Chinese Province Hears Biological Clock Ticking, Asks for One Child Policy Waiver

We were naive. We thought China had too many people, but boy, were we ever wrong!

Guangdong is the province closest to Hong Kong and is the source of most of the toys you find in cereal boxes, clothes you donate to charity events and electronics you buy for your 11 year old. Among other things. And they believe they are running out of workers. So the provincial government has petitioned Beijing for permission to allow more children to be born to families that are getting too much sleep at night or arent watching enough cartoons on TV.

To some, this sounds like a bunch of deviants with too much access to Viagra have gotten their hands on the wheels of power. We say hold the line, China! Dont give in. Before you know it, all those little nippers will want paid vacations and a BMW.

In the interim, we have a humble suggestion. Send some of that work back to places like Detroit or Liverpool. At the very least, those who get the jobs will figure out how to convert the income into real estate which they can then sell back to foreign investors - like you. JL

Fu Yanyan reports in Caixin:

Guangdong Province has called on the central government to adjust the one-child policy. The change in policy is intended to cope with the province's foreseen aging problem, a source with Guangdong's family planning commission told Caixin.

The provincial authorities of Guangdong recently submitted a proposal to the central government asking for the waiver of the one-child policy if only one of the parents is an only child. National laws currently permit families to have a second child if both parents do not have siblings.
The conditional two-child policy, which Guangdong wants to implement for a pilot-run, was first raised in 2010 by population studies expert He Yafu who said that the further relaxation of birth control policies should be established in a pilot project of five provinces in 2011.

"The increase in population is still a big problem affecting our social and economic development, but aging will also be a problem in the long-run," said Zhang Feng, the head of Guangdong's population commission, in an interview with the Guangzhou-based official daily, the Southern Metropolis News.

The official said that Guangdong has applied for a loosened family planning policy, ahead of other provinces and municipalities, as its birth rate has remained low for more than a decade with an average fertility rate of 1.7 children.

The speed of population ageing is accelerating in Guangdong and experts have suggested that by 2015 registered 60-year-olds and above would make up over 12 percent of the provincial population. Many experts fear that such a rapid aging population will make the burden of caring for old parents in single-child families even greater.

China's unique one-child policy was introduced more than three decades ago and is now facing more open scrutiny by demographers and the public.

China's sixth national census results showed that Guangdong's population stands at 104.3 million, more than any other provinces or municipalities in the country. The sixth census results also pointed to slower population growth, with the current national population at 1.34 billion.