With ChinaAid's Help, Two Victims of China's One-Child Policy Granted UNHCR Refugee Status

China Aid Association
(Bangkok–March 24, 2013) With ChinaAid’s help, a Chinese couple who endured a forced abortion and sterilization and whose children were denied schooling, have been granted refugee status by the UN High Commission on Refugees.

The experiences of Du Yiliang and his wife Guo Yanling are sadly typical of those who refuse to comply with China’s one-child policy.  Since the birth of their second child in 1989, the couple has been on the run.  In 1995, when Guo was eight months pregnant, she was forced to undergo an abortion.  In 1999, she was taken by family planning officials and forcibly sterilized.

In 2006, she was imprisoned for not being able to pay a fine for having more than one child.  The government also punished the family for the unpaid fine by refusing to issue household registrations to the three children, without which they are unable to ever attend school or receive government benefits.

The couple fled to a southeast Asian country, where they contacted China Aid Association for help.  ChinaAid tapped its Emergency Relief Fund to support the family and arrange legal assistance for them. (See: https://chinaaid.org/2012/07/sister-guo-yanling-christian-in-guangxi.html).

In 2012, Guo testified via telephone at a U.S. Congressional hearing on China held by the House Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, & Global Human Rights. (See: https://chinaaid.org/2012/07/christian-woman-guo-yanling-testifies.html)  Her emotional testimony brought the Jubilee Campaign, a U.S.-based advocate for religious freedom and human rights worldwide, into partnership with ChinaAid.  Jubilee provided legal assistance to the entire family and helped them apply for UNHCR refugee status.

Notes of encouragement to Du Yiliang and Guo Yanling, requests for interviews, and financial contributions to ChinaAid’s Emergency Relief Fund can all be submitted to the ChinaAid website at www.chinaaid.org.  Or contact ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu directly at (267) 205-5210.

Noting the Chinese government’s statement during the 18th Communist Party Congress of the long-term nature of the one-child family planning policy, ChinaAid calls on the governments of the world and international human rights organizations to continue to focus attention on the continued reality that abortions and sterilizations are forced on multitudes of families in China. ChinaAid also calls on the Chinese government to respect the right to life and to finally end its one-child policy. 

China Aid Contacts
Rachel Ritchie, English Media Director
Cell: (432) 553-1080 | Office: 1+ (888) 889-7757 | Other: (432) 689-6985
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.chinaaid.org