China Redefines Extra Offspring as Burden Rather Than Offense.

Source:
Planet Wire; Los Angeles Times
http://ippfnet.ippf.org/pub/IPPF_News/News_Details.asp?ID=2249
Source Date:
23/AUG/02

China is revising its notorious one-child policy to remove the stigma it had attached to people who desire a larger family. Instead of fines, families with unauthorized births will pay a "social compensation fee" to reflect the collective cost rather than the individual fault of bearing additional children.

Experts say the change marks a significant step toward a kinder and gentler family-planning policy-and an acknowledgment of transformations in Chinese society. "The name change could ease tensions between officials and parents who want more children," said Shen Anan, a demographer at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. "It could also slow down the pace of population control and improve China's image in the world."

The one-child policy, which was begun in the early 1980s, has been widely criticized as a draconian exercise in social engineering. Much of the West has heard stories of infanticide and forced sterilization in the world's most populous country.

The new law, which goes into effect next month, is more evidence that the unpopular approach might be nearing an end. "The one-child policy was a reaction to the extreme population pressures of the time," said Shen. "In another 15 years or so, the birth control policy as we know it will no longer exist."

For ordinary people, the change also represents a move toward the rule of law. Despite its prominence in daily life, the one-child policy actually is being legislated for the first time. In the past, people obeyed it simply because the government told them to.

However, this doesn't mean Beijing can afford to give up the fight against overpopulation. Though the government says it met the goal of containing growth to a population of 1.3 billion at the beginning of this century, the true population figure remains elusive. Millions of migrant workers crisscross the land and produce unauthorized children who don't get counted in the census. The existing policy significantly altered birthrates in the cities but barely made a dent in the countryside, where the vast majority of Chinese live.