Evolution of the One Child Policy

The effects of the One Child Policy have been occurring for the last thirty years, since it was created in 1979. Since then it has been through more than enough trials and tribulations. But as the first 30-year-old generation is coming of age, the bad side affects of the policy are showing through, and people aren't happy about it. So the Chinese government is now taking all this into consideration and proposing a new policy to override the old one. The new and improved Two Child Policy. "Last week, in the plenary sessions of the annual Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress, a two-child policy was proposed, to start in 2015. Experts have suggested that the one-child policy has resulted in an increase in older people and a decrease in younger workers, as well as a sex-ratio imbalance, which might threaten China's economic growth." Finally, the higher authority and people in charge are coming to their senses and seeing that even though the policy has working for its intended reason of curbing and lowering the over-population in China, it's also created some adverse effects that need to be addressed. These include all of the problems of my previous posts and more. Some are:

1. spoiled children
2. obesity
3. a generation of only-children that are about to take over the jobs of China
4. minimal numbers of girls
5. reselling wives as sex slaves (abductions)
6. vast majority of males over females
7. killing of baby girls 
8. forced abortions
9. limited sex education
10. overrun orphanages
11. difficult adoption processes (which make it more difficult for people to adopt from overrun orphanages)

Many of these things could be avoided if the female population of China was increased once again. This is where the Two Child Policy will be better than the One Child Policy. Hopefully the Chinese population will be smarter about this the second time around and have one boy and one girl so that the sex ratio will be brought back down to normal. Hopefully, because there will now be two children in the household, that attention will be split and the obesity and spoiled-ness of the children will go down. But these are only my hopes for the future of China. All I can say is the Chinese government better know what they are getting themselves into this time around.

Americans and Their Obsession With Helping Out

Americans are as Americans do. Whenever there is an epidemic that just happens to affect our hearts, we do everything that we can to help. Take China and their One Child Policy for example. There are a surplus of baby girls that China doesn't have room for. So what do we do? We adopt them. Thousands of eligible American couples have been reaching out to China and adopting all of their unwanted girls. We are so helpful aren't we?
Well my personal opinion is that we'd be even more helpful if the requirements weren't so rigorous. Here are some of the guidelines:
"- You must be 30 years of age - No exceptions.
- Only married couples or you can be single, however, no same sex couple can apply.
- You must be in good physical and emotional health and you must be free from any criminal record.
- If you are over 50 years of age you must be willing to accept a child three years of age."
I mean I understand that they have to be careful who they send their children off with, but then again, they didn't want the babies in the first place.
After I found this, I kept looking because one of my high school teachers and her husband adopted a Chinese girl, and I found the topic quite interesting. I Googled how to adopt a Chinese baby girl and this is what I found:

"How to Adopt a Chinese Baby Girl

James Green

updated: January 16, 2011

Over the past 20 years, it has become increasingly common for couples from the United States to adopt babies from China. Due to cultural reasons, the vast majority of children available for adoption in China are baby girls. The rules for adopting a Chinese baby must conform to the regulations outlined in the Hague Convention, and thus any adoption process must conform by such regulations to make the process legal according to international law. Similar to the adoption process of any infant, it can take four to five years to complete all bureaucratic procedures.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. • 1
     Meet the age and marriage requirements set out by the China Center for Adoption Affairs. Both of the parents must be between the ages of 30 and 50 at the time of adoption, and in the case of adopting a child with special needs, between the ages of 30 and 55. Couples must have been married for a minimum of two years, or five years if one of the prospective parents was previously divorced.
   • 2
     Meet the income and health requirements set out by CCAA. Total family assets must amount to at least $80,000, and annual income must equate to $10,000 per family member including the adopted child. With regard to the health of the adopting party, they must have no mental disability. Also, they must not be blind, HIV positive, clinically obese or suffer from any disease that requires long-term treatment.
   • 3
     Meet the eligibility requirements set out by the Department of Homeland Security by filling out form I-800A, which is used to assess if a prospective adoptive parent is capable of providing care for a child. Information regarding criminal history, marital history, current children, and financial status must be provided about you and your spouse. Along with proof of identity and residency, a processing fee is required which amounted to $720 as of 2010.
   • 4
     Use the services of an accredited adoption service provider, which will not only be familiar with the Chinese adoption process but will abide by the legal conditions set forth by the Hague Convention. The adoption agency will take care of all the bureaucratic paperwork with the CCAA, who will in turn decide if you are eligible to adopt. A list of accredited adoption service providers may be found on the CCAA website.
   • 5
     Follow-up with the application during the referral phase. The CCAA, once approving your application, will find a prospective match for your family, and will provide you with you a letter of introduction about the child including health records. Within 45 days of the match, you may ask additional questions about the child and decide if you are able to meet the child's specific needs.
   • 6
     Fill out Form I-800, available from the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services to obtain provisional approval to adopt a child. The application will be passed on the the nearest U.S embassy or consulate in China who will assess if there are any reasons why a visa should be denied to the infant. Upon approval, the consulate will send the CCAA an approval notice, who will in turn stamp and forward this information to the adoptive family.
   • 7
     At least one parent must travel to China to take custody of the child and her documents. A new birth certificate and Chinese passport will be required from the Public Security Bureau. A U.S immigrant visa is available from the nearest U.S. consulate or embassy. The immigration process for the child may be finalized when the baby is on U.S. soil."
     
     

     

     
     Can you say extremely rigorous! All for the joy of one cute, little face...

Orphanages. There's Not Really Much Else to Say.

Here in New Jersey, in the United States, there is an orphanage that's named Saint Peter's Orphanage. It's an all boys orphanage. "St. Peter’s Orphanage offers a residential treatment program for abused, abandoned or neglected adolescent boys (aged 9-17), with mild to moderate emotional, behavioral, social and/or learning problems. The New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services (D.Y.F.S.) refers all placements. St. Peter’s philosophy is to provide specialized care, including on-site therapeutic counseling, designed to prepare the boys to become productive and self-sustaining citizens, while maintaining a warm and supportive, family-like atmosphere." There is a photo album on the web page that shows all the boys smiling an doing activities that they love.

Now, let's look into an article about an orphanage in China that I found. "The orphanage staff call her room the "dying room", and they have abandoned here for the very same reasons her parents abandoned her shortly after she was born. She is a girl." This orphanage just happens to be an all girls orphanage, but not intentionally. The surplus of baby girls who are abandoned by their parents right after birth is astounding. And all these orphanages don't have enough money to support all of the baby girls that are picked up off the streets and need a "home." Later on in this same article that I linked above, I found some more disturbing facts. "An official of the orphanage tells Blewett that last year, the orphanage had some 400 inmates. They were kept five to a bed in one airless room. The summer temperatures soared to around 100 degrees. In a couple of weeks, 20 percent of the babies died. 'If 80 children died last summer, there should be 320 left,' Blewett says to one of the assistants, 'but there don't appear to be more than a couple of dozen children here. Where are the others?' The girl replies; 'They disappear. If I ask where they go, I am just told they die. That's all. I am afraid to ask any more.'" This is not what I expected to find out about the orphanages when I first started researching the One Child Policy. The problem is, I did find it. And it's the truth.

Don't Tamper with the Cycle of Creation

"Phoenix is a big 15.3 hh tri-colored gelding, nice markings and disposition. Takes bit easily, tacks up good.. and stands still to mount, Has been to wranglers many times and ridden by an inexperienced 18 yr old so we are working on getting him back into his smooth 4 beat gait. Coming along nicely. Easy to catch, very sweet gelding, price will be going up." This is obviously an ad for a horse. I was looking around on the internet for a horse that would mesh well with my own mannerisms and be easy to ride because I've never actually ridden a horse before in my entire life. The description looks real nice and the temperament sounds fabulous.
So now you are probably wondering what all this has to do with the one child policy in China, and I'll tell you just that. Due to the 32 million more men in China than women, there are not enough wives to go around for all these men. So what do these family-name-bearing men do? They buy and sell women as disposable sex slave wive. They put ads up just like the one for the horse listed above. They buy the wives, force them into having yet another boy child, and then sell them again. "Women are also being trafficked for sale as wives to husbands who often resell them." "...partially due to a decrease in the availability of northern Thai girls." There is a reason for the decreased availability for the "northern Thai girls." Since the Chinese have the obsession with having a boy child and carrying on the family name, they've essentially disturbed the cycle of creation. There are now too many men and not enough women. It's a disturbed equilibrium of the sexes, and it's taking its toll. The Chinese are actually doing this to themselves. See, they only want boy children to carry on the family name, but as all of these men are getting older, there aren't enough women for all of them. Therefore some of them don't end up with wives and can't have a child to carry on the family name, anyway. Kind of ironic, isn't it?

King Henry VIII and Some Chinese Husbands...What Do They Have in Common?

The story of King Henry goes a little something like this: "Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived." The King wanted a boy child the be the heir and carry on the family name. Unfortunately for him, wife number one, two, four, five, and six all failed in giving him a son. Obviously, the third one succeeded in giving a son, but, going along with the sad story of this unlucky King, she died just days after her son was born. The moral of this story is that King Henry just wasn't happy with a wife unless she could provide a male child for him. 

Now, 500 years later, Chinese husbands are doing just that. Some Chinese husbands are so intent of having a boy to carry on the family name that they threaten to leave their wives if they can't give the man a boy child. This sounds oddly like King Henry from the previous paragraph...Curious, don't you think?

Abortion is NOT a Contraceptive...I Thought Everyone Knew That

Due to China's one child policy and modern times, sex is not taboo anymore, and no more than one child is allowed. This is an interesting combination. one half of this argument says " Nearly half of the women who had abortions had not used any form of contraception, Wu said. About 60 percent of the women who have abortions are between 20 and 29 years old, and most are single."
The other half of this argument says, "a low level of sex education among young people," and "Sex is no longer considered taboo among young people today, and they believe they can learn everything they need from the Internet."
To me, this makes no sense at all. There is a low rate of sexual education in schools and an increased number of young couples having sex. And all this leads to an extreme amount of abortions. And here's another fun fact from a movie that I saw. Did you know that when a woman is getting an ultrasound of her baby done, it is illegal for the ultrasound technician to tell the woman what gender her child is?
Now, something that struck me as odd is the line that said, "they believe they can learn everything they need from the Internet." I'm not trying to be gross, but you can't really learn that type of thing from the internet. Then I started researching the subject a little more and this is what I found: "people in the 60 largest cities in China spend around 70 percent of their leisure time on the Internet, according to a survey we conducted in 2009." 70% of all leisure time on the computer, on the internet. That's an obsession. And maybe that's the reason they all think that they can learn everything they need form the computer, because they are all obsessed with it. But this still does not condone the reckless behavior that leads to getting pregnant. If they have the internet at their fingertips, they should know that in having unprotected sex, a woman will get pregnant. And that fact that they all are only allowed to have one child should make them all the more careful. But unfortunately, it's not. My question is, why is this?

Male Supremacy Goes Haywire

Another adverse affect of the One-Child Policy is the deep set cultural male preference. Thousands of years ago, Chinese families needed to have a boy in order to carry on the family name, just like the marriage rules in the U.S. The difference was, China's need for carrying on that family name was exactly that: a need. If your family didn't have a boy to carry on the name, it was almost like a disgrace to the family. Even now in the 21st century, that need still holds true. I have heard horror stories about husbands who get their wives pregnant and threaten to leave the wife all together on her own if the baby isn't a boy. And if the baby is a girl, (and the husband doesn't leave the wife) and the couple have another baby by accident that happens to be a boy, it is not uncommon for that baby girl to be left out on the street at random so that the couple won't have to pay fines for having two babies. “These are problems that go down very deep—a complex, tenacious intertwining of economic, social, gender, and sexuality issues.” Says A historical perspective on gender issues in China. Just to prove that this "deep" need for boys in China is true, I Googled "chinese baby adoption." This is what I found: "Most babies available for adoption from China are girls. There are boys available but a very small number compared to girls." This is caused by the number of Chinese baby girls that go unwanted because of the brother that took their place. It's an ugly statement, but a true one.