October 16, 2009

Introduced by Deng Xiaoping in 1979, China's one-child policy is credited by many officials with preventing between 300 and 400 million births and is seen as a key factor in the country's incredible rise from rural poverty to wannabe super power status. But the flip side of this tightly enforced experiment in population control is a rapidly aging population.

In recent years, the policy becomes less rigorous than its name suggests, and allows urban parents to have two offspring if they are both only children. Rural couples are allowed a second child if their first is a girl.

This is still the official line in most of China, but Shanghai is encouraging couples allowed to have a second baby to do so. Some even wonder if the government should subsidize the family raising a second baby as many couples may use a baby to earn the subsidy.

It is a good way to slow the aging tendency in the city, the most crowded one in the world's most populous country, but to raise more children costs more money and energy than many couple can afford, and the rapid growth of population has already brought too many problems to the city. Actually, there are no good solutions to our population problems!

Only child feels lonely all the time. Having two children seems to be good for their growth - for some parents, one major reason to have a second child is to hope their children can learn how to share with others and be generous. But, a child is not an easy project. If you'd like another baby, you would scare it might turn your life even more upside down! That is why more than half of those eligible to have another child don't want one.

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