(Ecns.cn) – Introduced in 1978 and first applied in 1979, China's one-child policy has worked for more than 30 years and is credited with preventing as many as 400 million births. In recent years, however, the number of voices calling for a gradual relaxation of the policy has grown, and rules in some areas have already been loosened.
As China faces the problem of an aging population – believed to be a negative side effect of the one-child policy – many scholars say that family planning should not be static, but instead should be improved along with the country's economic and social development.
Debates over policy
In the statement of the 12th Five-Year Plan, it was noted that China will do a "good" job in population and family planning, and continue to maintain a low birth rate. As China has practiced the one-child policy for over 30 years and the population has been effectively controlled, now the structural problems of the population should be attended to.
Currently there are two groups of scholars who hold different viewpoints on the issue of family planning. One thinks that even if the current one-child policy is relaxed, the aging process would not be slowed; the other believes that conditions have become ripe for policy adjustments, which they say could alleviate the aging population growth, help improve the sex ratio imbalance and optimize family structure.
According to Yuan Xin, a professor at Nankai University, the aging of the population is a very slow process, and by allowing a second child, China's aging population may be reduced by only one or two percent in 50 years.
But Wang Guangzhou, researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, argued that there is already a shortage of young migrant workers, and that the issue is not just about 50 years, but about 200 years or even longer. One should not only focus on short-term interests but try to solve problems with a longer-range vision, said Wang.
From September 19 to 20, the Fourth Annual Conference for Population and Social Development in China's Development Zones was held in Qingdao, in east China's Shandong Province, where participants discussed the country's rapid socio-economic development and social transformation. The problem of the current family planning policy was intensively debated, with many claiming that the policy no longer jibes with China's development.
