Chinaâ€™s Agency That Enforces Birth Restrictions Will be Shut Down

Kerry Lear

8 years ago

The Chinese Government agency that was in charge of enforcing the country&rsquo&semi;s former notorious one-child policy will be shut down&period;&NewLine;As part of a government reorganization, several agencies will be merged into one known as the National Health and Family Planning Commission&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;It appears as though China will be less focused on &ldquo&semi;family planning&rdquo&semi; and more focused on the aging population&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;According to the plan laid out this week at&nbsp&semi;China&rsquo&semi;s annual legislative session, the new health agency will &ldquo&semi;actively deal with population aging,&rdquo&semi; handling issues such as the development of the elderly-care sector and overhauling an overburdened health-care system,&rdquo&semi; writes the&nbsp&semi;Wall Street Journal&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;In the past, the controversial family planning agency would slap heavy fines on birth offenders, causing families to often have to resort to forced abortions&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;It is a historic change and watershed moment,&rdquo&semi; said Yi Fuxian, researcher at the University of Wisconsin and critic of China&rsquo&semi;s birth control policy to South China Morning Post&period; &ldquo&semi;China is shifting from population control to population development&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Since the Chinese government&rsquo&semi;s announcement to shut down the family planning commission, families have rejoiced&period;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;The agency &ldquo&semi;didn&rsquo&semi;t bring us any happiness&semi; instead it turned China into an aging country,&rdquo&semi; said one commenter on the Weibo microblogging platform, according to the WSJ&period; &ldquo&semi;Time to set up the birth-facilitation commission&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;I&rsquo&semi;m not sad never to see them again,&rdquo&semi; said Huang Yanfang, an insurance agent in Hubei province&period;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;Yanfang was fined almost 100,000 yuan (about &dollar;15,000) for her second baby born in May of 2015&period; The one-child policy, which was put in place in 1980, was eventually declared null and void in 2016 and after a legal battle, the agency retracted Yanfang&rsquo&semi;s fine&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;In 2016, the first year after the policy was dropped, the number of newborns rose 7&period;9&percnt; from 2015, to 17&period;86 million&period; But last year, births dropped to 17&period;23 million, the National Statistics Bureau said in January&period; Officials have said the number of births are &ldquo&semi;within expectations,&rdquo&semi; writes WSJ&period;&NewLine;There are now 17&period;3&percnt; of the people in China&rsquo&semi;s population over the age 60, versus just the 10&percnt; in this age group back in 1999&period;&NewLine;Now the government is shifting its focus on fixing this dire demographic situation&period;&NewLine;&ldquo&semi;The day when we hear about abandoning birth restrictions may not be far,&rdquo&semi; said Mr&period; Zuo at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences to the WSJ&period;&NewLine;Although many are hopeful that China will be completely doing away with birth restrictions in the near future, the newly formed health and family-planning commission has yet to respond to requests for comment or to make a statement about the two-child policy&period;&NewLine;Author&rsquo&semi;s note&colon; Now that the two-child policy enforcement arm is going away, will less Chinese citizens be inclined to follow this law&quest; Although China has not seen a massive increase in child births after implementing this birth restriction, the reason Chinese parents have a lot of children is engrained in the culture&period; It&rsquo&semi;s the tradition that children care for their parents in their old age&period; So, the more children, the more security in that sense&period; But, there is another reason why the population isn&rsquo&semi;t seeing a boost in childbirths&period; The standard of living in the country is already extremely low&period;&NewLine;