The Legacy of China's One-Child Policy

[Randy W]

This is an ongoing topic.

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A video from Time. Three interesting case studies, one who has never been able to register until she was 23 year old and couldn't even buy train tickets, another who was finally able to register without a humongous fine, and a third where the father wants more children, but his wife does not, due to the government regulations.

 

The Legacy of China’s One-Child Policy

 

The video is in the article, or may be viewed here:

http://c.brightcove.com/services/mobile/streaming/index/rendition.m3u8?assetId=5245033689001&pubId=293884104&videoId=5245006509001

Edited March 8, 2020 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from China Pictorial Facebook - 
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaPic/photos/a.558235270968533.1073741830.553929144732479/1096527133806008/

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Second-child policy increases births by 7.9 percent

 

The universal second-child policy implemented early last year was a major factor in raising the number of births in China to 17.86 million last year, an increase of 7.9 percent and the highest annual number since 2000, according to Chinese health authority.

 

The number of newborns increased by 1.31 million compared with 2015.

 

In late 2013, the top decision-makers intensified efforts to adjust three-decade-old birth policies that limited most couples to just one child, aiming at addressing major demographic challenges such as an aging population and a looming labor shortage.

 

Starting in early 2014, couples in which one partner was an only child could have a second child. The universal second-child policy was then implemented at the start of 2016.

 

By 2050, the policy is expected to bring about an extra 30 million working-age people and reduce the nation's aging rate by 2 percent, commission projections show.

 

But matching policies have not yet been refined to provide adequate support for couples willing to have more than one child, particularly in terms of maternity education and health services.

 

A 2015 survey by the commission found that nearly 75 percent of respondents were reluctant to have a second baby, largely due to economic burdens.

 

Other major concerns are age, parents' career development, and lack of caregivers, it showed. Someone suggested that the government should introduce support measures like favorable tax policies, prolonged maternity leave and better access to education for families with two children.

 

In the mid-1950s, the average number of annual births was around 18 million, almost the same as in 2016. But the fertility rate (the average number of children a woman will have during her life) has dropped from more than six back then, to less than two.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

. . . AND makes it more difficult to go back to work. From the Global Times

 

New two-child policy makes employers leery of hiring women

By Zhao Yusha Source:Global Times Published: 2017/3/23 21:08:39

 

 

"During my job interviews, all of the companies asked if I am planning to have a second child," 34-year-old Xiao Mu, who currently works for a media company in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Many companies blatantly told her that they prefer women with two children rather than unmarried women. "We simply cannot afford two maternity leaves," Xiao Mu was told by one of the companies.

In the last two years, some Chinese companies have also required female job applicants to put information about their family members on their applications, Qian Yue, an experienced human resource manager, was quoted as saying by The Legal Daily on Saturday.

"If a female applicant already has two children, then she is safe, because it is very likely she won't have any more children," said Qian.

Qian said that HR managers are very cautious because they will be blamed if a female employee gets pregnant right after her probation period or asks for maternity leave shortly after she is employed.

. . .

Employers say hiring female employees can be prohibitively costly.

Yang Wanghai, owner of a start-up company, told The Legal Daily that it will take a woman five years if she wants to have two children (which includes the time of pregnancy, nursing and taking care of infants,) and a woman cannot fully devote herself to work during the five years, even though the company has to pay her full salary.

This is disastrous for a start-up, said Yang. Having to pay a maternity subsidy for a woman and find someone to cover her during her absence is just "too much for a company which faces life-and-death struggles everyday," said Yang.

No company dares to fire female employees because the law forbids it, said Qian, adding that they can just hire male applicants and transfer the pregnant employee to positions with tougher conditions, forcing them to resign.

 

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/355665009819/posts/10157052664029820/

South China Morning Post

March 15 at 11:25 AM ·

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China’s birth rate has fallen to its lowest level since the Great Famine of 1961.

 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[amberjack1234]

I read about that a few days ago.

[fluffyballs]

With the explosion in housing, education, and health care costs, plus the expectation of financial parental support, I'm shocked most couple are still having one kid.

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

Online outrage over Chinese anti-gang campaign targeting mentally ill and parents of dead children

• A poster by a neighbourhood association in Xiangtan city, Hunan province, listed the stigmatised groups as people to monitor
• Images shown on Weibo drew widespread condemnation and the posters have come down

 

 

China’s one-child policy, in effect from the early 1980s to 2015, created “shidu families”, parents who have lost their one child and could not have another, because of age or other factors. (Shidu is shorthand for “lose the only child”.)

Authorities have enacted social welfare policies to care for these childless couples. However, some of them continue to campaign for better retirement and health care benefits.

 

 

 

from Pleco

 

失独〔-獨〕

PY shīdú

having lost an only child (short for shīqù dúshēng zǐnǚ 失去獨生子女/失去独生子女)

Edited March 27, 2019 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

A 'hands-free' solution - from Inkstone

 

The sperm-collecting machine helping China through hard times

 

 

 

Well. hi there

 

 

Featuring a pink receptacle that mimics a vagina, the machine promises to be a hands-free solution to hospitals in a country that needs quality male healthcare more than ever.

Chinese people are having fewer children – whether by choice or not – at a time when China needs babies the most in order to avert a demographic crisis.

The nation’s birth rate fell in 2018 to its lowest level since 2000, and researchers have warned that the country’s population could start to shrink as soon as 2027.

Developed by the Chinese company Jiangsu Sanwe Medical Science and Technology and going on sale in 2005, the sperm extractor has seen rising demand from hospitals in Chinese cities, Qing Lixiu, a manager at the company, told Inkstone.

 

. . .

“In the old days, men were told to use the restrooms to collect semen. Back then, we didn’t even have a designated private room to do this,” Qing said.

 

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone, a darker side


China Executes Man Who Killed 3 Fearing Wife’s Forced Abortion

Quote

China has executed a man who 17 years ago killed three officials as they prepared to force his pregnant wife to have an abortion in accordance with the now-scrapped family-planning initiative commonly known as the “one-child policy.”

Wang Changsheng of Suixi County in the eastern province of Anhui was put to death on Dec. 4, the Intermediate People’s Court of Huaibei City announced last week.

In 2000, four rural officials discovered that Wang and his wife, surnamed Li, were concealing an illegal pregnancy in her father’s home. At the time, family planning laws allowed rural couples to have a second child if their first was a daughter. Wang and Li already had two daughters but did not terminate the pregnancy, as Wang hoped for a son.

The officials planned to bring Wang and Li back to Suixi and arrange for Li to have an abortion. But during the journey, Wang attacked them with a metal hammer, killing three of them. He then absconded from justice for 17 years, changing his name to avoid detection for the murders.

The case is a reminder that the effects of China’s decadeslong one-child policy continue to haunt the country long after its abolition. In 2016, amid concerns of a looming demographic crisis, the policy was changed to allow all Chinese couples to have two children. (Image: VCG)

(Republished with permission from Caixin Global.)

 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from Goldthread on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/342615829579497/posts/808713999636342/

“I can accept raising a kid alone. But I can’t accept forming a family with someone I don’t love.”

 

Quote

 

More Chinese women are choosing to be single moms, despite the lingering prejudice in Chinese society against single motherhood. What’s driving their decision, and what challenges do they face?

 

For more videos like this, subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://gt4.life/youtube

 

Edited January 12, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

from the Sixth Tone

 

The Artist Confronting China’s One-Child Past

• In 2011, Zhou Wenjing discovered her mother was forcibly sterilized soon after her birth. Ever since, the young artist has been exploring how China’s birth-control policies have affected the country’s women.

 

A portrait of Zhou Wenjing. From the artist’s website

 

Officials only asked the women to have IUDs fitted; they often didn’t tell them when to remove them.

- Zhou Wenjing, artist

 

As a child growing up in the central Hunan province, Zhou knew almost nothing about this history. It was only when her mother was suddenly hospitalized in 2011 that she realized the truth.

Zhou discovered her mother had lived with an IUD for over 20 years, which resulted in the device becoming adhered to her flesh. When doctors extracted it, Zhou’s mother suffered a hemorrhage and needed surgery to repair the damage.

The incident left a deep impression on Zhou, who was in her early 20s at the time. Over the following years, she researched China’s population controls intensively and interviewed 50 women who had been fitted with IUDs.

 

 

 

 

 

[amberjack1234]

It not only affected their parents it affected them too. Especially most of the girls. I remember a person on this forum saying that her father hung her from a tree limb with his belt. Two physiatrists went to China and spent 15 years studying the effects on mostly the girls.

[Randy W]

from CGTN on Facebook
 https://www.facebook.com/565225540184937/posts/5971582736215830/

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#YourSay on having one child or more

Ren Zeping, an economist speaking at the China Development Forum 2021, held both online and offline in Beijing from March 20 to 22, said the country's birth rate has dropped sharply in recent years, posing a challenge to society. At the same time, studies using data from China alone have found conflicting results. 🧐 For one thing, increasing the number of children has a negative impact on each child's test scores, length of schooling, graduation rates and physical health. On the other hand, some studies found absolutely no or little negative effects. In many less-developed countries, however, the cost of child-rearing tends to be solely borne by parents and thus having more children could lead to insufficient allocation of family resources and harm the children's growth.

Have you ever regretted having more than one child❓ Considering the socioeconomic and psychological factors, what do you think is good for the average families in your country – one child or more❓

 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

China’s ‘Long-Term Time Bomb’: Falling Births Drive Slow Population Growth
Only 12 million babies were born last year, the lowest number of births since 1961, providing fresh evidence of a looming demographic crisis that could complicate Beijing’s ambitions. 

from the NY Times

Quote

 

China’s population is growing at its slowest pace since the 1960s, with falling births and a graying work force presenting the Communist Party with one of its gravest social and economic challenges.  
Figures for a census conducted last year and released on Tuesday showed the country’s population at 1.41 billion people, about 72 million more than the 1.34 billion who were counted in the last census, in 2010.

Only 12 million babies were born in China last year, according to Ning Jizhe, the head of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, the fourth year in a row that births have fallen in the country. That makes it the lowest official number of births since 1961, when a widespread famine caused by Communist Party policies killed millions of people, and only 11.8 million babies were born.

 

Breaking News: China’s population grew at its slowest pace in decades, a census showed. It’s evidence of a looming demographic crisis.
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10152678965074999&id=5281959998

 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

“No one wants to have a third child, as far as I know.”

Concerned by a rapidly aging population, China introduced a higher birth limit and a raft of reforms to encourage families to have more kids. But parents say they have zero interest.

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/3030326083952898

What China’s Parents Really Think About the Three-Child Policy
China has introduced a higher birth limit in an attempt to stave off a looming demographic crisis. But families say they have zero interest in having a third kid.
 

Quote

 

But the government will have a hard time convincing ordinary parents like Ma to have three kids. Many cities have conducted surveys since the three-child policy was announced to gauge the public’s reaction to the reforms — and the results have dismayed local officials.

In Jinhua, a city in east China’s Zhejiang province, more than nine out of 10 couples said they had no intention of having a third child. In Jinan, the capital of eastern Shandong province, officials found that educated, high-income couples were even less likely to want another kid.

In the past, the government would have expected parents in Ma’s hometown of Wenzhou — a prosperous city on China’s eastern coast — to embrace the three-child policy immediately.

Wenzhou has long been known for large, tight-knit families, with local parents gaining a reputation for frequently breaking China’s family planning laws during the one-child era. The city has had the highest birth rate in Zhejiang province for 20 years running.

When China switched to a two-child policy in late 2015, it produced instant results in Wenzhou. Around half the city’s newborn babies over the past five years have been second children — a far higher rate than the national average.

 . . .

Yet even here, the three-child policy has been greeted with a shrug. Local authorities are resorting to subtle methods to try and generate enthusiasm. This summer, some seventh-grade students in the city were ordered to write an essay. The subject: “Why my parents should give me another brother or sister.”

 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)