China allows two children for all couples, making decades old one-child policy history

[uawchild]

Source: SCMP (Hong Kong)

China’s ruling Communist Party said on Thursday it will ease family planning restrictions to allow two children for all couples.

The rules are a major liberalisation of the country’s family planning restrictions, which were eased in late 2013 when Beijing said it would allow millions of families to have two children after decades of the strict one-child policy.

The party also said it would target medium to high growth for the next five years, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua said on its microblog that the decision to allow all couples to have two children was “to improve the balanced development of population” and to deal with an aging population.

The decision does away with an unpopular policy that was long considered one of the party's most onerous intrusions into family life.

Read more: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1873843/china-ditches-one-child-policy-allowing-two-children

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China has finally lifted its decades-old one-child policy.

[uawchild]

1. Does this mean the Ghost Children will be "legitimized"?

"THE GHOST CHILDREN OF CHINA

In 1980, China introduced the one-child policy. In the process, it created a lost generation – second and third children who went unregistered, couldn’t go to school, and who continue to live in the shadows. Nathan VanderKlippe explores the human and economic costs of one of the biggest social experiments in history"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/the-ghost-children-in-the-wake-of-chinas-one-child-policy-a-generation-is-lost/article23454402/

I hope so.

[Marrah_G]

2. I'm not confident that will bring balance back

Last edited Thu Oct 29, 2015, 11:45 AM - Edit history (1)

There is nothing to say that parents will start wanting one of the two children to be female. I think China needs to offer some real incentives for parents to keep female children. It is going to take a long time to dig out of the hole.

[jeff47]

6. There already are some incentives

The gender balance is "out of whack" enough that poor-ish Chinese families benefit greatly from having a girl, because wealthy Chinese families are having enough trouble finding a wealthy family with a girl. So a girl is a way for a family to "move up" the social ladder.

Still nowhere near enough to fix the imbalance though.

[jwirr]

11. That is what I was thinking - they actually have a shortage

of women due to the first policy. Hopefully this will help in this issue.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Can you imagine how the middle aged one child families feel about this?

Not being able to legally have more than one kid, and suddenly, POOF! No more ban. After it is too late for them.

[valerief]

10. When you reach middle-age, you realize life isn't fair anyway. nt

[OnlinePoker]

4. It's not like it really worked

Despite being the law for decades, China's population steadily increased.

[AngryAmish]

5. I read in the BBC that the birth control policy has meant 400 million less Chinese

That is quite a bit.

[jeff47]

7. Rural areas were allowed multiple children before this change

as a "More kids to work the farm" thing.

[jwirr]

12. That actually makes sense. Without the modern machinery

farming is labor intensive.

[SandersDem]

8. Yay, Two chickens in every pot!

and two cars in every garage.

[valerief]

9. Industry is probably killing off people early as it does in the U.S. nt

[MissMillie]

13. They still don't have a CHOICE?

That is the operative word, after all.

My guess is that they figured out that all those male children born aren't going to have anyone to make more babies with.

[angrychair]

14. Interesting find

World and US population clock:
http://www.census.gov/popclock/world

Little intimidating...the World population clock is spinning like an electrical meter at Christmas time. We are running out of resources and time is not on our side. We have to start realizing there is a bigger picture here. There is a limit. It it's an easy analogy, when you have a bunch of people over to your house, more than you have house for, things get complicated and dirty quick.
We have to start spending the money and effort in science to make what we have better and figure out how to find other places to live besides Earth.
There is no real historical reference for this. Yes, we have experienced dense, localized, population cycles before but never widescale, dense population cycles on this scale with this level of stress on multiple systems simultaneously. As melodramatic as It may sound, it is no less true: It it's not a matter of what will break but when.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. "other places to live besides earth"

Will never happen.

It's possible that the human race will eventually migrate (a few at a time) outward to some other planet (and begin overpopulating that), but moving the existing humans off of earth will never happen.

And I mean absolutely never.

The energy and resources required to move billions of people somewhere will probably never be found and will certainly never be put to that use.

Consider that right now we won't even spend the resources we have to keep the old and poor off a dogfood diet.

[vinny9698]

16. One does not know the full impact this policy has had on the family.

One child policy means, no siblings, no aunts, no uncles, no cousins. How would your life be without these people in your life?