One Child Policy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

"We need a male to continue the family line." Except that male needs a female to continue your family line...

"Single men sit around with nothing to do." The fact they imply that these guys have nothing to do bc they are single is amazing.

My childhood best friend was abandoned when her brother was born. Now she's captain of her highschool's cheer squad, has had straight A's her whole life, gets an adrenaline rush from organizing her backpack, and is planning on running for office one day. China lost a DAMN brilliant girl to that policy.

Bless that man for making sex dolls honestly. Who knows how many girls has been saved from human trafficking thanks to him.

That woman crying about her 9 month forced abortion was honestly heartbreaking.

PLEASE interview Wang Zheng, one of China’s foremost feminist thinkers. In her own words, “Female infanticide was not a concern of the government. But men cannot find wife, that is a concern for the government.”

I remember a news story that had a lot of people in Australia very upset in the late 90s- a Chinese woman came here as a refugee because she was pregnant with her second child. She pleaded with the Australian government to just wait to send her back until after she’d had the kid (which shouldn’t have been a probable, we don’t have birthright citizenship here), but they didn’t. They sent her back at 8 months pregnant. And what she feared would happen is exactly what happened. Australians were furious! One more month was all she asked for. She knew it would mean her child would likely be taken from her and put in an orphanage- but that was better than a forced abortion at 8 months. Also, for those who can’t seem to wrap their heads around pro-CHOICE. The hint is in the last word. It’s about respecting the bodily autonomy and choices of the person who has to carry the pregnancy. It’s really not hard to understand. No, it doesn’t mean pro-abortion. It means exactly what the label says. Pro-choice.

China: We introduced a policy that made it impossible for 34 million men to have a traditional family, even if they wanted to. Also China: We have strict censorship rules in place to prevent the display of homosexuality on TV, because to show it will endanger traditional family structures. We simply cannot take that risk. We love traditional family structures!

I think we can all agree that buying a sex doll when you are pretty sure there is no chance you will find a wife is a far better option then paying for a kidnaped bride.

I was adopted because of the one child policy. Living a great life in Canada.

Thanks for mentioning the human trafficking business. That was one of my biggest fears growing up as a girl in Vietnam.

for anyone wanting an update: in may 2021 the 7th national census was released in china, showing that the birthrate was still declining. the chinese government implemented a 3 child policy in june 2021. in august 2021 they stripped out all of the penalties for more children, so functionally there is no hard cap on the number of children.

Pro choice has it in its name Choice A forced abortion is simply... Clearly not a choice...?

As a child adopted from china because of this policy I'm thrilled to see that John brought this issue up.

This adds a lot of context to a documentary I saw about the immense pressure and shame poured on women who chose not to marry.

My grandma actually paid for me to NOT be aborted, which is really sad when you think about it as I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for a few thousand dollars.

Oh damn, that poor woman at 11:00 breaks my heart.... my mom was in the exact same situation as she was in - my father already had a child from his first marriage. My mom was already 37 years old, and 6 months pregnant, and she was told by government officers that she couldn't have me. They threatened to fire my father from work. My mom shot back that she'll just divorce him before they do anything of that sort. She was pissed, and she was determined to have me. She went all tiger mum on them, accusing them of inhumanity and hurling insults, countering every threat they made. (At one point she insinuated that she'll just ask for asylum from the U.S ) It wasn't very diplomatic, and normally it wouldn't have ended well, but miraculously, they backed down, (I mean I guess my mom can be really scary, and perhaps they did have an inkling of a conscience) and I was born with a proper citizenship and stuff, without fines. I always just saw this as a really touching story about my mother's love for me. And I knew I was fortunate. But I also thought that 'well, I was technically her first child, plus, it was 2001, perhaps policy was less violently enforced, so... maybe that's why they backed down. ' Now I realise how lucky I really was, because I could have easily been that child, and my amazing mother would have to suffer just as that poor lady did. I don't know how necessary the one child policy really was... Maybe it was for the greater good, maybe it was just another evil policy of the very-bad-at-adjusting-to-reality and rather amoral communist government. Either way, let's just take a moment to acknowledge the human tragedies that it caused. Because people are not statistics, and the trauma never really goes away. (And seriously, go hug your mom/dad and tell them you love them) (And since this is a rather depressing topic - I love y'all too, strangers of the internet, hope you have a good day ahead)

Imagine having to take care of 4 grandparents and 2 parents, but then the government also wants you to raise 2 children at the same time.

The Rat is taking the pizza to his teenage ninja turtle friends

"Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist."