China’s controversial one child policy may have been abandoned but the forced abortions and sterilizations and harsh punishments for unauthorized pregnancies continue. It remains illegal to have a child outside wedlock, become pregnant under the age of 20 or have more than two children. China holds the world record in abortions with more than 30,000 carried out every day.
This unique investigation, filmed over two years, reveals the human cost of China’s strict family planning policies. We follow three women who try and resist and witness on camera the brutality of the system.
Meili decides to go into hiding, leaving her village and family, to carry her ‘illegal’ pregnancy to term. Xia, abducted from her home at 6 am and forcibly sterilized, is bringing a historic legal case to hold the state accountable while lawyer Lu Miaoqing is prepared to risk prison to defend the victims of state-enforced birth control.
How has China progressed from a starving country at the beginning of the 21st century to having one of the highest obesity rates in the world?
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What China has baptised 'The New Silk Road' allows a pair of trainers to be transported by train from China to France in less than two weeks. But they also act as a vehicle for a wave of Chinese expansionism across the world.
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In China, where local Communist officials are omnipotent and everything from moving house to having a second child requires a permit, corruption has reached unprecedented levels.
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