Sir. - We deeply regret the RTE decision to transmit the Channel 4 programme Return To The Dying Rooms The Channel 4 film attempted to attack China's family planning policy by picking Lip and dramatising a few isolated incidents in China. Its generalisation seriously distorted the actual situation of the Chinese orphanages and lost sight of the enormous achievements the Chinese government and people have made in improving children's welfare. The film makers failed to differentiate between the government policy and individual cases. Therefore, we strongly believe that the showing of this film on Ireland's national television service will only damage its reputation as an independent station. Moreover, it will not only hurt the feelings of the Chinese people, especially the social workers who have worked so hard for children's welfare, but also impair the understanding between the Chinese people and the Irish people.
The Chinese government and people have all along attached great importance to the healthy development of children. The legitimate rights and welfare of children, especially the orphans and disabled, are protected through legislative, judicial and administrative means. Besides the constitution, a few laws have been introduced for the protection of children. Abuse of children and abandoning of babies are severely prohibited and any law breakers will be brought to justice. The Chinese government has set up and supported a great number of children's welfare establishments. Among them, the Civil Affairs Departments are responsible for adopting and caring of orphans. More than 40,000 welfare institutes, including orphanages, and four SOS villages provide orphans with adequate adoption, medical and educational services until they reach adult age. Retarded and seriously disabled orphans are guaranteed life time care.
in China, there is a strong tradition of showing love and caring for the old and the young. The Chinese people love their children just as much as anybody else in the world. Abandoning infants is not a unique phenomenon in China. it is an ugly and immoral act. Therefore, it is prohibited by law and condemned by the whole society. It has nothing to do with China's policy of family planning. As experiences have shown, China's family planning policy presents the only way forward for a nation of 1.2 billion people and has won the support of an over whelming majority of the people.
In the West, there seems to be some misunderstanding of our policy. The family planning policy does not necessarily mean the "One Child Policy" . In rural areas, for example, where the vast majority of the country's population is concentrated, a couple may have a second child several years after the first is born, and even a third child is allowed in areas inhabited by some ethnic minorities.
The Channel 4 film is also a patchwork of misinformation. According to our own investigation, the so called Dying Rooms" are nothing but a sheer fabrication. The so called "Dying Room" was in fact a storeroom at a welfare house in Huangshi city in central China's Hubei Province. In the film, what impressed people most is the picture of a bony baby boy who is said to be "dying of starvation" by the film maker. But the boy, named Jian Xun, was taken into the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute on February 24th, 1988 and died of illness, not of mistreatment, on July 17th, 1992. He was diagnosed as being severely mentally retarded. The deadly problem with him was that he vomited every time after being fed and grew thinner and thinner. All kinds of medical treatment failed to cure him, and at last he died.
We don't deny that there is the tradition in some areas of China of tying children to beds, but this is only to prevent them hurting themselves while the parents are doing their jobs. But this could not have happened to Jian Xun who was too weak to hurt himself. This picture is a fabrication by Dr Zhang Shuyun, who was employed by Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute in September, 1988 and resigned in June 1993. During that time, she was repeatedly criticised by the directorship of the orphanage for her poor work performance. To revenge herself, she defamed the director - with fabrication but failed. Just as the victim of her slanders brought a case against her, she resigned and fled to the United States via Hong Kong. How can the materials provided by such a person be reliable?
After the showing of the Channel 4 film, we received letters and telephone calls of concern and understanding. There is no doubt that we have all sorts of problems a developing country may encounter, and there is certainly room for improvement, including the conditions in some orphanages. As we are aware, the Irish people are helpful and kind hearted, I thank them for their concern and understanding about our orphanages and we very much appreciate and welcome any co operation in our efforts to improve the conditions of our orphanages.
Fortunately, as time passes by, more and more people have come to realise that there is more to it than meets the eye in the Channel 4 film. Recently, I have met with some Irish people and we had some very good discussions. China and Ireland are geographically far apart, but with increasing contacts, I am convinced that the Irish people will make their own judgments about the Channel 4 programme. Yours, etc.,
Ambassador of the People's
Republic of China.
Dublin.