Technoglitch
Core Member
China announced Thursday it was reversing its one-child policy, a controversial rule implemented 35 years ago aimed at taming its exploding population.
While the policy has been blamed for forced sterilizations and abortions, China's gender imbalance, and child trafficking, the government's decision to end it is largely symbolic. Here's what you need to know about the change, which will allow all married couples to now have two children and is expected to be approved by the country's parliament in March.
It didn't come out of nowhere.
At 1.4 billion people, China is the world's most populous country. The one-child policy was introduced in 1979 with the goal of relieving the strain the population was putting on demands for water and other resources. According to the government, about 400 million births have been prevented thanks to the one-child rule.
It's an economic decision.
Economics is key to understanding why China has decided to forego a longstanding policy that has been, ultimately, too successful: It's resulted in a shrinking population. One of the challenges that has contributed to pressure for the country to transition from a low-end manufacturing giant to a consumer-led economy is because it hasn't been able to sustain a cheap labor pool.
There simply aren't enough young people to reinforce the labor pool for factory work in unskilled jobs.
It may be irrelevant.
Many couples simply can't afford to have another child. In 2007, NBC News interviewed couples for a story about family planning and asked them whether they would want to have more than one child. Many said they did not. Raising offspring in cities like Beijing or Shanghai was already very expensive, and those parents wanted to give the very best of everything to the one child they had.
The Real Reasons Behind China's New Child Policy - NBC News
While the policy has been blamed for forced sterilizations and abortions, China's gender imbalance, and child trafficking, the government's decision to end it is largely symbolic. Here's what you need to know about the change, which will allow all married couples to now have two children and is expected to be approved by the country's parliament in March.
It didn't come out of nowhere.
At 1.4 billion people, China is the world's most populous country. The one-child policy was introduced in 1979 with the goal of relieving the strain the population was putting on demands for water and other resources. According to the government, about 400 million births have been prevented thanks to the one-child rule.
It's an economic decision.
Economics is key to understanding why China has decided to forego a longstanding policy that has been, ultimately, too successful: It's resulted in a shrinking population. One of the challenges that has contributed to pressure for the country to transition from a low-end manufacturing giant to a consumer-led economy is because it hasn't been able to sustain a cheap labor pool.
There simply aren't enough young people to reinforce the labor pool for factory work in unskilled jobs.
It may be irrelevant.
Many couples simply can't afford to have another child. In 2007, NBC News interviewed couples for a story about family planning and asked them whether they would want to have more than one child. Many said they did not. Raising offspring in cities like Beijing or Shanghai was already very expensive, and those parents wanted to give the very best of everything to the one child they had.
The Real Reasons Behind China's New Child Policy - NBC News
