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If you have Amazon Prime, you must see its documentary One Child Nation, which tells how China’s One-Child Policy affected its people. It’s shocking, not only in its tales of forced abortions and images of dead babies, but also in terms of the helplessness of Chinese citizens. How Communist China used propaganda to brainwash their people. And how this documentary is a warning to those in the US who finding socialism intriguing.
One Child Nation filmmaker Nanfu Wang, a native of China now living in New York, was born during the years of the One-Child policy, which lasted from 1979 to 2015. In an interview with Indiewire, Wang said she knew of many of the aspects of the policy. She knew how Chinese authorities would force abortion and sterilization upon women. But she didn’t think about the brutality of the policy until her son was born. So she returned to her native village to document its horrors.
Credit: Remko Tanis/flickr/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Wang also learned some harsh realities about her own family in the One Child Nation. For example, since her parents lived in a rural area, they were allowed to have two children, spaced at least five years apart. Thus, Nanfu Wang, unlike many of her Chinese contemporaries, does have a younger brother.
But had he not been a boy, her family had a contingency plan: they would leave the baby girl in the streets.
Not only that, but we find that Wang’s own mother helped her younger brother abandon his baby daughter in the marketplace.
“We couldn’t discard the baby in broad daylight so we carried her in a basket. . . when it was still dark out. We put $20 in her clothes and left her on the meat counter in the market. For two days and nights, she was there. No one wanted her. Her face was full of mosquito bites.”
“She eventually died.”
In what may be the most searing portion of the film, Wang interviewed Chinese artist Peng Wang. In 1996, he turned his attention to the the inhumanity of the One-Child Policy after he found dead babies in a garbage dump:
“As I was scouting the location, I found in the trash heap a discarded fetus. It was wrapped on the outside by a black plastic bag, and then inside by a yellow plastic bag that had ‘medical waste’ printed on it.”
“From then on, I wanted to better understand the current situation of the One-Child Policy.”
We then see the horror that Peng Wang encountered. The film shows several unborn babies, wrapped in plastic bags in the dump.
“I wanted to gather these fetuses and preserve them so that people could see the scale of this phenomenon, the fragility of life, and the respect every life deserves. I wanted people to think: how can we do this, and why?”
Why? As Peng Wang explained:
“It all comes from long-term indoctrination. For example, ‘Collective interests above all else. Individuals submit to the collective,’ as well as ‘The Party is infallible.’ This indoctrination destroys a person’s humanity, individuality and conscience.”
Such are the results of socialist totalitarianism. It dictates even the most personal aspects of family life.
The One-Child Policy ended in 2015. But China continues its merciless regime in other ways. Recently, the New York Times exposed leaked files which describe how China places its Uighar Muslim minority into detention camps. They’re in “training schools set up by the government,” as officials tell students seeking their missing parents.
Is it any wonder that Hong Kong students are defying Beijing? They live under the shadow of Communist evil. They know what socialism brings.
Yet in the United States — the land of the free — our media think that socialism is “cool.” So do many American Millennials and members of Generation Z. In fact, in a recent Harris poll, about half say they would prefer “living in a socialist country.” It’s because they want “free” stuff, like college tuition and health care. Which, of course, the “rich” will pay for.
They’re also obsessed with climate change. Many Millennials — chief among them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — wonder if no more children is the way to go. “Is it still okay to have children?” she hand-wrings, worried about a Mad Max future. She’s not the only one, either. Babies are “cuddly, cute carbon-emitters,” says one member of the “Center for Biological Diversity.” Groups like “Conceivable Future” celebrate childlessness — all in the name of saving the planet.
Is it possible that the US may experience its own One-Child Policy if socialists and radical environmentalists assume the mantle of government? It does seem extreme. But just a decade ago gay marriage seemed extreme, too. Plus, there’s no limit to what social media cancel culture will do to those who push its boundaries.
So at this point, anything is possible.
One Child Nation is a gruesome and horrifying tour de force. It’s also a cautionary tale for a nation which supposedly cherishes its freedom.
Welcome, Instapundit readers!
Featured image: James Creegan/flickr/cropped/CC BY 2.0.
Scott says: Good post Kim. I have absolutely no problem with mental midgets like AOC following a no child policy for themselves, in fact I highly encourage it, and the gene pool does not need to be further polluted with their obviously defective DNA.. That being said, I hope there’s enough Freedom loving Americans around should the dims ever gain power and try to force such a policy on the rest of us.If that happens, a lot more defective leftist DNA will be removed from the gene pool.
Charles N. Steele says: We need to take the anti-human left seriously. Ever since Paul Erlich wrote “Population Bomb” (and really, before) many members of the political class have had culling “excess” population on their minds. All the Green New Deal nonsense (and IPCC’s similar proposals) would have that effect. Progressives and those further left now call all of us who aren’t with them racists and Nazis. Dehumanizing others is a first step before treating them as if not human, and they’ve taken that step.
mac says: You know, I was never in favor of gun control of any sort. However, the last few years of ‘Rat hijinks have convinced me that there are some people who should NEVER, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER, be allowed the ownership or use of firearms. Those people are on the left. No ‘Rat should be allowed to have a firearm of any sort because they have clearly shown they have neither decent morality nor capable judgement. Consequently, they cannot be trusted with deadly weapons.
However, since they would have been stripped of their Second Amendment rights, something which should not happen to American citizens, the nation should compensate by agreeing to purchase one-way economy class tickets to wherever any ‘Rats can find a nation foolish enough to accept them. It should be clearly enumerated that acceptance of the ticket constitutes renunciation of citizenship and permanent barring of return to the U.S. for any reason.
I can also see restricting their propagation by forcing them to adhere to a one child policy.
Michael G. Gallagher says: Abandoning girl babies wasn’t necessarily the result of the One Child Policy. It was practiced in Imperial times as well. Remember, China had emperors for a little more than 2000 years, and there were plenty of famines. floods, invasions, and rebellions during that time.
It’s so nice to see people preserving their old traditions.
c77 says: My wife’s cousin was a US Marine stationed in Nanking, China 1946-1947. His barracks was across a river bridge from where he pulled duty. He said the one thing he could never get over was the sight of dead baby girls floating down the river as he walked to work.
Roy Lofquist says: Epstein didn’t kill himself, but China did. They cut their breeding stock in half. Sorry for that phrasing but it is the brutal truth. In two or three generations their population will plummet to half its current size with an overhang of elderly non-working people. Arithmetic, like gravity, sucks. But it’s the law.
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