were legitimized until 2002.
In contrast, Zhan Zhongle, an authority on administrative law who took part in drafting China\'s Population and Family Planning Law, said the policy merely encourages couples to bear one child and never imposed on people to give up their reproductive right.
Citizens are endowed with the power to sue law-breaking family planning commissions and personnel, most of who were under pressure to meet birth quotas set by local governments through improper means, Zhan said.
Liu Nanlai, deputy director of the Human Rights Research Center under CASS, rejected arguments for absolute reproductive right in a country facing unprecedented population crisis.
The concept of human right can\'t be upheld without considering the cultural, political and economic conditions in a particular society. No right will be accessible if commensurate responsibility is not taken, Liu said.
It\'s groundless to exaggerate the importance of reproductive right without respecting the interest of the social majority.
All reports from UN Conferences on Population and Development acknowledge that on issues such as birth control governments are responsible for matching individual benefits with the collective will, according to Liu.
A rural official with eight years\' family planning experience in Guizhou Province said he personally lives in shame.
I worry that if people start to hate the policy, then I will eventually become one of the scapegoats, he said.
A 40-year rural family planning worker in the village of Xiheshui in Yicheng county, disagreed.
I have frequently been cursed by villagers to \'die sonless\', said Che Yulian, 64. But it\'s my privilege to help people live better even if they might misunderstand the real intention of family planning. No policy is perfect in practice, and I don\'t regret it.
China\'s population policies: A timeline
1957
Economist Ma Yinchu (1882-1982) advocates policies to ensure appropriate population growth and warns that the country will face tremendous difficulty feeding its people in the context of a baby boom. Few in the leadership agree.
1971
The State Council incorporates population policies into national economic planning, encouraging late marriage and childbearing. The idea is propagated through slogans, radio programs and oral education.
1979
Several provinces start explicit one-child family planning initiatives.
1980
China\'s one-child family planning policy begins at national level as the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee sends an open letter to all members of the CPC and the Communist Youth League.
1981
National Population and Family Planning Commission is established.
1982
The Constitution stipulates that the State should promote jihua shengyu, literally planned birth that is today officially translated as family planning.
1984
After considering labor demand in the countryside, a modified policy is set forth, allowing certain couples who have only one daughter to have a second child with an appropriate gap between the two births. Three or more children are strongly discouraged.
1985-1989
The birth limit for rural couples is progressively relaxed and single-daughter households are permitted a second child.
1991
The State Council and the CPC Central Committee issue a document urging stepped up efforts to implement the policy, particularly in rural areas. They call for mobilization of all society.
2002
The Population and Family Planning Law comes into force.
2009
The Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission encourages young couples, if both are the only child, to have a second offspring.
