China’s One Child Suggestion
The corruption of Hunan Province officials is once again in the international spotlight … this time because of their flouting of China’s official population control (”one child”) policy.
As many as 1,968 officials in central China’s Hunan Province have been found breaching the nation’s one-child policy between 2000 and 2005, the provincial family planning commission said Friday.
Also exposed by the commission are 21 national and local lawmakers, 24 political advisors, 112 entrepreneurs and six senior intellectuals.
In some of those cases, the heavy fines were actually enforced, but rich people decided to have kids anyway and just pay up. But in many of those cases, the people simply felt (correctly) that they were above the law, so they just ignored it and kept having babies … with no punishment at all.
Loudi City (where I live) was pointed out specifically by the commission spokesman … our vice mayor, Mr. Zhao, was convicted on charges of embezzlement and/or taking bribes but was not punished for having more than one child too.
To be fair, it’s not just the officials and rich people. A large number of my students told me that they have siblings … one even said he has nine brothers and seven sisters! I don’t think there’s a specific pattern or loophole … I simply think that this law is like many others in this land: optional.
July 11th, 2007 at 7:24 am EST
Lance
The Oxford ESOL has been following your adventures for the last year. Several of the students come to class and ask me if I have visited your blog lately. They are sooooo smart! I, on the other hand, am computer illiterate. Your observations and passion for the authentic China have entertained us. Thank you for your dedication and dicipline to your faithful fans. My Chinese student have enjoyed seeing China “through the eyes of a forgeiner”. Please have a safe trip back to The States and don’t forget to stop by and visit. 热烈欢迎!
July 11th, 2007 at 7:40 am EST
Karen, Hongli Yao, Fatima, Minami, Jianhong, Moonjo, Zhan Li, and others … thanks for your continued support and encouragement. After spending so much time as a foreigner here, I am very interested in listening to others who have spent time in America as foreigners. The things that seem crazy to me in China must seem even crazier to others who are living in America!!!
July 11th, 2007 at 10:10 am EST
Lance, we have some friends who have more than one child. They could afford the ‘fine’ and they felt having two children was right for them. Since they paid, they don’t see it as ‘corruption’ or of any law violation. That seems to be the way people feel here - you can have more if you are willing to pay.
Some ideologues in the CCP want to call that corruption or law breaking, but to me, it seems like they are working the system in order to have the family they desire.
For the record, I don’t think there should be a ‘punishment’ for having a second child - so on this one, I sympathize with those who are being called criminals because they had a second kid.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:03 am EST
Good points, Steve.
The way people see it here and the way that I see things are often very different. To me, a person who breaks a law and is punished for it (with a fine, jail sentence, or even execution) still broke that law. For example, when I speed in my car in America, I understand that I am breaking the law and I’m willing to accept the consequences. Perhaps that’s a good analogy to the way many Chinese people think about population control.
In my mind, corruption is a much bigger issue … when a rich or powerful person breaks the law and doesn’t pay the consequences, simply because of position or money or guanxi, it’s a major problem. The recent family planning riots in nearby Guanxi highlight the issue … officials and police were going door to door, destroying and stealing property and forcing abortions in families with more than one child. Local people saw the intolerance and hypocrisy in their authority figures and rioted because of it. And the Chinese government once again covered the whole thing up in their state-run media.
It’s interesting to me that the provincial family planning commission is now trying to publicly shame these people. I wonder if that loss of face will have any effect … not upon their personal family choices, but upon their actions as public officials. And I wonder when the population control laws will begin to loosen …
July 25th, 2007 at 11:41 am EST
Yes, many families do “break the law” and have more than the allotted one kid. But one thing to watch out for with asking students how many siblings they have, is that they will include their cousins in the count! This is what I find often inflates it to…what did you say? 9 brothers and seven sisters? I can almost bet you that if you were to discuss further with that student you’ll find he or she is counting first cousins as brothers and sisters. In Chinese it is common to refer to cousins as brothers and sisters, and most students do not realize this is not done in English. I find drawing a simple family tree and explaining that brothers and sisters are ONLY the children of YOUR parents helps to clear this up.
July 25th, 2007 at 3:56 pm EST
So true, Nicki! I think some of the reason is because so many kids are growing up without siblings, so they simply don’t want to be left out!
Since my first week teaching here, I too learned that I needed to quickly clarify what I mean by “brother” or “sister”. From what I could find out, the student in question literally had 16 siblings … I grilled him, his classmates, and even one of the siblings about it!
Thanks for stopping by, hope to hear more from you!
July 25th, 2007 at 5:06 pm EST
Wow, that’s crazy! I wonder how that family got away with having that many kids.
July 27th, 2007 at 9:34 am EST
Nicki (and everyone else), here’s a followup story about the officials in Hunan.
In response to the original report, the Hunan People’s Congress is ramping up the fines proportional to the income of the offenders. It’ll supposedly be 2-6 times their annual salary per kid … I guess that’s current market value!
August 26th, 2007 at 10:53 am EST
you know in china especially in country many families break the law to give birth lots of children,why ?
as i know there are two reason,first many people in country still insist the traditional concept that they only love boys. they think boys are the hope of a family.so if they give birth a girl at first they will contine to get boys….
and also led to many girls and disabled babies are abandoned by their parents.
generally most of children are abandoned by poor family,cause they give birth many but cant bring up them. thats a serious problem in china.
yes i have to admit that the rich and power always break law,not only on family planing but also in every aspects of the society. the rich and power always come together. if you have money you can “buy” power in china.at the same time own power equals own money…
thats ture.
the corruption problem always exist in china,i assume its also exist in other countries ,just not serious as china.
chinese value are also changing with the economic developing.
most of people aim at money and power.
The corruption proplem being with every part of china.
on the family planing,it helped to control the number of chinese population
but now the rich and power can over the law. its a complicate policy in china. but we should know with the economic developing more and more chinese family choose 1 child,cause they increasing realize that its not easy to bring up a child for an ordinary chinese family no matter in cities or countries.
August 26th, 2007 at 1:53 pm EST
Very insightful, feier … you have a good way of understanding the problems and situations and how they might change and grow. Thanks!
September 14th, 2007 at 11:00 am EST
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RL8LK00&show_article=1