The one child policy is more complex than I realized. A brief summary: when couples get married, they are issued a marriage license and a birth license. (There are people exempt from this law who can have multiple children, such as farmers and minorities.) If you have a second (or subsequent) child, you have to pay a fine. Back in 1979 when the policy went into effect, no one had extra money to pay this fine. But now with the wealth coming into China, it's not a big deal for many urban families to pay the fine. And a few years ago, forced abortions ended by law; whether or not this is enforced, I don't know. In any case, it seems it is quite possible to get around the one child policy. For example:
1. One of our training language teachers has three children in her family; she's the oldest, and has a younger brother and sister. Her mother had an exception to the policy because she was from a farming family, and they paid the fine for the youngest child and gave her a different last name. The two oldest kids have the father's last name, and the youngest has the mother's.
2. The boyfriend of one of our volunteer's has an older sister. When his mother was pregnant with him, she was eating dinner in a restaurant when the family planning enforcers tracked her down and came to the restaurant to force her to have an abortion. She literally escaped out the back door of the restaurant and went into hiding. After he was born, they paid the fine.
3. A few of my students casually reference having a brother or sister. I haven't asked them about it, but I'd like to. There are a lot of questions I have. For instance, can these children be born in the hospital, or do they have to be born at home? It does seem that once you have the second (or third) child, you pay the fine and it's over. No need to hide the child or pretend you didn't have it. And in some cities, it's even become a status symbol to have multiple children, because it means you can not only afford to pay the fines, but pay the school fees for multiple children.
I didn't know about the exemptions or fines before living here. Everything about China seems to be more complex than I realized.
I remember hearing about the one child law and the forced abortions. I too had no idea that there were any exceptions. Its really said I am sure and difficult for some mothers to hear that there are exceptions now since they may have suffered a loss from the original law. It must be sad to see most not having siblings and live in a place where many have best friends because they are an only child...thanks for posting this...it makes me think of a life suffering in a different way. Makes me grateful for my life situation...
ReplyDeleteDo you know how much the fine is??
ReplyDeleteI find this really interesting. I had always heard about the ONE child law, but wondered how they enforced it.
ReplyDeleteHow different from our culture...we just had an abortion Dr. killed by protesters and in China, it is forced. (or was) That is amazing. I could not imagine the government deciding how large/small my family is to be.
Wow, that would be a hard law for me to follow. What would happen to the children if you couldn't pay the fine? Would they take and kill the child or just take it away and put it in a foster care home or something like that? I know that there were a lot of girls that were killed because of this one child law because men are held in higher esteem then women. At least that I what I remember hearing about. Very interesting to hear about.
ReplyDeleteThis is very enlightening... wow. I had NO idea!! :-o
ReplyDeleteSo is the population in China under control or is it still exploding?
BBS, I have heard that locally it is 10,000 RMB, or about $1,200 USD. I have also heard it is 10x the average monthly income of the city in which you live, so it varies by city.
ReplyDeleteTrina, they don't kill the babies, but I'm not sure if they can keep them or have to give them up for adoption. And yes, men are preferred because they take care of the parents in their retirement. A woman goes to live with her husband's family, so her parents have no one to take care of them. And there is no SS here, the kids are the retirement.
It's just me...I know what you mean. The poor people suffer the most, they know they can't afford to get around the law.
Techno, I've read that yes, it has helped. One place I read said 400 million births have been prevented. But it is hard to pin down, it's just an estimate. When you've been a civilization for 5,000 years continuously, which is quite amazing, you get lots of bebes!
I have often wondered about the 1-child policy. I was wondering what would happen if your only child died. Would they allow you another child? It also didnt occur to me that China might also have minorities. Living in a foreign land is fascinating in many ways.
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