Only One Child Allowed in China? Is This True?

I'm not worried about bias,. I can handle it.

That's very interesting. We could all stand in the state of Texas.

Of course we couldn't all live there. and the earth's resources must be taken into account. Population isn't just about having room to stand, it also involves having a home, a job, food, water, waste disposal - stuff like that.

I don't believe that the population concern is a myth.

During the 1980's it was a policy to only have one child due to the increasing population and the Chinese Governments inability to cope with more and more people.

However in the modern era they yse a system of increased taxation depending on the number of children you have. Someone who has no children in fact pays less tax than someone who has one, than someone who has one pays less than someone who has two. So on and so fourth...

It is actually rather a wise idea in some respects although can lead to a few problems in the short term and the lack of understanding by the people who the policy is implimented upon.

reply to post by Benevolent Heretic



parents of twins, triplets, etc. are given the same benefits as parents of one child


brittz

Yes its true and has been so for a couple decades now... It is also honored more by its disobeying than anything else though... traditionally the poor need more children to help on the farms and the like.

I have heard reports of forced sterilizations but I am not sure if it is true.

I am regularly reminded of the quip that go Groucho Marx yanked from TV in the 50's...
He was interviewing a woman with 16 kids when he asked her how was it that she had so many children.
She replied with a giggle that she loved her husband
to which Groucho responded...

... Well!!! I love my cigar too but I take it out every now and then.

The real problem this policy is creating is called, "The little emperors."

You have one child, usually a boy with two parents and four grandparents and each of them want to be his favorite. He's the only descendant they will have.

As a result these kids are spoiled monsters who have no problem making everyone miserable if they don't get what they want, when they want it.

I have no doubt the policy will create a generation of psychotics, and thats scary considering the sheer numbers.

There are indeed cases of "forceful abortion". The case cited from Times by BigfatApe is true. Chinese scholars found that forceful abortion makes even deeper psychological damage to women than rape. "Forceful abortion" is absolutely forbidden by law and actually those men who did that in the case above were put in jail.

China is a difficult country to run. Demorgraphical problem is one of the difficulties. Athough China has an area as large as US,at least half of the land is not suitable for living. In villages, each peasant family can only have a very small farming land. There is just no enough resource to support a larger population.

Actually Chinese family planning policy is not strictly a one-child policy. Quite a large portion of he population can have more than one child. Those couples living in big cities are subject to one-child limit if they are not ethnic monority people, but there are still some exemptions. Actually different provinces now have quite different policies.

Basically there is no large scale resistence in china because most people who subject to strict one-child limit are just those who don't want to have many children (more accurately, they can't afford having more than one child in cities).

The punishment is basically just a large sum of fine (they don't call it fine but "social fosterage fee"). Government servants, if breach the policy, will never be promoted. So those people who have high income and working for foreign firms may just pay the fine and have several children. Some people just migrate to other countries and change their nationality to have more children. Hence, a new kind of inequality in China, elite people are able to circumvant the policy quite easily.

Anyway, the familiy planning policy has passed its most difficult time. Most provinces are relaxing it slowly.

By the way, children without brothers and sisters can make friends in their kindergardens and schools. I don't really think there is a serious "litter emperor" problem. In the recent Chinese earthquake, people found that those children including only children were amazingly brave and willing to help their schoolmates.


[edit on 29-5-2008 by qiulin]