According to Times Online, China is heading towards reversing its “one-child policy,” in the city of Shanghai by actively encouraging thousands of couples to have a second baby.
Local officials in China’s economic capital have urged eligible parents to plan a second child for the first time in decades. This was prompted because of the city’s growing demographic imbalance and fears that the young generation will not be able to support the rapidly aging population.
For 30 years, China has had a strict “one couple, one child” policy. The country has monitored pregnancies carefully and has even forced abortions on women who already have had children, in an attempt to control the population of 1.3 billion people.
However, there are some exceptions to the policy. If urban parents are both only children themselves then they are allowed to have two offspring. Also, in rural areas, couples are allowed to have a second child if their first is a girl.
The appeal from the officials in Shanghai is the first time that the government has actively encouraged procreation in decades.
“We advocate eligible couples to have two kids because it can help to reduce the proportion of the ageing people and alleviate a workforce shortage in the future,” said Xie Linli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, according to Times Online.
According to Zhang Meixin, a spokesman for the commission, there are already over three million people over 60-years-old in Shanghai. “That is already near the average figure of developed countries and is still rising quickly,” he said.
The proportion of elderly in the city is expected to rise to 34 percent of the city’s population by 2020.
As a whole, the population across China is climbing at a similar rate, and the working-age population is set to start shrinking from about 2015. In 2030, China’s overall population is expected to peak and become the first country to grow old before it grows rich, according to Times Online.
The majority of the Shanghai’s metropolis married couple population are both only children, which allows them to be eligible to have two babies. However, those couples are not taking advantage of that privilege. The number of these couples has risen from 4,300 in 2005 to 7,300.
The spokesman said: “The current average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime is lower than one. If all couples have children according to the policy, it would definitely help relieve pressure in the long term.”
The announcement in Shanghai sparked heated debates throughout the Internet and online opinion polls, suggesting that most people were opposed to the move.
According to Times Online, one chatroom commentator said: “This should have been done long ago, otherwise in a few years a child will have no uncles, no aunts. These titles will be completely forgotten.”
However, most web-users appeared less enthusiastic about the situation, saying that the cost of raising a child in China was prohibitive now. One said, “These days who dares to have a second baby? The cost of living and education are so high. Best not to have one at all.”
Another commented: “It’s not that I don’t want to have children, but it’s that I can’t afford to.”
One poster remembered the policies of the 1950s and 1960s when Chairman Mao actively appealed for large families. “Our parents were poor and they had five or six children. Now we are better off but having even one baby is difficult. In the future we may not be willing even to have one and it will be like the West with a falling population. Terrible!”
The U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies said in April that by 2050, China would have over 438 million people above the age of 60, and 100 million over 80. At that time, the country will only have 1.6 working-age adults to support every person aged 60 and above, compared to 7.7 in 1975.
China’s under funded state pension system and shrinking family size has left the elders stricken from a traditional layer of support, and has also left society ill-prepared to deal with the aging population.
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