End of China’s 1-child policy sparks . . .
The annoucement came on Thursday evening after a four-day meeting of the party’s Central Committee in a hotel in Beijing.
On Weibo, a user who goes by the name “Li Wan Xiao Yu” and describes herself as a “happy full-time mother,” wrote: “Today is an important day. The fifth plenum of the 18th Central Committee announced everyone can have two children. I guess full enforcement will still take time but we see hope! Mothers who used to worry that they would be fined more than 200,000 RMB ($31,470) for having a second baby can rest assured and prepare for a second child!”
New rule hailed
In a group called “Support for older mothers who want a second child” on WeChat, a messaging app popular in China, many women hailed the new rule.
“I feel the policy is great!” wrote “Mo’er,” one of many who previously had not qualified because neither she nor her partner was a single child. Laws have been eased in recent years to permit those couples in which one partner was an only child to have a second.
“No more talking,” a 43-year-old mother of two who uses the name “Cat Mother Watermelon Mother” told group members on WeChat.
“You all should start working hard to conceive starting from tonight. A month earlier could mean that the baby and the mother could be healthier.”
Others were more cautious.
Still far away
Weibo user “Big Forehead Qianqian” wrote: “Speaking of a second child, though it sounds like a plan too far away for me, I don’t think I’ll have one. Many families now can’t even afford one kid. Won’t they be bogged down to death if they have two? It’s better to have one and give him/her the best education.”
Some people addressed the issue of the parents of single children killed by disease or accident who were too old to have another child.
That particular group of parents have received increased sympathy in recent years as their plight began to surface in the news media and attract attention.
Weibo user “Xiao Kan De” wrote: “The policy of allowing two children has come. People who managed to ‘catch the last train’ and have another child are happily celebrating. But what should those parents do who have lost their only child but are past childbearing age?”
Weibo user “Y is a Woman Like Wind” wrote: “How can parents born in the 1950s and ’60s, who followed the policy but have lost their only child, bear this relaxation of the policy?”
Aging population
Others pointed out that the state had not released its grip on how many children citizens should have, but merely increased the number by one.
Weibo user “Starry Night of Religion” commented: “You get to decide whether we should have one kid or two. Now the population is aging, the number of families that lost their only child is increasing, the labor force is declining....
“Why is there no one who comes forward and claims responsibility for these full-blown crises? Have we really been liberated? We’re committing suicide!”
Deng imposed the policy
The decision to end the “one-child” policy was a dramatic step away from a core Communist Party position that Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who imposed the policy in the late 1970s, once said was needed to ensure that “the fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth.”
For China’s leaders, the controls were a triumphant demonstration of the party’s capacity to reshape even the most intimate dimensions of citizens’ lives.
But they bred intense resentment over the brutal intrusions involved, including forced abortions and crippling fines, especially in the countryside.
The efforts to limit family size also led to a skewed sex ratio of males to females, because traditional rural families favor boys over girls, sometimes even resorting to infanticide to ensure they have a son.
Flagging economy
Thursday’s announcement was the highlight of a party meeting at which President Xi Jinping sought to display his control over a flagging economy after a jittery summer of tepid indicators, deepening skepticism about official data and a tumultuous slide in the stock market.
Abolishing the one-child policy would “increase labor supply and ease pressures from an aging population,” the National Health and Family Planning Commission, which enforces the policy, said. “This will benefit sustained and healthy economic development.”
Yet while the decision surprised many experts and ordinary Chinese, some said it was unlikely to ignite either a baby boom or an economic one.
“Anything demographic, we always have to think in terms of decades, in terms of long-term impact,” said Tao Wang, the chief China economist at UBS.
“It’s not about stimulating growth or consumption of baby powder next quarter or next year,” she said. “Will the birthrate go up? Yes. Will it somehow increase significantly? We don’t know.”
China’s working-age population, those 15 to 64, grew by at least 100 million people from 1990 until a couple of years ago. But that expansion is petering out, and more people are living longer, leaving a greater burden on a shrinking work force.