One Child Nation
The film One Child Nation brilliantly documents a 35-year human tragedy. The Chinese Communist Party decreed in 1979 that families could have only one child, setting in motion a retinue of horrors that included mind-numbing propaganda, forced abortion, mandatory sterilization, exploitative adoption and lifelong feelings of abandonment.
The narrative builds slowly, beginning with an interview of a minor local official who oversaw the abduction of women for forced abortions and sterilizations. He feels bad about what happened but doesn’t believe he had any choice. “Policy is policy,” he says sadly.
An 84-year-old midwife who estimates she performed between 50,000 and 60,000 abortions and sterilizations emphasizes that she and her...
