Only Child No More: The Relaxing of China’s One Child Policy

Only Child No More: The Relaxing of China’s One Child Policy
Dec 15, 2014 By Danielle Martin , eChinacities.com

China’s controversial one child policy, which has dominated its history for the last 30 years, reached a landmark change at the beginning of this year, when it was relaxed to allow more couples the opportunity to have more than one child. The outdated and frankly archaic policy, introduced in 1979 to curb the rising population, already has a number of loopholes allowing couples to potentially have more offspring. However, according to many officials this latest relaxation will eventually pave the way for it to be scrapped altogether – which for many worried demographers can’t come quick enough, since current statistics show that the population is aging too quickly, creating an unmanageable burden on its younger generations who are often left to take care of elderly parents and grandparents alone.

Bearing this in mind, let’s take a look at the current one child policy and Chinese views on it being relaxed.

Andy Siitonen
Photo: Andy Siitonen

Current loopholes that create a two child policy

A brief background: in 1979, the then premier Deng Xiaoping introduced a strict “one child per family” rule in order to combat the rising population. At the time, China was unable to cope with the population explosion and was also looking at measures to raise living standards. However, the ‘temporary’ measure – which has now been in place for 35 years – wasn’t properly thought through and a whole raft of problems including a rapidly aging population, exacerbated elderly care issues, a shrinking labour pool and a distorted gender imbalance appeared, with many feeling that this latest attempt at reversing the decline is too little, too late.

Currently, there are a number of ways in which couples can have a second child if they wish to do so:

1) The one child policy predominantly applies to Han Chinese who make up 91% of the population, making ethnic minorities such as Zhuang, Uighurs and Tibetans exempt in order to preserve their culture.
2) The one child policy applies to urban couples. Families who live in rural areas are allowed to have another child if their first born is a girl.
3) Couples who are both only children themselves are allowed to have two children.
4) If a child is born severely disabled or with major health issues, the couple can have a second child.
5) For the more wealthy amongst the population, they can afford to have a second (or even third child) by paying the fine that is levied upon women who fall pregnant a second time and are not coerced into an abortion. The fine differs from province to province and is calculated according to education and healthcare costs in that area.
6) If a woman falls pregnant with a multiple birth (twins, triplets etc) she is exempt from the one child policy and allowed to give birth to both. Interestingly, this loophole has seen a huge increase in the number of couples visiting IVF clinics in the hope of falling pregnant with a multiple birth to bypass the rules.

The relaxation of the One Child Policy

The latest relaxation of the policy now includes the ruling that only one of the couple needs to be an only child in order to qualify for having more children. According to population growth experts, this could result in a modest growth of 1-2 million births over the course of the next three years. However, Chinese couples haven’t exactly been falling over themselves to reproduce since this new ruling came into effect.

In January, six provinces approved an amendment to the current Family Planning Regulations including Beijing and Zhejiang provinces, with Hubei and Guangxi following suit in March. Another 20 provinces are expected to sign amendments in December. Yet, there are concerns about the effectiveness of this amendment. In February, the Qianjiang Evening News state-run newspaper of Zhejiang Province reported that after the initial trial period in three cities, the local government had received only 300 applications for a second child, far lower than had been expected.

So what exactly is causing couples to think twice about increasing their brood? Well, according to many that were interviewed by The New York Times, the overwhelming cost factor is what prevents them from taking advantage of the relaxed rules. Increased housing prices and education costs are pricing families out of having more children as well as the current trend of buying imported baby products such as baby milk formula, which is deemed safer. On salaries that are only a fraction of those in the West, many families are concerned about the quality of life this would give their children if they opted to have more than one. Also, factor in the absurd tradition of husbands having to provide houses, cars and other material possessions for their wives and instantly many interviewed women agreed that the potential risk of baby number two being another boy was “financially ruinous” for them when it came to their sons getting married!  

Conversely, a lot of couples were elated at the news that they now fit into the extended criteria. Some cited that being an only child is lonely – they themselves speaking from experience – and wish for nothing more than their ‘Little Emperor’ to have a sibling. This also leads into a discussion relating to social skills: many Chinese are of the opinion that three decades of spoilt, lonely, only children has only hampered social skills, with most struggling to interact with others and regularly demonstrating an inability to empathise or learn how to share. Providing a sibling is surely only a benefit to those circumstances.  

Possible government incentives?

If increased living and education costs are such a hindrance for many couples in expanding their brood, then how about some ideas for helping out couples who can’t afford to have more than one child? As mentioned above, the one child policy has been in force for nigh on 35 years, generating revenue from the fines accumulated from women who flouted the rule. The trauma inflicted on the thousands of women who were forced into late term abortions, sterilised against their will as well as the soaring rates of female infanticide thanks to sex-selective abortions does little to appease many when considering this money (as many as 400 million births have been prevented since the introduction of the policy). As recently as 2012, government figures showed that 24 provinces collected the equivalent of $3.29 billion in fines from second child pregnancies.

To assist in raising more than one child, the government could try to undo some of the damage it has inflicted by providing families of more than one child with a grant or allowance, similar to the UK system of Child Tax Credits – whereby a monthly subsidy is given per child in the household until each becomes an adult at eighteen. However, of the money collected very little accounting was kept and most of its whereabouts is unknown.

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Keywords: relaxing one child policy One Child Policy new regulations One Child Policy changes

4 Comments

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Guest2402856

I think that its a good idea, in case of having children, the less the better !!!

Dec 15, 2014 21:29 Report Abuse

RiriRiri

Like it's ever been followed anywhere anyway. If this policy has ever been anything, it was a tax on the middle class, enforced where laws are enforceable, which means certainly not everywhere. As far as I know, the ongoing rule is still "lay it til it spawns a boy" anyway. Policy or not, the timebomb is still there, but you can't make policies preventing retardation and ignorance, can you.

Dec 15, 2014 15:02 Report Abuse

SwedKiwi1

This won't have much of an impact in Guangdong anyway. Here I haven't met many people who are only children - in spite of the rule it seems most families are having 2, 3 or more children (already).

Dec 15, 2014 13:30 Report Abuse