Not so Fast

Tweaks to China's One-Child Monstrosity

The Chinese government announced some changes to their one-child policy and to labour camps.  Everyone in the West was excited--well, sort of.  Things might be looking up.  Firstly, the changes to the one-child policy.

Far from sweeping away all family planning rules, the party is now providing a new, limited exemption: It said families in which at least one parent was an only child would be allowed to have a second child. Previously, both parents had to be an only child to qualify for this exemption. Rural couples also are allowed two children if their first-born child is a girl, an exemption allowed in 1984 as part of the last substantive changes to the policy. [NZ Herald]

The Herald article is right on the nose.  This represents just a minor tweak to an horrendous policy.  Wendy Wright reports how the Chinese government itself quickly rushed to qualify and downplay the change.

Today – one day after the announcement – Chinese officials quickly downplayed the tweak, saying changing the one-child policy would be too disruptive.  “The basic policy of family planning will need to be upheld over the long term and we cannot rest up on this,” Wang Peian posted on China’s health ministry website.

So, the policy change is a technical tweak, leaving in place the harsh penalties for those who breach the rules.

Population Research Institute has conducted illuminating investigations in China. Note this report that the second-child restriction is more broad than the new policy change addresses:

2. Those who meet the requirements for having a second child, but fail to meet the required waiting period (between births) and where the woman has not yet reached the age of 28 years of age when giving birth, both parties involved will be individually assessed a “social compensation fee” based on an unit calculated from a year’s salary for urban dwellers and based on a year’s income after expenses for rural dwellers. For each year early (that they have given birth) they will be assessed a CSRC Fee equal to 25% of their annual salary or income. A partial year shall be calculated as if it is a full year.

In the ancient Roman Empire, tax gatherers were hated by local populations because they were allowed to cream off all sorts of financial benefits for themselves, as long as the Roman levies were paid to the state.  But, behind these corrupt tax officials stood the full weight of imperial oppression.  In other words, the tax collectors could steal and the Imperial authorities would support them.  In a similar way, the local Chinese "birth officials" benefit from levying the state's penalty taxes.

Wang would not say when the new policy would begin, and each province will decide. Since the enforcers in each province benefit from the one-child policy, financially and with the ability to exert brute power over others, there is little hope that this change is not mere words to ease international embarrassment.

We’ll know China makes a serious change when the government abolishes all fines for any pregnancies/births and harshly punishes kidnapping/baby selling. This would dry up billions of dollars in incentives for the enforcers. (In just 19 provinces, some in the poorest parts of the country, an estimated $2.7 billion was collected in fines.)  Along with that, eliminating all punishments/penalties for any child, and discarding the family planning regime, which is so rife with corruption and abuse it cannot be redeemed.

The abolition of labour camps might be more promising, insofar as it will limit the oppressive activities of local government officials, who, hitherto could toss anyone they liked into a labour camp for up to four years without trial.  

The party also announced it would abolish a labour camp system that allowed police to lock up government critics and other defendants for up to four years without trial. It confirmed a development that had been reportedly announced by the country's top law enforcement official earlier this year but was later retracted.  Also known as "re-education through labour," the system was established to punish early critics of the Communist Party but has been used by local officials to deal with people challenging their authority on issues including land rights and corruption.

Pu Zhiqiang, a prominent Beijing lawyer who has represented several former labour camp detainees in seeking compensation, welcomed the abolition of the extra-legal system.

"There have been many methods used recently by this government that are against the rule of law, and do not respect human rights, or freedom of speech," Pu said. "But by abolishing the labour camps ... it makes it much harder for the police to put these people they clamp down on into labour camps."

We will see how that goes.