China ends its one-child policy
By
Michael Ireland, Senior Reporter, ASSIST News Service answritermike@gmail.com
BEIJING,
CHINA (ANS, October 29, 2015) -- China has decided to end its
decades-long one-child policy, the state-run Xinhua news agency reports. Couples
will now be allowed to have two children, it said, citing a statement from the
Communist Party.
According to the
BBC, the controversial policy was introduced nationally in 1979, to slow the
population growth rate. It is estimated to have prevented about 400 million
births. However concerns at China's ageing population led to pressure for
change.
The
BBC report said couples who violated the one-child policy faced a variety of
punishments, from fines and the loss of employment to forced abortions. Over
time, the policy has been relaxed in some provinces, as demographers and
sociologists raised concerns about rising social costs and falling worker
numbers.
The
BBC said the Communist Party began formally relaxing national rules two years
ago, allowing couples in which at least one of the pair is an only child to have
a second child.
The
BBC explained the policy, introduced in 1979, meant that many Chinese citizens -
around a third, China claimed in 2007 - could not have a second child without
incurring a fine. In rural areas, families were allowed to have two children if
the first was a girl
Other
exceptions included ethnic minorities and - since 2013 - couples where at least
one was a single child.
The
BBC reported that campaigners say the policy led to forced abortions, female
infanticide, and the under-reporting of female births. It was also implicated as
a cause of China's gender imbalance.
The
BBC went on to explain the decision to allow families to have two children was
designed "to improve the balanced development of population'' and to deal with
an aging population, according to the statement from the Community Party's
Central Committee carried by the official Xinhua News Agency on Thursday.
Currently
about 30 percent of China's population is over the age of 50, the BBC said.
The
BBC report added that correspondents say despite the relaxation of the rules,
many couples may opt to only have one child, as one-child families have become
the social norm.
According
to the BBC's John Sudworth, critics say that even a two-child policy will not
boost the birth rate enough. And for those women who want more than two
children, nor will it end the state's insistence on the right to control their
fertility, he added.
"As
long as the quotas and system of surveillance remains, women still do not enjoy
reproductive rights," Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch told Agence France Presse
(AFP).
The
BBC stated the Chinese Government announcement comes on the final day of a
summit of the Chinese Communist Party's policy-making Central Committee, known
as the fifth plenum. The party is also set to announce growth targets and its
next five year plan.
Reggie
Littlejohn, President, Women's Rights Without Frontiers www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org told ASSIST News: “Xinhua
News Agency announced today that China is moving to a universal two-child
policy. This comes as no surprise, given the demographic disaster China now
faces as a result of its One Child Policy.”
“However,
instituting a two-child policy will not end forced abortion, gendercide or
family planning regulations in China. Couples will still have to have a birth
permit for the first and the second child, or they may be subject to forced
abortion.”
“The
core of the One Child Policy is not whether the number of children the
government allows. It's the fact that the government is setting a limit on
children, and enforcing this limit coercively. That will not change under a
two-child policy. The One Child Policy does not need to be modified. It needs
to be abolished.
Littlejohn
stated: “Women will still be forcibly aborted under a universal 2-child
policy. We need to keep up the pressure until China abandons all coercive
population control.”
Other
experts say the new policy could mean that China’s population, now around 1.5
billion, could increase until it tops out at 1.6 billion, before declining.
According
to Hans Rosling a Swedish medical doctor, academic, statistician and public
speaker, who is Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute,
talking to BBC Radio, also said that China’s one-child policy had
failed.
Rosling said the average number of births per female
worldwide is 2.5. Births in Africa were increasing, while in Asia, women were
having fewer children. He added that, worldwide, there were now more adults than
children.
To
view “Stop Forced Abortion – China’s War on Women!” Video (4 mins) click
here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjtuBcJUsjY
Source: http://www.assistnews.net -
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