Childless Hundred Days

Childless Hundred Days (百日无孩) refers to a 1991 campaign of mass forced abortions carried out in Shen County and Guan County in Shandong Province, China. The campaign began on 1 May 1991 and concluded on 10 August 1991, lasting roughly one hundred days, from which it takes its name.

The campaign was designed to reduce local population growth in line with China's national One-child policy. It was initiated by the local Party Committee Secretary, identified as Zeng Zhaoqi (曾昭起), together with an individual identified as Bai Zhigang (白志刚). During the campaign, local officials were instructed to perform forced abortions on any pregnant woman found in the affected areas. This directive applied without regard to how far along a pregnancy was, and without regard to whether the pregnancy involved a first child, meaning that even pregnancies that would otherwise have complied with the One-child policy were terminated.

The policy is reported to have caused mass panic among the local population and led to a dramatic reduction in births in the affected counties during 1991. No additional detail is available on the number of women affected, on any legal or administrative consequences for the officials involved, or on the longer-term aftermath of the campaign.