Two-child policy creates baby boom in China

[TaiShang]

Two-child policy creates baby boom in China
(CRI Online) 09:53, August 03, 2016

　　A file photo of a child and a baby. [Photo: Xinhua]

It's being said that a small baby boom may be just around the corner in China, following the overhaul of the country's long-standing One Child Policy.

Chinese lawmakers announced plans to eliminate the One Child Policy last year, replacing it with new regulations, which allow all couples in China to have two children.

Now the impact of the new policy, which took effect this year, is already visible.

Yang Xin is expecting her second child in the southern city of Shenzhen. She says the number of expectant mothers has increased sharply from a year ago, and she has to make appointments for medical checks three to four months in advance.

"The hospital has been crowded with expectant mothers every day since February. People began to queue up in early morning and I have to wait at least 30 minutes for each check. Thus I have to bring two family members along to wait in line for me, otherwise I won't finish all the necessary checks in a day."

Yang's case is rather common across China, as many hospitals are reporting a lack of beds in obstetrics while doctors have been overwhelmed by the number of patients.

Liu Lihua is the deputy head of obstetrics at the Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital.

"We have 45 beds in the fifth section of obstetrics and we added 30 extra beds today. Such situation started in April, while the peak season usually came in August or September in the past."

2016 is also the Year of the Monkey, which is among the 12 Zodiac animals of China. Liu Lihua says a traditional belief that babies born in the Year of the Monkey are opt to be smart and confident has pushed up the number of newborns.

Chinese family planning authorities estimate the two-child policy will add an estimated 3 million babies annually in the next five years, pushing the total figure each year to up to 21 million.

Those figures will have a significant on China's economy.

Calculated on a basis of an annual spending of 16,000 yuan for each newborn, a yearly increase of up to 50 billion yuan, or more than 7 billion US dollars, is expected in consumption for infants in China.

The business concerning medical care and mother and baby products will directly benefit.

Among the 28 companies listed in China which focus on baby-related business, 21 have already released their semi-annual reports for the first half of this year.

Seven of them reported an over 100 percent increase in net profit, and three companies saw a 300 percent growth in revenues.

Huang Jun is an analyst at China Merchants Securities.

"Some reports covering the first half of the year have presented better-than-expected performance thanks to the second-child policy. The year of 2016 will see an explosive growth in newborns. "

The One Child Policy was eliminated mainly to create a demographic balance giving a rapidly aging Chinese society.

Chinese researchers project more than a quarter of the Chinese population will be over the age of 65 by 2050.

 

[xunzi]

We are on a period of excitement right now.

 

[XenoEnsi-14]

Overreaction.

 

[cirr]

Good news for our friend @Bussard Ramjet

 

[thesolar65]

How many Chinese members here have more than one child. Don't say I am not married as marriage has got noting to have a child!!

 

[Lucky Breeze]

Don't say I am not married as marriage has got noting to have a child!!

So you just need documentation

 

[TaiShang]

We are on a period of excitement right now.

China has various tools to further boost domestic spending. Baby boom is one of them.

One Child policy was a bitter but extremely rational policy. It saved China from having mass poverty and slum-development amidst explosive growth. Now, with national income reaching middle class levesl and people are better educated, an entire lifting of "heavily conditional" population control would be not too far-fetched.

Quality vs. quantity.

 

[Stephen Cohen]

Babies are cute and cuddly and great fun
except when they are crying

 

[BoQ77]

Yang Xin is expecting her second child in the southern city of Shenzhen. She says the number of expectant mothers has increased sharply from a year ago, and she has to make appointments for medical checks three to four months in advance.
"The hospital has been crowded with expectant mothers every day since February. People began to queue up in early morning and I have to wait at least 30 minutes for each check. Thus I have to bring two family members along to wait in line for me, otherwise I won't finish all the necessary checks in a day."
Yang's case is rather common across China, as many hospitals are reporting a lack of beds in obstetrics while doctors have been overwhelmed by the number of patients.

Unbelievable !!! make appointment 3 - 4 months in advance for a medical check ? when the baby boom still not start ?
We didn't suffer that long, for all of our 3 kids.
Just telephone before 1 or 2 days or simply visit the facility and register.

 

[TaiShang]

Unbelievable !!! make appointment 3 - 4 months in advance for a medical check ? when the baby boom still not start ?
We didn't suffer that long, for all of our 3 kids.
Just telephone before 1 or 2 days or simply visit the facility and register.

China will have to get ready for the upcoming boom, for sure. China's scale is big. Less than every four year, a Vietnam is added to the population.

Infrastructure will adapt to the new normal.

 

[AndrewJin]

China will have to get ready for the upcoming boom, for sure. China's scale is big. Less than every four year, a Vietnam is added to the population.

Infrastructure will adapt to the new normal.

I am not married yet.
But most people around me in their 20s-30s have such plan.

 

[ahojunk]

The following is a related story of those who have remarried.

--------
Couples not waiting for 2nd-child rule
By Zheng Caixiong in Guangzhou (China Daily) Updated: 2016-08-03 07:42

Remarried couples in Guangdong province who are pregnant with their second child will not be forced to have an abortion, even though they have not yet been granted permission for a second child.

The provincial population and family planning commission will also not suggest that employers dismiss or punish those who are pregnant with a second child without permission, the commission said on Tuesday.

The commission said it is studying and drafting regulations for remarried couples.

"But when the detailed regulations will be available is still unknown," the commission said.

Twenty-eight provinces, regions and municipalities in the mainland have introduced regulations for remarried couples to have a second child.

Zhai Zhenwu, a demographer at Beijing-based Renmin University of China, said that the provincial commission did not violate any regulations when they did not force couples to have abortions.

"The couples who are pregnant with their second child also did not break any laws and family planning policies, as Guangdong has yet to pass regulations for remarried couples," the professor of sociology and population policies told China Daily on Tuesday.

He urged the local population and family-planning commission to introduce such policies and regulations soon.

Yu Jiexiao, who is remarried, suggested employers not fire women who are pregnant with their second child.

"That would help reduce the number of induced abortions for local women in Guangdong," Yu told China Daily on Tuesday.

"Some wives who have been pregnant with their second child have an abortion because they fear being dismissed by their employers," she added.

With a population of about 110 million, Guangdong is China's most populous province. The capital, Guangzhou, has a population of more than 16 million.

But the birthrate in the province - which lacks a sufficient workforce and relies on people migrating from other provinces - has remained low for decades, insiders said.

Xie Xintian contributed to this story.

 

[Dem!god]

i think two child policy is always more favorable than one child policy. One child policy is also very despotic and make it look like authoritarian. The only thing that favored china was the rule of communist party which suppressed all such revolts with iron hand. Here in india when indira gandhi tried to implement mass family planning with tubectomy and vasectomy there was huge backlash and protest. Instead of giving people choice in binary, its always better to teach them how to use the most beneficial choice of all.People awareness is the key to success and government should be the nodal agency to spread such awareness.

 

[Mangus Ortus Novem]

Children are the future. All the scrafices made by the last four generations are for them.

A healthy child is a blessing.

By investing in the health of mother and the coming child China is investing in Life and Future.

With the foucs on achieving world class educational system at all levels...China is gearing towards producing the conditions that will help it to become and remain a developed country in a generation.

Good going!

 

[TaiShang]

The only thing that favored china was the rule of communist party which suppressed all such revolts with iron hand.

The only thing that favored China was its scientific approach and the Chinese people's pragmatism, frankly. The One Child Policy was neither universal, nor without exemptions. It reflected China's true, real economic conditions. And those who fell below the rational conditions for an extended family had to comply with the policy or pay fines.

The government simply referred the real situation to the people without distorting the reality or selling unrealistic dreams to save the day.

For these reasons, it served the purpose and opened the room for development without mass poverty and unhealthy urbanization but with other social negative side effects and sacrifice.

Some societies are more able to take the bitter pill for the longer view. Some other societies are not able to, not because they are democratic, but because they are backward in thinking.

Children are the future. All the scrafices made by the last four generations are for them.

A healthy child is a blessing.

By investing in the health of mother and the coming child China is investing in Life and Future.

With the foucs on achieving world class educational system at all levels...China is gearing towards producing the conditions that will help it to become and remain a developed country in a generation.

Good going!

East Asian societies, traditionally, takes education and welfare of their children extremely seriously. For that reason, many conditions that would be considered normal in other countries would be considered unsatisfactory in East Asian societies when it comes to the children.

China is no exception. By simply looking at the likes of Japan or (China's) Taiwan, one can easily fathom the direction China wants to take in terms of children's social and economic welfare.