One child policy

One-child policy
"For a prosperous, powerful nation and a happy family, please use birth planning." Government sign in Nanchang.
The one-child policy (simplified Chinese: 计划生育政策; pinyin: jìhuà shēngyù zhèngcè; literally "policy of birth planning") is the population control policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The Chinese government refers to it under the official translation offamily planning policy.[1] It officially restricts the number of children married urban couples can have to one, although it allows exemptions for several cases, including rural couples, ethnic minorities, and parents without any siblings themselves.[2] A spokesperson of the Committee on the One-Child Policy has said that approximately 35.9% of China's population is currently subject to the one-childrestriction.[3] The policy does not apply to the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, or Tibet.
The Chinese government introduced the policy in 1978 to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China,[4] and authorities claim that the policy has prevented more than 250 million births from its implementation to 2000.[2] The policy is controversial both within andoutside China because of the manner in which the policy has been implemented, and because of concerns about negative economic and social consequences. The policy has been implicated in an increase in forced abortions and female infanticide, and has been suggested as a possible cause behind China's gender imbalance.[5] Nonetheless, a 2008 survey undertaken by the Pew Research Center showed that over76% of the Chinese population supports the policy.[6]
The policy is enforced at the provincial level through fines that are imposed based on the income of the family and other factors. Population and Family Planning Commissions (Chinese: 计划生育委员会) exist at every level of government to raise awareness about the issue and carry out registration and inspection work. Despite this policy, there arestill many citizens that continue to have more than one child.[7]
China's National Population and Family Planning Commission has said that the policy will remain in place for at least another decade.[8]
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Overview
The one-child policy promotes couples having only one child in rural and urban areas. Parents with multiple births aren’t given the same benefits as parents of one child. Many timesthe parents have to pay money to the government in order to get permission to have another child
Current status
The limit has been strongly enforced in urban areas, but the actual implementation varies from location to location.[9] In most rural areas, families are allowed to apply to have a second child if the first is a girl,[10] or has a physical disability, mental illness or mentalretardation.[11] Second children are subject to birth spacing (usually 3 or 4 years). Additional children will result in large fines: families violating the policy are required to pay monetary penalties and might be denied bonuses at their workplace. Children born in overseas countries are not counted under the policy if they do not obtain Chinese citizenship. Chinese citizens returning from abroad canhave a second child.[12]
The Danshan, Sichuan Province Nongchang Village people Public Affairs Bulletin Board in September 2005 noted that RMB 25,000 in social compensation fees were owed in 2005. Thus far 11,500 RMB had been collected leaving another 13,500 RMB to be collected.
The social fostering or maintenance fee (simplified Chinese: 社会抚养费; traditional Chinese: 社會撫養費; pinyin: shèhuì fúyǎngfèi) sometimes called in the West a family planning fine, is collected as a multiple of either the annual disposable income of city dwellers or the annual cash income of peasants as determined each year by the local statistics office. The fine for a child born above the birth quota that year is thus a multiple of, depending upon the locality, either urban resident disposable income or peasant cash...