Black children, One child policy 2 한자녀정책

Black Children Problem

However, although this is true that China’s historical transformation has been much faster than any other countries, and it may help China become a developed country soon, it seems that China government completely ignores the problems that Family Planning Policy has brought about. The Black Children (黑孩子, Hei Haizi) problem is one of the serious side-effects of Family Planning Policy. Black Children refers to the second children who do not have household-registration, and they are also called “illegal” children. Although there are various exceptions that parents can have second children, as mentioned above, still many Chinese parents cannot be involved in these exceptions, and it means that the Black Children problem is getting worse. The Black Children problem has come to the fore since family planning policy has been introduced in 1980s, and the number of Black Children has continually increased. According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), the local government of Fujian province presumes that there were at least 183,000 Black Children in 2008. However, there are no accurate estimates of the number of Black Children in China because they are difficult to trace, and it can be easily presumed that the numbers of Black Children are huge, due to the size of China’s population.

 

This problem has clearly come about as a result of the One Child Policy. Under this policy, not simply second children cannot have household-registration, but also children who are not born from a married couple, such as those living together without being legally married, or from cases of adultery, cannot become the member of Chinese society, and cannot become a legal Chinese citizen. If parents have a baby before reaching the age that they could legally get married, which is 22 for men and 20 for women, the government do not allow to give permission, even if these young couple are engaged, and they guarantee they will raise the baby. Moreover, when parents try to apply for Black Children’s household-registration after he or she was born, the complex and strict policy becomes their problem, because they should pay the fine that is given. Also, there is a huge amount of paperwork, and even the local authority officers seem to not be clear on the correct processes. Not only this but the legal steps are different from place to place and parents find it difficult to find appropriate information. One of the biggest problems is that parents should go back to the place where they received household-registration, and apply for Black Children’s registration. However, because China is too big to go another place, it is difficult to solve this problem within one or two day. Therefore, people are worried about the disadvantages from workplace if they miss their work, they cannot solve this problem easily. These strict and complex policies make the Black Children problem more serious.

 

These Black Children are difficult to access basic social benefit from government, because they have no legal status. They “cannot apply for an ID card and thus does not have a legal identity, is not a citizen and consequently is deprived of the rights accorded to other Chinese citizens", therefore, the treatment of Black Children is amazingly poor. According to Immigration and Refugee Board of China, Black Children cannot access 5 main social services, identification document, health insurance and health care, social benefit, employment, and education. These are the most basic social services that people should be able to receive from government, but they are not able to. When the International Children's Rights NGO Save held the China Program to help educate Black Children in Urumqi, the workers that they found were unable to receive proper education, because they had no right to attend school. Professor Duan Chengrong, director of the population studies centre at Beijing's Renmin University, points out that the 4 percent of elementary and middle school-ages children in the China are likely Black Children, and they have never attended school. Keeping in mind the size of the Chinese population, 4 percent is a huge number. Moreover, there is discrimination against Black Children at the school. Although some schools take Black Children for a substantial fee, however, they cannot buy an equal education, and they might be taught by different teachers, and also have to wear different school uniforms. This problem is more serious when Black Children are disabled people. Normally they are in more need of support and medical care, however, it is difficult to get any from government. Nowadays more parents abandon their children, because they cannot afford to pay medical fares. These problems clearly and seriously effect Black Children’s character, and bring about serious problems when they become an adult, especially working place.

 

Some people may argue that the problem of Black Children is down to their parents, because they do not pay fine. Li Xinghao, one of the members of National People’s Congress discusses in a television interview, the problem of Black Children occurs because the parents couldn't pay the fine but didn't abort their child. Although he agreed that the Black Child problem is serious, he doesn't believe that there is a method to solve this problem, and that responsibility for the solution of the problem lies with the parents, not government, because they make the problem. However, it is difficult to shift all the responsibility onto the parents. In order to get house-hold registration for second child, parents should pay a fine, however, the fine is larger than people’s annual income, and is typically three or four times the average annual income, although the amount differs from place to place. For example, if parents have second child in Shanghai, they should pay 110,000 yuan ($17,300) each, which it is three times the city's average annual post-tax income. Moreover, the fine increases with income. Therefore, because it is too much amount of money to pay, parents cannot afford to pay it, which leads second child to becoming Black Children. Nowadays government allows Black Children to apply for house-hold registration upon payment of a reduced fine, however it is still, relatively, a huge amount of money. Moreover, parents who break the One Child Policy are not only required to pay a fine, but also are penalized in other ways. Penalties also vary from place to place, but normally people cannot receive subsidies from local governments, cannot receive bonuses from their workplace for three years, and cannot gain promotions. Moreover, Chinese people argue that sometimes population control officials visit the parents, and they blockade the house, and even destroy them. These kinds of penalties for having second children prevent people from applying for household-registrations and can make them try to hide the existence of Black Children.

 

Amazingly, China’s government insists that the One Child Policy is definitely needed because it not only helps to control the population, but also helps to optimize the allocation of resources. In rural families, if the first child is a girl then they can have second child according to the policy. If the second child is a boy, it is likely that the girl may go to work, because many Chinese families will prefer the boy to the girl and wish to bring the boy up at home. The girl or woman will often work as an attendant or factory worker in a city because their level of education is not high. Therefore, the One Child Policy can help to solve the problem of gender imbalance in cities as there are higher proportions of female immigrants from rural areas than male immigrants. However, this opinion is only looking at one side of the coin, because they completely ignore the tragic life of the Black Children. According to Steven Mosher, the first American social scientist to visit mainland China, insists that abductions of Black Children often take place. He insists that a village official in Lipu county, located in northern Guangxi Province, if parent do not pay the fine, local official come and abduct the baby from them and give it to someone else. He also mentioned at least 16 babies were born illegally in province of Hunan, the official then sent them to a state-run home for orphans, and then sold them abroad for adoption. Local officials insists that central government’s “job responsibility system” forces them to follow One Child Policy, and their success or failure will decide future promotion or demotion. They also argued that abducting and selling Black Children not only can decide their future, it would also allow them to earn some profit at the same time. Therefore, this central government’s inhumane rewards and punishments encourage local official to violate the basic right of Black Children and their parents. Moreover, the suffering of Black Children does not end there. When the One Child Policy was first introduced, the government did not step in the right direction, and it has brought about a brutal situation that if a couple’s first child is girl, they were likely to kill their daughter in order to have son because the idea of predominance of men over women exists strongly in China. Movie director Li Guang also points out this problem, and released a short film, called Search for Mermaid in Desert in 2007. In this 11 minutes short film, he described the life of black children, Parents wanted to have a son, but they gave birth a daughter. They did not register this daughter, treated her badly, and finally killed her so that they could have a male child. This film reveals that there are massive infanticides in China, and his social custom widely spreads in rural area, parents seem to not feel guilty. Parents who abandoned or killed their Black Children do not want to talk about this problem, because nobody presses hard upon a criminal, however, if the parents have a second child, then the government strongly punishes them. If the central government only insists that there are many advantages about Family Planning Policy without considering Black Children’s life, it seems to indicate this policy is necessary evil, and society is developing with the sacrifice of these children. Before arguing for the advantages of the policy, the government should look back at this serious social problem.

 

There are two recommendable suggestions to solve or at least reduce the Black Children problem. One suggestion is moderating One Child Policy. Without doubt, if government allows people to have second children, the number of new Black Children will be decreased. Therefore, the fines and penalties when parents break the One Child Policy should be reduced and more relaxed than before. Complicated procedures for Black Children to obtain household registration should also be removed. Another suggestion is supporting the existing Black Children. As this essay mentioned before, the number of Black Children are too many to count, and even too difficult to presume how many they are. Therefore, first of all, the government should grasp the exact number of them, and support them. Equal and proper education is clearly needed for them. The education for Black Children has depended on private Schools and teachers, a small number of national schools, and NGOs. They should be able to take the same courses as all Chinese children. Moreover, the government should establish more schools for Black Children, and develop suitable courses that give the children a chance to follow the same curriculum as other Chinese children.

 

Abortion

Another big problem that the One Child Policy has brought about is abortion. Until 1953, abortion was available only to protect the woman or child’s health, and a doctor’s certificate was needed. In 1957, the policy changed so that women could have an abortion within the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and women were allowed one abortion per year. However, abortion law changed again in 1970, so that within the first 28 weeks of pregnancy women can legally have an abortion. Some provinces have established their own laws, making it much easier for women to have abortions. After introducing the One Child Policy in 1980s, the number of abortions dramatically increased. Despite sex identification and sex-selective abortion being prohibited, the number of abortions are still huge in China, because of traditional preference for male children and the birth-limitation policy.

 

This table shows the number of abortions in China from 1971 to 2009. Before the One Child Policy was first introduced in 1979, the percentage of abortion (人工流产，Rengongliuchan) is about 20%, however, after 1980, the number of abortions dramatically increased, and after 2000 it nearly reached 40%. This table is clear evidence that One Child Policy has brought about huge amount of abortion in China.

 

Why is number of abortions in China so huge? Many Researches believe that there are many reasons, such as an increasing amount of couples living together without being legally married, and having a more open sexual culture, however, the most important reason is clearly the policy. Because preference for males is strong in China, if government force Chinese people to follow this policy, the number of abortions necessarily increases (of course, if parents want to have a girl, they will do the same as other people). An official research found that 68 percent of abortions were of female fetuses in Hainan province in 2005. Moreover, 35 percent of families in one rural area admitted to having abortions due to the preference for a male. Moreover, parents hope to have a child who is perfect, if the unborn child has is seen to have a genetic problem, they choose to have an abortion to avoid any risk. In short, because most of parents cannot have second child, they would have an abortion if the unborn child is not what they want. Although fetal sex identification is illegal in China, however, in order to avoid any future risk, people are willing to pay fines or undergo legal punishment. Nowadays this phenomenon is usual, the government also cannot, or maybe do not (because of supporting One Child Policy) crack down on illegal abortion.

 

The problem is that this selective abortion brings about serious gender imbalance in China. In 2007, sex ratio for first births in countryside was 122.85 to 100, and for second births, the national ratio in China was 152 to 100. Generally, developed and developing country’s sex ratio is 103 and 107 to 109, and China’s average is 119.58 to 100. Li Jianxin, a Chinese politician, insists that if the Chinese government continually supports the One Child Policy, the problem of gender imbalance is getting worse.

 

表现为性别结构严重失衡。20世纪80年代实施一孩政策以来，我国人口出生性别比偏离了105的正常水平至今。从2010年以后，20世纪80年代中后期性别结构失衡的出生男女渐次进入婚育期，男多女少的婚姻挤压现象开始显现并积累。2020年前后，持续而严重的出生性别比失衡人口（1985-2000）将成为主体并进入其婚配期（20-34岁）。由此，我国“婚姻市场”将会发生质的变化，2020年，22岁-34岁男性人口将比其婚配的女性人口多出2千6百多万，2030年这种严重累积的婚配男性人口绝对过剩超过三千万。我国已成为世界上性别结构失衡最严重、持续时间最长的国家。

 

One Child POLICY caused the problem of imbalance of gender getting more serious. Since this policy carried out in the 1980s, the imbalance of gender has aroused in society. After 2010, when the boys and girls born in the 1980s are going to marry, the phenomenon that men are much more than women leads to marriage squeeze state. When it is about the year of 2020, those people will become the main part in society and will get married. Thus, the real change will take place in the marriage market. In 2020, the men among the age of 22 to 34 will outnumber the women by 26 million. What ‘s worse, there will be 30 million men left without marriage. It is obvious that China has the most serious and longest problem of imbalance of gender in the world.

 

 

As can be seen in the argument above, One Child policy has brought about a serious gender imbalance and this is a serious social issue in China, and it could continue to get worse. Some experts warn that this social problem will bring about kidnaping of woman from rural areas. Many village women leave rural areas to seek employment. Some people recruit these women from poorer regions. There are criminal groups that abduct women and girls, or tempt them with promises of workplaces and higher living standards. When a woman and girl leave their home, it can be difficult to go back because of distance, and sometimes they even do not know where they are. Once in their new "family," these women became "married" and often raped.

 

 

In terms of abortion in China, it is difficult to judge because choosing to have abortions or not, and the attitude towards them is an ethical and moral issue. Although consideration of gender or genetic defects is illegal, and it brings about a serious gender imbalance, as Li Jianxin insists, however, under the One Child Policy, having abortion is only option that parents have to have the child they want. This only child is so important for them so third parties shouldn't thoughtlessly criticize the parents, because they are also victims of One child Policy. Therefore, abortion itself should be decided by parents after their own consideration, rather than being something heavily influenced by a population regulation policy. However, abortion according to sex inspection should be banned. It is not only morally wrong, but also it is disadvantage for country’s long-term development. Moreover, over many years it has brought about serious crime in China, therefore, government should strongly prohibit and punish Sex identification and sex-selective abortion. More effort from China’s government seems to be needed to tackle this problem. Making public service advertisements to change people’s preference for males, or to give subsidies to people who have one child, rather than forcing people to only have one child is one of the good ways to solve the abortion problem.