For GSS Population Growth chapter 6. Excerpt: HONG KONG — The Chinese
government will ease its one-child family restrictions and abolish
“re-education through labor” camps, significantly curtailing two
policies that for decades have defined the state’s power to control
citizens’ lives, the Communist Party said Friday. ...For decades, most
urban couples have been restricted to having one child. That has been
changing fitfully, with rules on the books that couples can have two
children if both parents are single children. But that policy will now
be further relaxed nationwide. ...“This is the first time that a central
document has clearly proposed allowing two children when a husband or
wife is an only child,” said Wang Guangzhou, a demographer at the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. ...If carried through,
the relaxation would be the first significant nationwide easing of
family size restrictions that have been in place since the 1970s, said
Wang Feng, a demographer who teaches at both the University of
California, Irvine, and Fudan University in Shanghai. He estimated the
policy could lead to one million to two million more births in China
every year, on top of the approximately 15 million births a year now.
...The one-child restrictions were introduced to deal with official
fears that China’s population would devour too many resources and
suffocate growth. But they have created public ire and international
criticism over forced abortions, and have created a population of 1.34
billion, according to a 2010 census, that is aging relatively rapidly,
even before China establishes a firm foothold in prosperity. Experts
have for years urged some relaxation of the controls.... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/world/asia/china-to-loosen-its-one-child-policy.html. Chris Buckley, The New York Times. |
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