‘ONE-CHILD POLICY VIOLATED RIGHTS’
Not many Chinese are likely to say this in as many words but Wang Jie likes to speak her mind. “The one-child policy was a violation of human rights,” said Wang, 35, still bitter about having to spend her childhood as a single child. She was born in the 1980s when policies all around discouraged parents from having a second child. “As far as I know, my parents were not a big fan of having a second child. On one hand, because of the one-child policy, having a second child would cause them to lose their jobs. On the other hand, when I was young, to adopt a child was not very difficult because, as I remembered, in some cases baby girls were abandoned at that time and the regulations on adoption were not very complex. But out of the pressure of money and limited energy, my parents did not adopt a second child,” Wang said. As a single child, she did not feel out-of-place as most of her friends were also single children. But the situation changed when she entered college at the age of 17. She was younger than many of her classmates who were from rural China and came from two-sibling families. “I got the feeling that my personality was too soft as I was accustomed to getting all the love, attention and resources from my parents rather than having to strive for them.” Luckily, for her, her older daughter did not have to stay a single child. Wang, who is against abortion, and her husband decided to have a second child in 2014 when the one-child rule was being gradually relaxed. “My older child is likely to become too self-centered growing up in a family consisting of two great-grandparents, four grandparents, two parents and an only child. Having a sibling provides an environment where my older child can live and grow without being spoilt,” she said.