One Child Policy: "China's Aging Becomes a Major Problem"

One Child Policy: "China's Aging Becomes a Major Problem"

Beijing is preparing to eliminate by 2020 the restrictions on the number of children per couple, put in place in the 1970s. China, worried about the aging of its population, now encourages the birth rate.

After nearly half a century of birth control, China is about to live a turning point. Jiancha Ribao, an official legal daily, announced on Monday (August 27th) that the government plans to end the "one-child policy" by 2020. China, worried about the aging of its population, is now encouraging birth rates.

Yves Boquet, professor of geography at the University of Burgundy, specialist in China, returns to Rs news on the main stages and consequences of this policy.

Rs news: why and when was set up birth control in China?

Yves Boquet: In the 1970s, the authorities made a census that showed that there were 100 million more people than expected. At the time when the country was in the process of planning the five-year plans, they realized that the population was a problem. At that time, they began to gently encourage people to have no more than two children. The famous one-child policy forcing people to have no more than one child was adopted in 1979 as China opened up to the global economy. The Chinese were no longer allowed to have more than one child, but with exceptions for ethnic minorities, that is, people who are not Han, the dominant ethnic group. Tibetans and Uyghurs, particularly the most restless minorities, were not subject to this restriction.

With this one-child policy, there has been a collapse in fertility. China has fallen well below the two children per family, with almost one in some areas, such as Shanghai or other major cities. Then they realized that population growth was slowing down and at the same time it was starting to age, a bit like Japan. So they started to relax the legislation, especially in the countryside, where people preferred to have a boy. If the unborn child was to be a girl, a number of abortions were performed there, including very late in pregnancy. In the late 1990s and 2000s, in some provinces, the state gave farmers the right to have a second child if the first was a girl.

Why did the authorities decide today to abolish birth control?

China is in a situation where fertility has declined significantly and aging is becoming a major problem. There are more and more old Chinese and fewer and fewer young Chinese to pay pensions. Retirement is expensive for the state.

Because of the one-child policy, the country has also found itself with a growing imbalance between the number of boys and girls. The average in the world is 105 boys per 100 girls, but in China it has risen to 118. In some rural provinces it was even 125 or 130. Many boys who want to get married do not find girls. It's a real social problem. There has also been a complete reversal within families. In a Confucian society, there is traditionally a great respect for the elders. But with the one-child policy, the child king became the only child in the family. We have seen the development of a capricious generation of children who wanted everything and who was given everything. This creates a generation of children or adolescents who no longer respect the established order. China is trying to combat all these negative effects by boosting fertility.

But Chinese society has also changed in forty years. Do not women now favor their careers?

It depends on the places. If you are in Shanghai or Canton, in very large cities, this may be the case. There is a westernization of part of the Chinese population. Some now say they do not want to be a mother with four or five children, but rather have a good paying job and be a businesswoman.

Do you finally think that this legislative change will change behavior?

It's hard to force people to have children. It's easier to force them not to have one. There is a country that has tried Ceausescu Romania in the 1980s in the past. We ended up with mountains of Romanian children in orphanages. China is not a liberal democracy, but it is more open. The Chinese government will not force people to have children. There is also a gap between the wishes of families and the rulers. The state will look across the country, while the Chinese will first look at the interest of their family, whether big or small.

 by/ france 24