Other than her outrageous eyewitness accounts, Fu Ping did not include any statistics to substantiate her research in her book Bend, Not Break. But she did provide plenty in her interviews promoting the book.
In January, 2010, in a speech at University of North Carolina, she said,
Baby girls are being killed in the countryside because, being still primarily an agriculture society, people want boys. Later I knew -- now I know -- during that time when I was in college, 30 millions of babies were killed.
On February 17, 2013, she told D. G. Martin of NC Bookwatch:
I actually didn't know how wide-spread it was. I think a lot. But now we know, during 78 to 82, in 4 years, 30 million girls were missing.
The Debunking:
We do not know what is the source of Fu Ping's number above since she never cited any references. But what we do know is that "30 millions of babies were killed" is not the same as "30 million girls were missing". The two statements can not both be correct.
As we have explained earlier, forced abortion and infanticide are two different things. It is likely the number referred to forced abortion (babies killed) which to the most part is gender neutral. It is of course possible to have gender-selective abortions, but the practice requires ultrasound technology which was not widely available in China in the early 1980s, especially in rural areas. Infanticide, on the other hand, is criminal and had never been widely practiced.
Furthermore, although the one-child policy was planned earlier, it was officially launched in the September of 1980 with an open letter from the Party Central. Therefore, what Fu Ping claimed above as the four years of her college, only the latter half of which was under the policy.
According to wikipedia, there were around 20 million total live births per year in that time frame. Yet Fu Ping found 30 million killed babies or missing girls in those 2 or 4 years!
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