Above a shuttered fertilizer store in this eastern China town, men and women are locked up because their relatives will not agree to undergo government-ordered sterilization or abortion, according to current and former detainees.
Such detentions are against the law in China, where peasants and activists are trying to cast new light on abuses by local authorities enforcing the national population-control rule, known as the one-child policy. The jailing of residents here suggests abuses might be occurring on a wider scale than had been previously reported, despite central government pledges to curb violations.