Apple urged to play social role in China

Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese dissident whose flight to the U.S. in April roiled U.S.-China relations, said iPhone-maker Apple Inc. (AAPL) should take a more outspoken role criticizing China for its one-child policy.

Apple, which hires manufacturers to assemble products such as the iPhone and iPad in China, can help stop forced abortions and other coercive population control measures, Chen said in an interview this week. The blind human-rights activist is betting that Apple’s presence in China and the popularity of its products there will help draw attention to the issue.

“Apple in China should take a very active role,” Chen said. “There’s a huge social responsibility for these international corporations like Apple.”

This is the first time since arriving in the U.S. that the civil rights activist is speaking against his country’s forced birth-control policy, the issue that led to his arrest and jail term in China. Chen received a fellowship to study at New York University after seeking help at the U.S. embassy in Beijing just as high-level talks between the two countries got under way in April.

Chen and other China human-rights advocates are seeking a meeting with Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to discuss their concerns. They sent a letter to Cook last week asking Apple to adopt measures to end coercive family planning practices in its factories. The proposals included prohibiting access to factories for government family-planning officials and refusing to report women who are pregnant without birth permits. The group also wants other companies, including Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), to urge the Chinese government to drop its policy.

Responsibility Report

China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a faxed request for comment. Cai Feng, an official with the National Population and Family Planning Commission’s news department, directed requests for comment to the agency’s international cooperation department. Calls to that department weren’t answered today.

Introduced in the late 1970s and made mandatory in 1980, China’s one-child policy restricts most married couples to having one child in order to control population growth in the country of 1.3 billion.

Migrant women must provide certificates showing their childbearing and birth-control status to the provincial government where they work, according to government regulations. Employers are required to play a role in family planning and accept government supervision, the national commission says on its website.