China's birth control policy in Tibet Autonomous Region: myths and realities
Goldstein, M.C.; Beall, C.M.
Asian Survey 31(3): 285-303
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0004-4687 Document Number: 319310
The nature of China's population policy in contemporary Tibet is a controversial issue. A series of published reports claim that China was and is compelling Tibetans to adhere to a strict birth control policy that includes forced abortions, sterilizations and even infanticide. The article addresses this issue by presenting new data collected during field research in Tibet from 1985-88. Traditional anthropological methods such as participant observation and in-depth, open-ended interviews were used. Findings identified a clear policy of coercive birth control operative in Lhasa. Restrictions and limits differed depending on social stratum and on ethnicity. In Tibet's farming and nomadic areas (about 90% of the total ethnic Tibetan population) no evidence was found of any policy restricting the number of children that herding and farming women could bear. However, the advantages of family planning and smaller families have been publicly extolled, particularly in areas nearer administrative centres. The reproductive histories of Phala women at all ages point to no population control policy restricting couples to two births. In Nyare, family planning is well known. There is easy access to contraception. There is no policy of coercion and although slightly lower fertility rates were found than in Phala, the rates were still far higher than indicated by previous claims. The data suggest that Tibet Autonomous Region is actually experiencing high population growth rates rather than suffering a policy of coercive and restrictive birth control. While reproductive limits have clearly been placed on Tibetan cadre in the cities in the 1980s, and on the urban masses in 1990, the bulk of Tibetans who live in rural farming and nomadic areas appear to have had no restrictions as of 1990.