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"Two Child" Law Does Not Mean Change of Birth Control Policy in China: Officials
Officials and experts say the promulgation of new laws by 27 local governments to allow some people to have a second child does not mean any big changes have been made to the country's birth control policy.
"It is just a micro adjustment to meet local specific conditions," says Song Jie, with the Population Expert Committee of the State Family Planning Commission.
According to the new laws approved by provinces and autonomous regions, the right for parents who are both single children to have a second baby is protected.
Since the late 1970s, China has adopted the one-child policy to curb its population explosion. The policy has turned China into a low birth rate country and churned out many young single children.
The policy does not prohibit a husband and wife who are both single children from bearing a second baby. However, this is the first time governments have turned to the law to protect the right.
Song says that local governments approved the laws because they want to tackle the aging population problem and maintain a population balance.
The proportion of people aged over 70 in the total population has increased rapidly to 10 percent in the 20-year course of the one-child policy, which has put pressure on society.
Song says the promulgation of the local laws goes in line with the normal population growth, and noted that there will not be an abrupt increase in the Chinese population in the coming years.
A survey in Heilongjiang province shows that 69.9 percent of 1, 0200 respondents aged between 20 and 30 are reluctant to have a second child.
Li Ling, a company clerk in Harbin, noted that having another baby "will cost a lot of money and make me and my husband tired."
Xie Zhenming, deputy director of the China Population Information Research Institute, says that by 2005 some 20 million marriages will take place in China annually, and only 10 percent of the couples will be single children.
He said that if each couple has two children, the added population will be no more than two million every year, which would have little affect on the nation's population control target.
The Chinese government published a report last month saying that it will bring the population to under 1.4 billion by 2010 and the current birth control policy should be stabilized.
Many provinces have increased subsidies for families with one child.
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