A nurse at a hospital in Xiangyang, Hubei province, helps Chen Jing to breast-feed her second child on Friday.(Photo by Gong Bo / Provide to China Daily)
Education equality and China's second-child policy are among the most-watched topics at this year's two sessions, at least among young Internet users, according to a recent survey of Baidu Tieba, a community-based group discussion service of Baidu Inc.[Special coverage]
Baidu Tieba polled both its post-1990s generation and post-2000s generation users, who account for more than 60 percent to its total base of 300 million monthly active users, about the topics they are most interested in during this year's meeting of the country's top legislature and political advisory body.
In the survey, more than 50 percent of respondents expressed support for the country's second-child policy. The rate was even higher, at 64.4 percent, among respondents who are only children themselves.
Previous media reports suggested China's post-1990s and post-2000s generations were generally opposed to their parents having another child. But the recent survey indicates that these groups are changing their attitudes, perhaps because a sibling would share the pressure of caring for aging parents in the future.
China started to revise its family planning policy more than a decade ago. In 2013, the one-child policy was changed to allow a second child if one of the parents was on only child. In October, the restriction was further relaxed to allowed all couples to have a second child.
Another widely watched topic among young Chinese netizens was a proposal raised at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference that recommended the government abolish high-school entrance exams to extend the country's nine-year compulsory education to 12 years.
The proposal, meant to enhance Chinese students' comprehensive capabilities, received support among 53.4 percent of the survey's respondents.
Minister of Education Yuan Guiren told the media on Thursday, however, that China will stick to the nine-year compulsory education policy during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), but will gradually promote free high school education.
In addition, the survey found that 26 percent of respondents had experienced school violence, and of those, only 11.5 percent had reported the situation to their teachers or parents.
In addition to education and the second-child policy, the young netizens also closely followed progress on the country's ongoing healthcare reform, anti-corruption campaign, housing issues and environmental protection.
Experts said the two generations, with better access to the Internet, think more independently and show more interest in state affairs than the post-1980s generation.
