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Policy Makers Consider Changes to China's One-Child Policy
Summary:



March 7, 2011
Translated by Tammy Zeng
Original Aritcle:
[Chinese]

Almost three decades after China's one-child policy was first introduced, some delegates to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People's Congress (NPC), believe that it's about time to reconsider the existing regulations.

Wang Yuqing (王玉庆), the deputy director of the CPPCC's Committee on Natural Resources and the Environment, revealed to local media on Sunday that the department in charge of enforcing the current policy is considering relaxing the current rules towards the end of the 12th 5-year plan, which runs from this year through to the end of 2015.

According to Wang, policy makers are considering whether to make changes to the policy so that families will be able to have a second child and experts are currently exploring the possibilities of a "two-child policy."

Wang Yuqing argued that in a society where children are expected to take care of their elders, the one-child policy has caused many social problems as the older generation now lacks a sense of social security. Wang also said that changes to policy wouldn't lead to a population explosion and that it would also help to relieve concerns about a "greying China."

Ji Baocheng (纪宝成), a delegate to the National People's Congress (NPC) and Dean of Renmin University, also called for changes to the one-child policy.

This will be the fourth time that Ji has raised the question of a second-child policy with China's legislature,

The dean said that over the coming 10 years, the number of people aged between 28 and 40 is predicted to halve, impacting on the size of the country's labour pool. Ji also said that the proprtion of the poplation aged over 60 is likely to increase to around 30 percent from the current 12 percent over the next few years.

Ji Baocheng advocates adjusting the policy this year so that if only one parent is an only-child, they should be allowed to have two children. He also argues that authorities should be very strict in preventing anyone having three children.

He stated that China has one of the lowest birth rates due to the one-child policy and that this low population growth can ultimately be detrimental to China's future economic growth.

Li Dongyu (李冬玉), a delegate to the CPPCC, also advocates reform of the one child policy and has put forward suggestions similar to those proposed by Ji Baocheng to the consultative conference.

Cheng Enfu (程恩富), a Marxist scholar at China's Academy of Social Science (CASS) and delegate to the NPC, opposes the introduction of a two-child policy on the basis that it won't do anything to solve the problem of an aging population.


Source
21st Century Business Herald:
中国拟在十二五末期放开二胎政策 (Chinese)
Image: Andy Wong Associated Press

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