by Monica Romano

It is necessary to put the breaks on a China's far too rapidly growing economy. In 2003, a year in which the Chinese economy grew by an amazing 9.1%, we witnessed once again reasons why the country needs to slow down its booming economy in order to allow for more balanced long-term development. This is what Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (visiting Italy today) also said at the annual meeting of the Chinese National People's Congress last march.

The Premier's remarks seem to confirm that the Chinese model of development, based on principles insensitive to human needs, is beginning to cripple the government's rock-solid belief system and have  dire repercussions on society, particularly striking hard blows on the weakest sectors of the Chinese population.    

The government's policy on the population problem seems not to have changed at all. Since his nomination to prime minister last March 2003, Wen Jiabao has stressed that controlling population growth is the key to maintaining China's socio-economic progress and development. He said he will continue to back and enforce the strict government "one child per family"policy  to combat any population ncrease.

Begun in 1978 under the Deng Xiaoping administration, the government's target was to increase the Chinese gross domestic product from 250 dollars per capita in 1978 to 1000 dollars by 2000. Yet even in this case, government laws and measures often had an boomerang effect, and more often than not at the population's own expense. 

With the government's one-child policy, only those who adhere to the family planning system enjoy financial incentives and subsidies. Those who do not, suffer major penalties, like having both parents' salaries cut by 10% and being slapped with huge fines for every additional child.  

Yet the drop in the Chinese birth rate –together with rise in life expectancy due to better medicine and life conditions – are leading to a progressive aging of the population. At the same time China is not able to properly prepare itself to fund pension plans for its retirees with adequate public or private welfare.

Huang Rongqing, a demographics export at Beijing University, admitted that "zero growth" can also have negative repercussions and provoke serious imbalances in society, as seen in an ever smaller work force having to support a growing elderly population. Based on UN projections, due to China's aging population, the ratio of persons of working age to retired elderly needing care will soon be 3:1 versus the 5:1 current figure. This is already seen in Shanghai, whose population has continued to both decline and age over the last 10 years.

The only-child policy risks, then, giving rise to a generation of immature youth, as they are reared by over-protective parents. The policy also helps perpetrate the sinister practice of selective abortion and infanticide of female offspring in the rural communities: Females are believed inferior to males since they are viewed as less useful for hard agricultural work. The lack of females in society is causing serious social imbalances and leading to increased trafficking of women.  

The rat race to earn money –often due the desperation of rural poor citizens and discrimination of women –is sparking enormous social and cultural changes. According to Huang Rongqing "women neither want to get married or have children these days" because of the high costs associated with raising children that discourage young couples from forming families.

 A recent survey conducted by the All China Women's Federation (ACWF) reported that 40% of young Chinese married women do not want to have children, the principle reason for the country's declining birth rate.

In an article that recently appeared in the People's Daily it was said, "the traditional Chinese idea that it is a blessing to have many children, who help their parents in old age, is no longer in fashion among modern urban women." On the of the main reasons, the articles notes, is that "the pressures of work and study and super-full schedules deprive women of the pleasure of having children." The author of the article added "some persons think having children will weigh upon a couple's quality of life which does not rest yet on solid financial grounds."   

These social changes are compromising ancient equilibriums even among infants and children who find themselves ever more lonely and abandoned by incredibly busy parents interested merely in advancing their careers and earning money. According to a study made by child psychologist, Zhai Jing, of the Shangdong Center for Mental Health, 1 in 8 Chinese children suffer psychological disturbances and exhibit behavioral disorders. And such figures are on the rise. The state news agency, Xinhua, reported that around 30 million Chinese children are "mentally handicapped". 

China's model of development does not seem to have improved the economic balance between country's rural and urban workforce. Even if the Chinese population living on less than 1 dollar per day has gone down from 600 to 200 million, the gap is still enormous.

According to the National Statistics Bureau, in 2003  per capita income in Chinese cites increased 9% versus 4% in rural communities whose residents form 60% of the total population.

In a study published last February, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences reported that after 20 years of economic reform, urban workers earned 2.8 times more than their rural counterparts who do not enjoy the same public services and subsides of city dwellers. 

Chinese urbanization is growing at huge rates, as many farmers are forced to move to cities in search of jobs that are often unstable, underpaid without contracts, with no protection of rights and in hazardous conditions. All this sparks social tensions as well, as families spend more time apart and women replace men in the fields. Likewise often women are left with no option but to emigrate to cities to find work where they are discriminated against and forced to promise not to have children in order to keep their positions.

• china
• population
• demographics
• development