Sterilization and financial penalties imposed on registered peasant couples, Hebei Province, China.

Using fertility survey data from the 1980s for registered Han peasant couples in Hebei Province, this study examines whether China's family planning policy reflects couples' voluntary compliance with policy regulations, their coercion by means of government sanctions, or a combination of both. Three family planning regulations are considered: birth-quota status, contraceptive use, and length of prior birth interval. The results of the study provide support for both compliance and sanction perspectives and suggest that by the late 1980s, the state was less willing than it had been previously to negotiate with couples who had had three children. Evidence is found of cooperation between couples and the state to ensure that each family had at least one son.