Is China a victim of its own success in population control? BEIJING | Calls to reform China’s one-child policy are growing, and the government should respond by considering the range of options available, Chinese economic magazine Caixin states. That would boost the economy by reshaping the demographic structure to support sustained growth. There’s no doubt China must review its family-planning policy to meet the challenge of a graying population, but how? Recent comments by the National Health and Family Planning Commission have sparked a debate. Allowing more couples to have a second child is clearly the goal. But the last thing the government wants is a sudden population surge if rules were relaxed too quickly. After having been in force for more than 30 years, any change to the one-child policy requires careful consideration. Policymakers must lay out their plan, complete with a timetable and adjust it as necessary during implementation. China has become a victim of its own success in population control. Its fertility rate has dropped to between 1.04 and 1.5 – depending on the method of calculation by different government departments – all of which are far lower than the replacement level of 2.1. UN estimates say the population will peak at 1.45 billion, in a decade or more, before starting to slide... Read more: lehmanlaw/fileadmin/lehmanlaw_com/newsletters/China_environmental_in_the_News_online_20130830.html
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 01:29:55 +0000