Call rises for end to one-child convention
By Wang Xiang |
March 12, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE couples should be allowed to have a second child to maintain a population balance, several members of the nation's top political advisory body said yesterday.
With the population aging faster than expected, the one-child policy was dangerous, said Wang Min, a professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University and member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
There would be at least 400 million people aged above 60 by 2020 if policy makers did not turn the tide, Wang said, while numbers in the labor force would start to dwindle from 2015.
Wang said after more than 32 years, it was time to loosen the policy as the birth rate had dropped from 1.59 percent in the 1970s to 0.63 percent.
Liu Dajun, a political adviser from east China's Shandong University, said a survey by birth control authorities showed that most women in big cities had no intention of having more than one child, thus a population surge after the policy was changed "is not a worry."
Two other political advisers, Zhang Yin and Miao Shouliang, endorsed the proposals by Wang and Liu.
Miao said the one-child policy was mainly to blame for the recent labor shortage in Chinese factories.
It also contributed to other social problems, Miao said.
The Population and Family Planning Commission said on February 4 that the one-child policy could not be abolished during the 12th national five-year plan from 2011 to 2015.
In big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, couples are already allowed to have two children if they are both from single-child families.
With the population aging faster than expected, the one-child policy was dangerous, said Wang Min, a professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University and member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
There would be at least 400 million people aged above 60 by 2020 if policy makers did not turn the tide, Wang said, while numbers in the labor force would start to dwindle from 2015.
Wang said after more than 32 years, it was time to loosen the policy as the birth rate had dropped from 1.59 percent in the 1970s to 0.63 percent.
Liu Dajun, a political adviser from east China's Shandong University, said a survey by birth control authorities showed that most women in big cities had no intention of having more than one child, thus a population surge after the policy was changed "is not a worry."
Two other political advisers, Zhang Yin and Miao Shouliang, endorsed the proposals by Wang and Liu.
Miao said the one-child policy was mainly to blame for the recent labor shortage in Chinese factories.
It also contributed to other social problems, Miao said.
The Population and Family Planning Commission said on February 4 that the one-child policy could not be abolished during the 12th national five-year plan from 2011 to 2015.
In big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, couples are already allowed to have two children if they are both from single-child families.
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