China's One-Child Policy

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   JKSophieposted 12 years ago

   A shocking news came out early this month about a 7-month pregnant Chinese woman who was forced to have an abortion because she already has a kid and cannot pay the fine of £4,000. This is one of the many painful instances brought by the one-child policy in China.  Although, we cannot discount the fact that it helped them solve their growing population, which benefits the majority, I still think that it may be high time for their government to review this and make some revisions if not totally eradicate it.  After all, this is a 33-year old policy.

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I remember being totally shocked years ago when this policy first came in, and orphanages filling up with dumped baby girls that parents did not want to keep in favor of that all-important male child.
      It is an extremely heartless policy, and many a mother's heart must have been broken, but has it gone some way to solving China's horrendous overpopulation problem?
      I am not at all sure of the current statistics, but did I not read somewhere that the population is now imbalanced in favor of males?
      If so, this generation or the next should see a massive reduction in babies born as more and more men find themselves without partners, and the poor dears have never learned how to reproduce asexually.
      Unless they travel abroad to find wives...

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         lrohnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I'm very close with a friend's 10-year-old daughter who was adopted from China as a baby. Yes -- her parents dumped her on the steps of an orphanage shortly after she was born.
         
         The reason why the population in China is becoming skewed towards males is that it is expected that sons and their wives will take care of the son's parents when they are older. So if you only have one child and it's a girl, you can expect to age alone with no help from your child. The orphanages are not just filled with babies over there -- they're filled with girl babies.
         
         (As an aside, rural families in China have different guidelines. I believe they can have up to three children.)
         
         The situation in the orphanages over there is heartbreaking. I won't go into detail because it makes me physically ill just thinking about it, but suffice it to say that there are many infants in those orphanages that are left to die all alone. It's absolutely sick.
         
         My friend's daughter was adopted at eight months old. She weighed less than 10 pounds and couldn't even hold her head up. She had night terrors and continues to have issues to this day. Oh -- she refuses to even discuss her heritage or acknowledge that she is Chinese. I can't say I blame her.
         
         The situation over there is sick and depraved, and I am completely amazed that their government doesn't do anything about it.

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            JKSophieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Good thing your friend got a family that will truly love her.  She's fortunate as compared to others who are still in the orphanages or even to those who were not given the chance to live.

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      Onusonusposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's communism for you. Typical, oppressive, inhumane, dictators.

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      recommend1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This "shocking news" appears to be a totally fabricated blog story put up by a christian anti-abortion, anti-everything group of sicko's.
      
      The penalties for doing anything of the kind in China are so severe that it is most unlikely that this would occur, even in the most rural and backward village.  If it were true the perpetrators would be facing over 10 years in jail and everyone involved would also be facing some kind of sentence.
      
      Most Chinese are in favour of the one cild policy but also personally would like more children.  The actual rate is just under two children per couple due to rules that allow minorities more than one, and relaxation of the rules if the first child is a girl and the family is desperate for a boy, which is the Chinese cultural norm.

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         JKSophieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Unfortunately, this was not fabricated.  It was in the global news, specifically abc news, and the Chinese government extended their apology to the woman.  They suspended the people involved in this incident.

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            recommend1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            You mean because it was in ABC news it was not fabricated, along with reports of chinese government apology, I am afraid you need serious education in the way western news media fabricates this stuff.   Here in China it is big news on the blog sites, but the mainstream media are reporting no arrests, let alone what the Chinese would see as murder in this case.
            
            The thing is a christian anti-abortion set-up piece of work "leaked" to outside media, I guess to christian friends in ABC, and put out as 'news'.  This kind of thing is just to cause trouble and get exposure for whatever slimey work these people are up to, while the real causes of concern are ignored because these gutless creeps are too cowardly to actually go look where there are problems that need exposing and issues that should be brought to light.

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               JKSophieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I don't think they will fabricate a sensitive issue as such.  Big names in the media industry, in general and not just western in culture, may exagerate at times, but not fabricate.  They have a reputation to take care.  And it's not just ABC news who aired this, even CNN, BBC, CBC news, CBS, Fox News, etc.

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                  Patty Inglish, MSposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Just want to report that small groups of my medical and psychology professors, supervisors and grad students in the 1990s brought back their experiences and videos illustrating the truth of the forced abortions. Many of these people happened to be atheists, so they were not the Christian anti-abortionists. In more recent years, a friend who is Chinese left China for education in the US, but also to escape the forced abortion fate of some of her neighbors and she has three children in Pennsylvania. Most recently in 2011, a married couple I know that are indeed missionaries left their post in China near Beijing because of personal health issues, but they were adamant about forced abortions as well. None of the people that reported the forced abortions knew or know one another except the members of the small groups.

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                     recommend1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     You should not confuse forced abortions of those within the legal limit of three months, or whatever is the same in most western countries, and what is claimed in this 'news' story.
                     
                     The 'one-child' policy is a national policy that is widely supported in China, and there are also many people who want manychildren.   The fact is that the world population is exploding and without this policy the already crowded  China would be estimated to have almost one billion more people by now.  There are very good arguments for this being a policy world wide in terms of environment and social problems, as there are very good arguments against in terms of personal freedoms.
                     
                     Missionaries and western active christians in China are there for only one reason and that is to promote their brand of religion, this by nature, includes their opposition ot abortion - which in China is an accepted form of birth control and available any time to anyone without any questions of any kind.  In attempting to change the public attitude to this common practice they manufacture the kind of article that prompted this thread.  Like any lie there is always an element of truth, and when the one child policy was instituted there were many excessive and horrific instances that were highlighted in the Chinese press and the very appropriate official response to the events also given high profile in the Chinese press.  China itself takes huge care in these social matters and dealt with these cases appropriately harshly handing out prison sentences and re-education programmes,- as they did with the issue of abandoned female babies.
                     
                     Virtually every story of this kind that emerges from China is a made up lie by one christian group or other, or a thirty year old story put out as if it were from today.  These liars for jesus are the most cowardly and pathetic group I meet in China.  There are many things that happen in China (as in any developing country) that they could very rightly highlight and try to change - but this is not useful to their cause of converting normal people to their strange beliefs.  One of my 'jobs' is social compliance in China where I help to ensure no child labour, forced labour, below limit waes etc etc, how come I never see any of these christian creeps active in these areas were they might at least make some differences to peoples lives ?  How come many of the most active that I meet all run an 'orphanage' funded by donations from some christian group and totally live off it with their large family and one or two 'orphans' that can be put up for show when needed.  That I  meet these people in the more expensive restaurants and hotels says everything that is needed in this respect.

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   Bianuposted 12 years ago

   Why did she wait until seven months and then had to abort? This is so sad.
   
   Why get pregnant at all? Why not use the seven months to lobby or beg for money or appeal for funds - anything.
   
   I have just one child and have gone through so many proceedures trying to get pregnant again.
   
   This just tears me up.

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   e.a gonzalesposted 12 years ago

   Its so painful for the couple to abort the precious child just to follow  rules like this. The child is a human also who have all the right to live.News like this is so shocking.

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   Tusitala Tomposted 12 years ago

   We might not see it for decades yet but one day there will probably be a World Government.  That government is likely to bring in laws far more Draconian than China's one child per family policy.  More than likely only certain 'chosen' people will be allowed to actually have children.  The rest, will be chemically castrated or fixed so that they cannot.   It will take measures like this to reduce and stabilize a human population which is overwhelming and destroyng the planet on which we all live.
   
   Thomas Malthus predicted the world would become overpopulated and that would be the end of humankind.   When I was born the world's populations was around 2 billion people.  Now it is 7 billion.  Just how many billion the world can actually accommodate I do not know.   However, I do that no more land is being created.  That's finite.   So is the size of the oceans and seas.
   
   Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but unless we come up with some method to either migrate to other planets and do it with vast numbers of people and soon, it'll be a 'no child policy' for the majority of humankind.

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      recommend1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This is a more interesting aspect of all this.   I wonder why people are still encouraged in so many ways by governments to have more children,  and even more stupid is the stand of the Catholic church against contraception.

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         gmwilliamsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         See, you and I are in agreement!

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