China has long sought to control women’s bodies. Increasingly, they’re making their own choices

Women are under pressure to devote their bodies to childbearing as China’s government tries to encourage more pregnancies. Composite: Victoria Hart/Guardian Design

Ever since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, women’s bodies have been the business of the state. In the 1950s, labour for state-controlled work units was organised according to women’s menstrual cycles. Then for decades, there was the one-child policy.

Across vast swathes of the country the policy was enforced with a brutal severity. As well as fines for additional children, women were forced to have abortions and subjected to forced sterilisations.