China's One Child Policy

Thirty four year old, "Mrs Wu, from a village in Anhui province, has two healthy children, an 11-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son". This may not seem like a big deal to Americans but in China, having more than one child is not the norm. "China's family planning rules are often referred to as the one-child policy, but there are a significant number of people like Mrs Wu who are allowed to have more." Taking a second look at this "one-child" policy uncovers some ways around it. The vice-minister at the National Population and Family Planning Commission, "Mr Wang, explained that only 35.9% of the population is limited to having just one child. These people live mainly in urban areas. "Rural couples, accounting for 52.9% of the population, are able to have two children if the first one is a girl." "Mrs Wu was able to have two children because she comes from the countryside and her first child was female." Mrs. Wu stated that, "when [she] got married I only wanted one child. But because it was a girl, my parents-in-law wanted me to try for a boy to carry on the family name".

"Couples from certain ethnic minority groups can often have more than one child, as can people who are the single children of "revolutionary martyrs". Overseas Chinese who settle in China are also exempt, and when both parents have no siblings themselves they can have more than one child." There are also people who, even though they are legally entitled to only one child, have two or more anyway. Paretns are often fined for not abiding by these rules, but the penalty is often very low for wealthy couples. This fine is based on how much the couple earns and varies from region to region.

The population growth in China has been on the rise since about 2003 and is predicted to increase. Research shows that "...63% of all couples in China could end up with only one child, 36% with two children and only 1% with three or more". Even with this data, the norm in China is a household containing only one child.





http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7002201.stm