China has had a policy in place for years about the number of children allowed per couple. So what happens if there is a second pregnancy, or a third?
State imposed fines and increased taxes, I believe.
Of course the real result is female children being aborted or abandoned once born. They often end up in orphanages, a few lucky ones get adopted out.
The result is really two fold. With so many one child only families, and that child being a boy, they are being raised as ‘little emperors’, doted on like no other generation of Chinese.
The other result can already be seen in Chinese society, boys coming of age and a distinct shortage of females for available to marry.
Leave it to the Chinese to be unable to foresee the inevitable outcome of these actions and policies.
It seems there are significant financial penalties (I remembered this from a PBS show some years back).
Excellent article; I should have gone there first, I suppose.
From a National Geographic special about Chinese adoption: the fine for a second child can be as much as the person’s annual salary, so the penalties are stiff. The same special also mentioned that it is illegal in China for a doctor or technician doing an ultrasound to reveal the sex of the baby. As mentioned above, many parents would abort if they knew the baby was a girl. At one point, the special visited a primary school, and in a class of 39 students, only 11 were girls, which gives you some idea of the inequality.
And the social problems from the one-child policy are very real and coming to a head quite soon. I believe the figure is that by 2020, up to 40 million marriageable-age Chinese men will have no one to marry, simply by the numbers. Already, there are kidnappings, forced marriages, and forced prostitution; as the problem worsens, I expect a rise in gang violence and possibly a war in the region, as unmatched men have no families to channel their energy.
So, right now China, formerly a favorite for foreign adoptive parents, has slowed things down and is attempting to encourage domestic adoption to keep what girls they do have. Waits for adoptions by foreign parents (like me and my wife) have stretched from 12 to 20 and now 25-28 months.
The “little emperors” issue is a serious health problem, too; people who grew up accustomed to big families now have just one child to lavish attention on, and the kids are getting lazy and overweight. Although, maybe if they get lazy and overweight enough, the problems will cancel each other out…
Another result of the fines is, the wealthy are basically free to reproduce as much as they want and having more than one child is now seen as a kind of status symbol. Some people do choose to have more children and just pay the fines.
I read an article recently, I believe in Newsweek, that also stated as the male population grows older, the parents are discovering they are less likely to take care of them in their old age, which is the tradition. Females are more likely to be loyal to their parents and take care of them, stay around, etc. The males are going off to other places or better things, leaving some people alone in their old age and lonely. I believe the article was about how one couple put an ad out asking to “be adopted” by a grown woman who would treat them like her own parents, and they did find women who they basically treat now as part of their family. It is interesting to see the repercussions of how this policy is playing out.
I have friends too who are frustrated by the increased waiting list for adoption. They were told there are now more people who wish to adopt than there are children up for adoption. I wonder how much longer this can / will continue before the policy changes. ALready people are finding ways to get around it. There are exceptions to the rule, such as if your first child is disabled you can get permission to have another. Some people get Dr.'s to say their first child has a disability so they can have another. Or, some men have children with more than one woman.
I can try to find cites for all this - I have a close friend who is in the middle of the adoption process and so I have been doing a lot more reading on this subject lately, so the info is just all kind of floating in my head right now.
So China is copying the USA even in this, huh?
I had conversations about this with former coworker who was from China. I may be wrong about things, or misremembering, but this is what I recall. I’d appreciate if someone could correct/confirm these things!
This coworker was about 35, and she had one daughter (about 11 at the time). Due to the one-child rule, she had had an abortion some years prior to having her daughter, but that was mostly because of her own age and timing, etc. Clearly in her case, having a boy wasn’t an absolute necessity. She ended up divorcing her husband and moving here to Canada with her daughter, while he wanted to stay behind; I have no idea if the child’s sex had anything to do with it, but the kid went back to visit him often, they were on good terms, and my friend described her ex mostly as just an immature man.
Anyways, regarding the 1-child rule: the abortion costs were covered by the government. The government also provided contraception; in her case, she had an IUD implanted after the birth of her daughter. I assume other forms of contraception were also provided by the government.
My friend also told me that while she, and those of her generation, were held to the one-child rule, had they stayed in China, her daughter would not be. Apparently one generation (more or less) of control had been seen to slow down the population growth enough, to her understanding.
Now, if I remember correctly, she wasn’t from a very poor family, nor from a rich one. Average, for her town, I guess. I think her parents might both have been teachers. She was able to get the high marks needed to get her university education.
So, basically, that’s my understanding of what is available, at least, to enforce the rule. Does anyone know if the one-child rule has been lifted for the next child-bearing generation (I guess people who are now under 15 or so)?
Through the Yakuza you can buy a Chinese girl for little more than the price of a used car(U.S.)
I’d rather be left on a hill.
How long until China can match the US for childhood obesity rates?
I recently heard something about the Chinese government deciding to extend the 1-child rule longer.
I will also note that for certain ethnic/racial minorities in China it was a 2-child rule, not a 1 child. I seem to recall something about 2 children in certain areas that did not have a population problem, but I am not an expert on the matter.
Disclaimer: this info is from random sources and may not be all that current.
The ethnic minorities (about 17% of the population) are not subject to the 1-child rule.
If you are a single child and your spouse is also, you’re allowed 2 children.
Suggesting that the Chinese government was not aware of the long-term problems of the 1-child policy is conjecture at best. The short-term problem, having too many people to feed, was the primary motivation here. The numbers I’ve seen say that even with the 1-child policy in force:
a) the population has still not topped out
b) it will peak about 2050
c) that magic number, ladies and gentlemen, is 2 billion
The amount of land available in China for growing crops is much less (about 1/5, IIRC) of that available in the US. How the <bleep> are they going to feed 2 billion people?
For an interesting (if not that interestingly written) slice of info about the 1-child policy and its effect on kids, read Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son.
Sorry if I’m ranting, 4 of my 8 kids are adopted from China. Consider my hot button pushed.
:eek: eight kids?!?
You deserve some kind of award! How very cool of you to give a loving home to so many children!
I’ve also heard there’s a loophole where you can skirt the one-child policy if you have a kid born outside China. I guess the thinking is that that child born elsewhere can have citizenship in some other country, and not really count against China’s quota or something.