Shengli confirms a case that Amnesty International highlighted last month in a report on human-rights abuses. The deputy director of the county in question was jailed for 10 years. The dean of the county was jailed for seven years, and the deputy dean was jailed for three years. This is not a regular happening. The single-child policy strikes hardest in the countryside, preventing parents from having a son to carry on the family name and work the land.
Peasants also feel more secure with several children.
But many ignore the policy. The result is thousands of peasant children who don't officially exist. One of the worst consequences of China's approach to population control is the lesser value it puts on girls compared with boys, especially in rural areas. There have been reports of mothers forced to abort babies, and even of some who have had their children killed in front of them. The image of a newborn girl lying dead in the gutter of a rural town in Hunan province, in east central China, in February, sparked an international storm.