Man rocks China’s one-child norm

Yang Zhizhu,43 who lost his job at Beijing Youth Political College,is the current toast not only for the foreign media but also in the state controlled domestic media.

“Why should I pay money for having my own kid? It’s not human trafficking. It’s our right as citizens,” he said,adding the fine of about USD 29,200 for having a second child is 10 times higher the price of a baby sold by traffickers.

The China Daily today featured him with his two daughters defiantly holding out that he would not pay the hefty fine,come what may because he considered the one-child policy as ridiculous.

“There’s no need for birth control in China,because the birth rate is already quite low in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai,and China is an aging country,” he said.

Besides the fine,the price one may have to pay for having second child could be heavy as rules stipulate that those working in government bodies and state owned companies should be punished by their employers.

They are not entitled for any maternity leave and are likely to have their salaries frozen for an year.

In the rural areas people with more than one child have to forego social benefits and government employees are fired.

Yang’s wife,Chen Hong,39,gave birth to their second daughter Yang Ruonan,on December 21,2009 and he was fired from his job on April 9 after he refused to pay a fine in accordance with the new guidelines.

Yang says his sacking is unjustified and his case has drawn a lot of media attention in the past two weeks.

Some are calling Yang’s case the most prolific protest since the country adopted the norm in the late 1970s.

“Since my story was reported earlier this month,I’ve only taken one short break,last Saturday. It seems I’ve already became a model protestor against the current family planning policy,” he said.

The media reports have helped Yang win tens of thousands of hearts across the country. In a survey carried out by a prominent Chinese website,75,331 people (91 per cent of respondents) supported him.

The fact that Yang’s case has been highlighted in the official media is significant,given that two months ago Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in his work report in the National Peoples Congress,(NPC) categorically ruled out revision of the policy.

Many in China argue that the policy has ended up creating a demographic shift as a result of which the country would end with more pensioners in the coming years.

“We will continue to maintain low birth rate,” Wen said in his address on March 5.

Ma Li,former Director of China Population and Development Research Centre and present Counsellor to State Council also argued that relaxing the one-child in cities is not necessary to maintain China’s economic growth.

“China is an ageing society,with some 180 million people older than 60 by 2009,accounting for 14 per cent of the total population which is expected to peak in the 2040s,when one out of every three is older than 60,” Ma said recently.

The ageing population is expected to peak “But shortage of labour force would not appear in the foreseeable long term,” she said. Her comments came as many experts are suggesting that China should rethink and adjust its family-planning policy to ease the ageing trend.

Making a case for changing the government policy,Liu Dajun,a Shandong University professor,said allowing couples to have more than one child would also help ease many social problems brought by one-child rule.

This has prevented the birth of an additional 1.3 billion people since its implementation in 1980,but it also caused problems such as the advanced arrival of an aging society and the unbalanced gender proportion.

“By 2020,men at marriageable age will outnumber women by 50 million,which means one out of every four men will not be able to find a wife,” he said.

Wang Ming,professor at Tsinghua University too said that government should rethink and adjust its family planning policy and permit each couple to have two children,in order to increase labour supply and extend the “demographic dividend” period.