Chinese gov’t think tank urges end to 1-child policy
BEIJING (AP) Ñ A government think tank is urging Chinese leaders to start phasing out ChinaÕs one-child policy immediately and allow two children for every family by 2015, a daring proposal to do away with the unpopular policy.
Some demographers see the timeline put forward by the China Development Research Foundation as a bold move by the body close to the central leadership. Others warn that the gradual approach, if implemented, would still be insufÞcient to help correct the problems that ChinaÕs strict birth limits have created.
Xie Meng, a press affairs ofÞcial with the foundation, said the Þnal version of the report will be released Òin a week or two.Ó But Chinese state media have been given advance copies. The ofÞcial Xinhua News Agency said the foundation recommends a two-child policy in some provinces from this year and a nationwide two-child policy by 2015. It proposes all birth limits be dropped by 2020, Xinhua reported.
ÒChina has paid a huge political and social cost for the policy, as it has resulted in social conßict, high administrative costs and led indirectly to a long-term gender imbalance at birth,Ó Xinhua said, citing the report.
But it remains unclear whether Chinese leaders are ready to take up the recommendations. ChinaÕs National Population and Family Planning Commission had no immediate comment on the report Wednesday.
Known to many as the one-child policy, ChinaÕs actual rules are more complicated. The government limits most urban couples to one child, and allows two children for rural families if their Þrstborn is a girl. Numerous other exceptions include looser rules for minority families and a two-child limit for parents who are themselves both singletons.
Cai Yong, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said the report holds extra weight because the think tank is under the State Council, ChinaÕs Cabinet. He said he found it remarkable that state-backed demographers were willing to publicly propose such a detailed schedule and plan on how to get rid of ChinaÕs birth limits.