Nov 27, 2011

China's Two-Child Policy?

Sunday, November 27, 2011
0

Last year I lived in the city of Zhengzhou (郑州) in Henan Province (河南省), the most populous province in China with a total of over 100 million people. Recently, Henan enacted a law that modifies China's one-child policy to allow couples to have a second child if the husband and wife are both from one-child families. A number of other provinces in China had previously done this and it seems that the cumulative effect may be that China now has more of a two-child than a one-child policy.

Kindergarten kids that might not be from one-child families since the photo was taken in a rural area
China's one-child policy (计划生育政策;  jìhuà shēngyù zhèngcè) was instituted in 1979 as a response to the huge population growth the country experienced from the 19th to mid-20th century which creates tremendous economic, social and environmental challenges. While the one-child policy has slowed population growth, its also created other problems such as a shortage of females (since Chinese traditionally value sons much more than daughters), increase in abortion, and increasing pressure on younger generations to support the increasingly large elderly portion of China's population. 
An old poster promoting the one-child policy
Most people in the West tend to believe that the one-child policy is a rule that's strictly enforced. However, there are significant exceptions to the rule as well as ways of getting around it. First of all, the policy provides quite a few important exemptions, including couples living in rural areas (still the majority of China's population), ethnic minorities, and parents without any siblings. Additionally, some parts of China such as Hong Kong and Macau (which are mostly self-governed) are not subject to the policy at all. Finally, some provincial governments in mainland China (such as Henan mentioned above and quite a few others) have adopted less restrictive regulations. In fact, its estimated that only about 36% of China's population is subject to the one-child policy.
Even out of those people subject to the policy, some choose to have more than one child since the penalty for violating the policy is simply paying a fine. The amount of the fine is dependent on family income and generally increases for each additional child, but isn't hugely expensive for a second child. When I've asked students in my classes here in Xiamen if they have any siblings, I've been surprised at the number who say they do. so many people choose to pay. Usually, this means their parents chose to pay to have a second child.
Its estimated that the one-child policy has resulted in at least 250 million fewer births until 2000 and possibly nearer to 400 million by 2011. Anyone who's spent any time living in or visiting China knows how incredibly overcrowded things are in many ways. While the one-child policy is certainly controversial and some people consider it to be an infringement on peoples' human rights, controlling population growth is clearly an extremely important concern which China (and its 1.35 billion current population) can't afford to ignore.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)