The Description and Accusations About China's Children's Welfare Institutions by Britain's Channel Four and the Human Rights Wat

The British commercial television station Channel Four broadcast ``Secret Asia, the Dying Rooms'' on June 14, 1995, and ``Return to the Dying Rooms'' (a refurbished version of the former) on January 9, 1996. Using clumsy tricks, the programs stated that in China's children's welfare homes there were dying rooms where children were abused to death. An investigation proved that the so-called dying rooms in the program ``Secret Asia, the Dying Rooms'' refer actually to a warehouse in the Huangshi City Social Welfare Home in Hubei Province and that the major part of the program is fabricated.

Kate Blewett, producer of the program, and others visited the Huangshi welfare home, disguising themselves as staff members of the American Children's Fund. After Blewett, et al arrived, recalled Liu Qiuliang, nurse of the welfare home, she found one of the foreigners, a man, filming in a warehouse at the back of the courtyard. At that time, there were some old beds in that warehouse and some other articles were lying around. The cameraman untied the articles, spread them on the bed and began to shoot. Liu came to the warehouse and asked him what he was doing. He just grunted and came out. This is the warehouse which was later labeled as the ``dying rooms'' in the television program. The ``Dying Rooms'' claimed that in 1994 more than 80 children died in that house. This is sheer fabrication. The welfare home's statistics record and the list of children taken in or identified and adopted shows that there were 161 children in the institution in 1994 and 128 were adopted later in the year. How come more than 80 children died? Claiming that the empty beds formerly used by children who were later adopted or identified and so left the welfare home were the beds of dead children and further referring to the warehouse as the ``dying rooms'' is deliberate distortion of facts.

The ``Dying Rooms'' recounted a story about a ``nameless,'' seriously ill child who was left unattended without any medical treatment, waiting for death. The shots were taken by Blewett and others at Duanzhou District Welfare Home, Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province. As far as we know, the sick child was found on February 20, 1995 on the street by someone from a local police station; the child was then sent to the welfare home. The child was seriously ill when admitted to the welfare home, and the welfare home immediately gave the child medical treatment. Yang Jinying, the nurse who was responsible for looking after the ``nameless'' child, said that after Blewett and others entered the sick child's room, they told Yang to stay outside. Contrary to fact, the television program claimed that nurses hardly ever went into that room. It was winter and after Blewett and company entered the room, they removed the sick child's warm cotton-batting quilt and unbuttoned the latter's clothes. Yang tried to stop them. She said that it was cold and the child was sick. But Blewett said it did not matter. Wearing a fur coat, Blewett had the sick child stripped to the waist and shot for 15 to 20 minutes. After they finished shooting, they left the child undressed and didn't even cover the latter with the quilt. The sick child later died despite medical treatment. By playing up the condition of the sick child, Blewett and others intended to say that girls were systematically abused to death in the welfare homes. Using wanton fabrication to cheat and mislead viewers cannot but arouse indignation among the people.

The ``Dying Rooms'' made up another ``miserable story'' about a woman's forced abortion. It said that when the police were informed that a certain woman was pregnant with her second child (without having obtained prior permission), she was forced to have an abortion and a sterilization operation. The facts are as follows: The woman, named Xie Lianfeng, lives in Jinyang Village, Yangshuo, Guangxi. Blewett and company followed Xie's mother-in-law to Xie's home and asked Xie how many children she had. When Xie told them she had a boy and a girl, Blewett and others asked if she could have any more children. Xie answered, ``I had a ligation of the oviduct. I cannot bear children now.'' Xie said that she had never had an abortion, nor had her two sisters-in-law who lived with her. When the kind-hearted and honest Xie was told how Blewett, et al distorted her story, she said furiously, ``They are talking rubbish!''

Jiang Zhenghua, council member of the IUSSP, pointed out, ``As far as what we have seen is concerned, of the many things described in the telefilm some are sheerly concocted out of thin air and some are distortions. I felt strange when I saw the film. How could an institution which parades professional ethics for news coverage have produced such a film. Many of my scholar friends are also furious about the film.''

Britt-Marie Nygren, chief executive of the Family Association for Intercountry Adoption, Sweden, said, ``We were furious after we watched this film. There are 130 families in our association that have visited China and adopted children there. Many of them think that this film is an unjust report on China's welfare homes....I have visited many countries and seen their institutions responsible for adoption, so I can compare the conditions at institutions in different countries. That's why I reacted that way to this film's unjust reporting of the situation in China's welfare homes.''

Blewett and others may fabricate lies to cheat some people for sometime, but not for a long time. China, which has opened its door to the outside world, now receives millions of foreign visitors every year. They have opportunities to see the true situation, one which is completely contrary to what's described in the ``Dying Rooms.''