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Death by Default: A Policy of Fatal Neglect in China's State Orphanages. By HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ASIA. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1996. 394 pp. Distributed by Yale University Press. $25.00 (paper).
We seldom hear their cries because they are too starved to raise their voices; we hardly notice they exist because they are usually omitted from the rosy picture of official reports; even if we know they are there, we are accustomed to the photographs of top party leaders hugging and kissing happy children with red scarves. We thought orphans in China were under tender loving care. But this report eradicates our naive impression.
Robin Munro, China researcher and director of the Hong Kong office of Human Rights Watch/Asia, and Jeff Rigsby, a consultant to the organization, have jointly and painstakingly gathered numerous sources and combined them with solid analyses. These sources include official statistics, local government annals, media coverage, individual testimonies, and a substantial archive of secretly obtained orphanage documents provided by Dr. Zhang Shuyun, formerly a senior staff member of the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute, and many of her colleagues, who campaigned to protect the lives and dignity of the orphans in their care.
The book begins by examining governmental policy interpretation and implementation to provide a survey of China's social welfare system since 1949. Because capitalist welfare measures were considered tricks to pacify interclass disputes, they were discontinued,...