Post-Mao China passed eugenic laws mandating sterilization and abortion

Evidence

Medical circles, on the other hand, have been instrumental in the promotion of a eugenics program. On November 25, 1988, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of Gansu Province passed the country’s first law prohibiting “mentally retarded people” from having children. Further laws for the improvement of the “gene pool” have been enforced since June 1995: people with hereditary, venereal, or reproductive disorders as well as severe mental illness or infectious diseases (often arbitrarily defined) are mandated to undergo sterilization, abortion, or celibacy in order to prevent “inferior births.” As Chen Muhua, Vice-President of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress and President of the Women’s Federation, declared a few years ago: “Eugenics not only affects the success of the state and the prosperity of the race, but also the well-being of the people and social stability.” Although eugenic legislation in itself does not inevitably entail the promotion of racial categories of analysis, since it focuses on the genetic fitness of individuals within a country rather than between population groups, some publications in demography none the less make claims about the “biological fitness” of the nation and herald the twenty-first century as an era to be dominated by “biological competition” between the “white race” and the “yellow race.” The mastery of reproductive technologies and genetic engineering is seen to be crucial in this future battle of the genes, and the government has given much support to medical research in human genetics. A research team was even set up in November 1993 to isolate the quintessentially “Chinese genes” of the genetic code of human DNA. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3352 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American eugenic sterilization laws preceded and outlasted Nazi-era ones; Post-Mao China enacted coercive eugenic laws targeting citizens deemed genetically unfit. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3352; Twenty-one US states enacted eugenic sterilization laws between 1907 and 1928 — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 419 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Post-Mao China enacted coercive eugenic laws targeting citizens deemed genetically unfit. #expands (0.95) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 3352