The Paralympics

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China Paralympics Hide Dark Side
September 05, 2008
Holly Williams, Asia producer in Beijing

The Chinese know a thing or two about putting on a show, and that’s exactly what Beijing did for the arrival of the Paralympic torch. The torch was met by song and dance troupes, as well as several hundred cheerleaders; mostly middle-aged women dressed in matching red shirts and chanting slogans such as "Go China!" and "Go Athletes!"

The extravaganza may raise some eyebrows outside China, however. One of the performances featured a group of able-bodied men dancing while seated in wheelchairs. The dance depicted one of their number falling from his wheelchair, and then being lovingly helped to his feet by the other performers.

Members of the carefully vetted audience all expressed support both for the Paralympic movement, and for disabled people in general. "We should support and encourage the disabled," said one woman. "In the hearts, they are the same as normal people," remarked another.

But away from the show, many of China’s 80 million disabled citizens face a life of rejection. Until a few months ago, the sight of disabled men and women pleading for charity on the street was a common one. For them, the only change that the Olympics have wrought is a state enforced clean up. Beggars have been told to go home or face arrest.

Liu Anjun – disabled after being beaten by a group of thugs five years ago - accuses his government of hypocrisy. He’s one of a few disabled Chinese brave enough to speak out about widespread discrimination. "The government says one thing and does another," said Liu. "Their policies sound very tolerant. They say they reserve jobs for disabled people, but hardly anyone gets those jobs unless they have connections."

But now Sky News has uncovered evidence that China’s disabled may be facing something more sinister than ignorance and prejudice. On a recent visit to a busy maternity hospital in southern China, nurses and doctors happily showed Sky News rooms bursting with young mothers and their newborns. They also proudly displayed a brand new ultrasound machine bought with money from the central government.

Then the hospital director calmly made a stunning admission. "If we find the baby will be missing an arm or a leg, that’s a serious deformity," she said. "We terminate the pregnancy. We don’t let them have the baby. If they have it, it’s a burden to the family, to society and to the country. We want healthy babies, because they make families happy and our society happy too. We are working to improve the quality of the population."

That phrase - "improving the quality of the population" - is state policy. It’s written on billboards in villages across China, and is a constant reminder that the government here actively encourages what it calls "intervention", to "prevent" the birth of disabled children. Chinese authorities do not openly stipulate that women carrying babies with suspected disabilities should be forced to terminate their pregnancy. However, both legal and policy documents show that the Chinese state encourages abortions in such cases. According to Chinese law, if a woman is suspected of carrying a child with a birth defect, her doctor should advise her on "termination or gestation". If she chooses termination, the state will perform the operation for free.

Last year, the National Population and Family Planning Commission released a series of new official slogans, including Promote Scientific Prenatal Testing to Prevent Birth Defects, and Intensify Intervention to Prevent Birth Defects to Improve the Quality of the Birth Population.

At the ceremony in Beijing, crowds cheered enthusiastically as the torch was carried through the streets by disabled athletes, suggesting that the Paralympics may change attitudes in this country, just as they have in others. For now, however, China’s disabled face prejudice even before they come into the world.

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The line about how disabled people are 'just like normal people' says it all. The fact that this needed to be said proves a culture of segregation... But why did the Paralympic committee agree to the games being held there if that's the state of affairs?

It's a sham.