Recently, health departments in Yunnan and other areas have started registering the menstrual dates of women of childbearing age, sparking public outrage. Experts believe that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is deeply embroiled in a population crisis, and the various social issues arising from violent family planning policies will impact the CCP regime.
In a village in Xuanwei, Yunnan, mothers are being asked to report their last menstrual dates in a WeChat group by providing their name, last menstrual date, and phone number, with a note of their current location if residing outside the area. They are told that “everyone must report their last menstrual date.”
Local health authorities have explained that this measure is aimed at “prenatal investigation work, to promptly identify pregnant women and facilitate the provision of basic public health services.”
This news has sparked heated discussions online, with netizens expressing their discontent. Some comments include: “Unbelievable, but here we are.” “Are they insane for wanting to increase the birth rate so desperately?” “Now we have menstrual police.” “While files on criminal activities are hidden, women’s menstrual cycles need to be reported. It’s ridiculous!” “Too absurd! Will they call next time to tell you when your ovulation period is coming, urging you to have intercourse and report it the next day in the group? Is a woman’s uterus no longer private?”
Some opinion articles point out that certain types of national policies lack flexibility and humanity. For instance, in Romania in 1966, forced childbirth and the establishment of “menstrual police” positions were part of efforts to boost the declining population by enforcing nationwide gynecological examinations, banning abortion, collecting birth taxes, and monitoring the reproductive progress of married couples.
A villager in Luxian County, Yunnan, told reporters, “I am not married yet, and last year, a village women’s association member called me, asking for my menstrual date and when I planned to become pregnant. I have no idea where she got my phone number, saying that if I become pregnant, I can apply for something. It seems like everyone in their twenties is being asked to report their last menstrual date, but I ignored it. It’s too outrageous, possibly due to the low birth rate, my colleagues in their village are facing the same situation.”
“Because the woman from the women’s association who called me is my relative, I didn’t scold her. It’s also her duty, and scolding her wouldn’t help.”
It is noteworthy that the requirement to report women’s “last menstrual date” is not limited to Yunnan, as netizens from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, and other regions have confirmed being asked to report their menstrual dates, even including unmarried female university students.
A female university student in Jiangsu said, “Even unmarried female university students like me are being asked. Relevant staff members call, but I don’t know what they want. After a few inquiries, it doesn’t seem related to the school. Regardless of who asks, this is a personal privacy matter, and I can choose not to answer.”
A female university student in Zhejiang said, “Our school also requires reporting the menstrual dates of the previous month. I wonder what they are up to?”
Renowned human rights activist Chen Guangcheng, in an interview with reporters, stated that China’s new births have been less than ten million for three consecutive years, and in the past five to six years, the population decline rate has been above 18%. The population crisis resulting from the CCP’s violent family planning policies is becoming increasingly apparent. If the marriage rate doesn’t increase, the birth rate won’t either, and it will be impossible to achieve social ecological balance.
Chen believes that starting from their own rights, the public should consider the invasion of privacy by the CCP as progress. In reality, such privacy violations have never stopped. For example, requiring women of childbearing age to undergo so-called “station checks” every three months, regardless of where they work, to determine if they are pregnant. If found pregnant, they are immediately taken away for forced abortion, which is also an invasion of privacy.
He recalled that the CCP’s Family Planning Committee set up checkpoints arbitrarily in different localities, such as in town family planning committee offices or sub-district offices, and designated doctors and nurses to conduct checks. This process was commonly referred to as “stationing in.” Maternal and child health stations also engage in these activities.
“Or they would send a small team of about ten to twenty people to apprehend pregnant women, restrain them, and have a nurse use a needle to inject poison into their belly or the child’s head, killing them…”
“The birth control policy is a red line. Up until our 2005 Family Planning Investigation Report was released, the international community still believed that China did not practice violent family planning or forced abortions. Before Washington Post journalist Philip P.Pan went to Shandong for investigations, the United States even donated tens of millions of dollars through the UN women’s organization annually, believing that it was being used to help Chinese women with family planning. It was all a deception,” he said.
In addition to collecting the menstrual cycles of women of childbearing age for big data analysis and management, the CCP has various childbirth promotion methods, such as reproductive propaganda and individual policing for ideological purposes.
Recently, scholars from the School of Public Health at Peking University published a paper in the Chinese Medical Journal (English Edition), citing a study tracking over 500,000 Chinese individuals for 12 years. The research found a U-shaped relationship between the number of children women bear and the risk of death, with the lowest mortality risk observed when having 3-4 children.
Netizens have expressed strong doubts about this finding, believing that authorities are resorting to all means to promote more births, which they deem as “deceptive fertility.” Some comments include: “How many people can still be part of such experiments? If the research was conducted over 12 years, wasn’t it during the one-child policy era? How many families had 3-4 children back then?” “They only allowed having one child back then, so are they bothered by people living longer?” “The longest lifespan is for those who don’t have children! Having children often shortens life expectancy.” “If this research was announced during the one-child policy era, I would be impressed by Peking University.”
Chen said that initially, experts advised for women’s health’s sake to have fewer children and to delay childbirth until after the age of 23, among other recommendations. Now the advice has been reversed, fooling people in the name of science.
He believes that the CCP could task party officials to monitor individuals’ reproductive activities, similar to the previous one-child policy. Previously, exceeding the population quota rendered all other achievements invalid, resulting in no promotion or advancement opportunities. Now, the system could be reversed, whereby failing to meet the new birth quota could lead to repercussions for officials, compelling them to find ways to meet the desired goals.
“Of course, this is a short-term goal for them. As long as you are pregnant for ten months and give birth, the mission would be considered accomplished. They won’t care about the aftermath of childbirth; local officials would also be unable to manage it.”
“Back then, the CCP forced people to pay social fostering fees. Do they now have the right to demand more children?,” asked a resident of Luohe, Henan, expressing their severe concern over the disregard of women and speculating if there might be an ulterior motive behind these actions.
“Hopefully, we are overthinking, and maybe it’s just for statistics regarding pregnant women. However, these methods seem ineffective if the actual aim is to promote childbirth. I find this investigation very off-putting.” However, she acknowledged that the situation of not allowing births before but now urging them poses challenges.
Chen also pointed out that coercing people to have more children compared to directly aborting fetuses with poison injections in the past presents new challenges. Encouragement methods like offering subsidies to families for having more children to alleviate financial burdens and encourage voluntary participation could be utilized.
“Forcing people to bear more children is a violation of rights, something only the mafia would do. A normal government has no such rights. Of course, China, under the CCP, is not a normal government; it’s an evil regime,” he stated.
According to official estimates from CCP party media, the family planning policy in the past 40 years has resulted in 400 million fewer births in mainland China. In recent years, many schools are now closing down. The “National Education Development Statistics Bulletin for 2024” indicates that in 2024, there were 20,000 fewer kindergartens and 15,000 fewer private schools nationwide.
The CCP was compelled to implement the “universal two-child” policy in 2016 and opened up to three children in 2021. Since May 2022, Guangdong no longer requires approval for childbirth. In July of the same year, the State Council of the CCP established the “Inter-Ministerial Consultation and Joint Public Opinion Optimization for Birth Policy Work.” A resident in Shandong, Du Ping (alias), told reporters, “They don’t care whether you exceed the birth quota, but neither are people having children. No one is interested anymore.”
He mentioned seeing an LED advertisement from a private kindergarten saying, “Enter the campus for a trial period for 99 yuan for two weeks…”, indicating the lengths to which kindergartens are going to attract students. This particular kindergarten is located in the central area of the old city, near a large community, reflecting the noticeable decline in newborns locally.
“Previously, unmarried pregnancies were not permitted to be aborted recklessly. Now there are increased monthly subsidies, no random verification of parentage, and next year, contraceptives will be subject to value-added tax. Raising one child requires a great deal of effort; having two is even more exhausting,” he stated.
Chen believes that the extremely low birth rate has left the CCP anxious. “In reality, how many people are there in China? Hardly anyone knows. If someday a huge data breach reveals certain information, the CCP would be very nervous. The social issues resulting from violent family planning go beyond just a population problem; the collective eruption of various social issues will pose an unimaginable challenge to the CCP regime.”