Saturday, July 25, 2009

1 Child Policy Folly Down the Drain, Not a day too soon

It has been an article of faith of the Chinese Communist Party since 1949 that Chinese families should not have more than 1 child. The folly was based on the ignorant quasi-Malthusian theory that unchecked population growth would hamper growth.

I used to argue with my "handler" back in those days when foreigners needed to be chaperoned.

I said: "Hey, imagine every Chinese on the mainland was as productive as, say, a Chinese in Hong Kong or Taiwan [whose respective per capital was then and still is now multiples of China's], wouldn't you agree that you wanted MORE Chinese not less? And the way to up there was not to limit the size of the population but to increase its productivity by a) investing massively in education; and b) not suffocating China's talented citizens with mindless political mantras and thought control?"

I was, for sure, marked down as another ignorant "overseas" Chinese or, worse, a foreign agent attempting to spiritually pollute the minds of right thinking Chinese communists.

Well, guess what. The powers-that-be are realizing two things: quantity plus quality translates into 1 + 1 = 3; and second, the growing imbalance between young and old means that the aging population is putting on an increasing economic burden on the young to support it. China needs more young people. They have to be made not in a factory but by husbands and wives in families.

Hence, the following development. Read here.

Better late than never. Oh, a small footnote. The Communist royalty was never bound by the 1 child policy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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