Grandparents embrace loosening of one-child policy
- By Wang Jiaquan, Lu Qiuping and Li Jianping
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Xinhua, November 30, 2011
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Grandparents embrace loosening of one-child policy |
Sweet burden
Yet grandparents who want more grandchildren would take all the bothers and burdens as long as their sons and daughters agree to give them one more grandchild.
Some grandparents even encourage their children to have one more baby even though currently they are still banned to do so by the policy.
A mother surnamed Meng in Xiamen city, southeastern Fujian province, has a three-year-old daughter. She and her husband don't meet the qualifications for having another child, as only one of them comes from a single-child family.
Her mother-in-law, however, is asking them to have one more, in the hope of getting a grandson. Traditionally in China, boys are favored over girls, and this sentiment remains strong in Fujian and some other southeastern coastal areas.
But Meng refuses to have another child, and prays the government won't extend the loosened policy to them, as it provides a good excuse to reject her mother-in-law.
"I wish that the one-child policy would stay forever," Meng said.
"What if my second baby is another girl?" she said. "Besides, my mother-in-law and I have huge differences on parenting and we often quarrel about how to take care of my daughter. I don't want to repeat the past."
Of course, there are young parents who would gladly accept whatever burden another child might bring. Li Wei, a 31-year-old full-time mother in Harbin, is one of them.
She spent all her seven married years raising her two children, a six-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, but she said it is worth it.
"Being an only child as my husband and I is too lonely," Li Wei said.
She said she decided to have the second child to keep her daughter company.
"Also, one more child means my husband and I, along with our four parents, will have more care from our children when we're old. You know, six elderly family members is too much on an only child's shoulders," she said.
Family planning reiterated
The government's family planning policies have prevented 400 million from being added to the Chinese mainland's population, which currently stands at more than 1.34 billion, according to government statistics.
However, debates have been heated over the policies' side effects that have gradually emerged over the past decades, such as an aging society and a possible labor shortage in the future, not to mention a notable gender imbalance. The loosened policy on parents both from single-child families is a response to those concerns.
There also has been a call for families with one parent from a single-child family, like that of Meng in Xiamen, to be permitted to have a second child.
However, there has been no hint for such a further relaxation, as the country's population control authority reiterated last month that China would adhere to the planning policy.
Li Bin, director of the State Population and Family Planning Commission, said that overpopulation remains one of the major challenges for China's social and economic development.
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