[No pictures for this one]
Bob discussed China’s one-child policy at dinner and as little else of interest happened that evening (I fell asleep early), I thought that may be of interest to some readers. I’d been under the mistaken impression that it was being largely lifted, that’s not accurate, instead it’s just being relaxed. There were already exceptions, ethnic minorities were allowed a second child and farmers who had a girl were similarly allowed to try again, once, for a boy. Enforcement varies, for example our guide the next morning mentioned that she had two siblings of varying ages, perhaps by stacking the rules for farmers and ethnic minorities.
The main form of loosening is that, to reward law-abiding
parents for their sacrifice, when two only children marry they are allowed a
second child. However, many won’t as
there are more urban Chinese and having only children is now a larger part of
the culture. For those that marry foreigners, the policy can be skirted by not
giving one of the children Chinese citizenship, but that causes a host of
complications when living on the mainland and means the government has less
responsibility to them.
The means of enforcement was originally a giving several
people, typically women, in each village responsibility for monitoring
childbearing. It sounds like it now is
done more by doctors. From menstruation
to menopause, checkups each three months can fairly easily find signs of
pregnancy. Similarly, birth control
particularly **EUDs (sp?)**, is actively pushed. Married couples are required
to seek permission before having kids. Having a child before 25, having a child when not married, or of course
having multiple children can result in shaming, loss of government job, or
fines. In more extreme cases, there have
been forced abortions or sterilizations. The old fees of several thousand yuan are becoming weak deterrents
because of inflation, but new fees are based on the child’s total cost to the
government and allow for more punitive flexibility.
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