one child policy scrapped?

Yes, it's been a while. Yes, I'm busy.

So, the Globe and Mail today reported that the Chinese Government is talking about doing away with the One Child Policy. The Chinese Government has a bunch of these wonderful little irrational or authoritarian policies like the One Child Policy, the One China Policy, etc.

So, now the Chinese government has realized that when 2 people have 1 baby, that means the new generation has half as many people as the older. So 2/1=1? Who knew? Ok, I admit they probably were aware of this already, given the special provisions involved - minories and farmers get 2, twins are ok, pairs of only children can have two, etc. The problem with the policy has been enforcement. The first problem is that this policy only applies to the middle class - ie those people who would otherwise be having fewer children anyway. The rich can afford to pay the fines for the extra children. The poor just don't register the extra kids because it's not like they could afford to send them to school or to hospitals anyway.

So, two funny things about this:

1. The decision to think about reversing this policy admits that maybe the CCP isn't actually perfect, which is ironic because the policy was put in after Mao created the population problem by encouraging people to have more babies. Double irony.
2. The decision to change this policy assumes that this policy is effective in the first place. Now the article does mention that some people do flaunt the laws - those people who paid the fines. But what about all the poor people who didn't register? What about the book-cooking, the number-altering, the figure-fudging party members who don't meet the quotas are famous for? China doesn't know how many people China has, or how effective this policy actually is. But, based on these creative numbers, they are thinking that this policy has been too sucessful?
   

So, one point for human rights, but one point for overpopulation.

Now, I'm not saying they should keep this policy. Honestly, I think after an initial population bubble, most of the people who have abided by this policy would realize that they cannot afford to have more than one child and really don't want more than one anyway, as is the case with most indstrialized nations. The years of the dog and pig seemed to have more effect on the population in China than anything the government has done recently.