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China to Uphold its One-Child-Per-Family Law

Speaking at a conference on the topic of population and family planning, Chinese premier, Wen Jiaboa said his government is committed to retaining its present policy of ?one child per family? in order to continue with China?s plans of modernization and to maintain harmony in its society. Jiaboa said that authorities have plans to make the Chinese rural countryside its main priority and to promote family planning in these areas. Families in rural China are allowed, by law, to have two children per family.

China?s one-child policy has come under a lot of fire from world sociologists who say that the present statistics of 117 boys to every 100 girls born are very worrying and could result in disastrous social consequences. The Chinese traditionally prefer male babies to female ones and abortions and gender-selection techniques have risen dramatically since the one-child policy was enforced. The shortage of marriageable girls has already led to an increase in women trafficking, kidnapping and slavery.

At the conference, Wen Jiaboa said that his government was just as concerned about the fact that families were doing all they can to have a son and he promised that non-medial gender selection procedures would be subject to severe punishment. On the other hand, he reiterated his government?s commitment to the one-child policy and said that had the policy not been introduced in the 1970?s, China?s population would be 400-million more than it is today.