ONE CHILD POLICY---CHINA EARTHQUAKE

I wrote yesterday on how many Chinese families have lost their ONLY child and are upset with this unfair system.

What happens now that these families have lost their only child? Can they have another child?

From my experience from living in China the past four years-----The people that have suffered the most are the peasants.

I have met many families that have two and three and four children. I did not understand how this was true. Before I came I thought one family one child was mandatory but soon found out that those with money can pay a penalty for having more than one child.

It is hard to agree with this policy as it is unfair BUT, China does have a huge growing population problem. How else can they quickly fix this problem? Educating the masses as to why having less children is better for their country takes decades or more to instill in the culture.

The two biggest reasons why the ONE child policy hurts Chinese peasants and the lower middle class is this: 1) these large demographics of Chinas population want to have more than one child or have as many boys as possible for help farming the land and animals to make money and survive. 2) their is little to no social security system with this demographic and the Chinese have a great system set up that has been working well for decades. The children go to work and send back money to the retired parents. As long as the parents are living, the children will take care of them even when they are sick and in the hospital. This also says a lot about the respect Chinese give to the elderly.


I recently had a personal experience of running into the one child policy when I enrolled my step daughter into a local Shenzhen government school and they made me and my fiancee sign a contract stating that we would NOT have another child or we do NOT have another child in our family. I was taken back by this contract as I told her I was an American and why do I have to sign this. She said, "because you are in China now". My past frustrations with living in this complex culture, have taught me to accept "what is" and move on. So I signed the contract and we finished the enrollment successfully with only a few other minor problems that were later fixed.

Westerners have a tough time understanding the complex policies and Chinese culture. However, until you fully experience and live in this culture can you understand why the Government has set up the One Child Policy rule. (remember there are many families that have more than one child--generally families that are in upper middle class and above)
Even if westerners do not understand the policy. We should respect these policies (whether unfair or not) for the good that they were intended to accomplish and know that they will change based on the needs of the country. And I see them rapidly changing. The Earthquake has brought this issue with the poor peasants and "one child" to the fore-front of the problems Beijing must solve in the near future. Will the Government allow these families of recent deceased children have more children? Without fines? We will find out very soon.