China, worried about an aging population, is studying scrapping its controversial one-child policy but will not do away with family-planning policies altogether, a senior official said on Thursday.With the world's biggest population straining scarce land, water and energy resources, China has enforced rules to restrict family size since the 1970s. Rules vary but usually limit families to one child, or two in the countryside.
"We want incrementally to have this change," Vice Minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission Zhao Baige told reporters in Beijing.
"I cannot answer at what time or how, but this has become a big issue among decision makers," Zhao added. "The attitude is to do the studies, to consider it responsibly and to set it up systematically."
The average number of children that would be born to a woman over her lifetime has decreased to 1.8 in China today, from 5.8 in the 1970s, and below the replacement rate of 2.1.
You can read more on the history of China's one-child policy here.
4 comments:
Fewer abandonments would be a good thing--even if it means fewer babies available to people wanting to adopt.
We agree!
That is very interesting! Have you watched the trailer at www.demographicwinter.com??? Very interesting! I think you are right, though, adoption is not going to change anytime soon in China (unless they just don't allow it). But the number of children in need of homes is huge....and I don't think that those numbers are going to decrease by the Chinese adopting them! I may be wrong, but that doesn't seem likely. My thought is that there will be much need there for a long time....
Wow! Isn't that amazing?
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