In Beijing only 6.7 percent of eligible couples have applied for permission to have a second child

Why aren’t Chinese couples keen to have more children?

BY MARCUS ROBERTS

In late 2013 we brought you the news that the Chinese Government was bringing in a new relaxation of its abominable one-child policy, allowing parents to have a second child if either one of them are single children themselves. This would allow tens of millions of couples to legally have another child if they so wanted. The aim was to reverse China's shrinking labour pool and to do something about the top-heavy Chinese demographic pyramid – too many older people supported by too few workers. Unfortunately, almost immediately I commented on demographers who thought that the relaxation of the rules will have little effect, a theme that was expanded upon by Shannon about six months ago. Dermont Grenham also wrote an excellent piece linking Chinese and Japanese social attitudes to family sizes which suggested that Chinese families weren't limiting their families to one child just because their Government forced them to.

That idea is getting a wider hearing in the MSM as the months roll by and the uptick in Chinese births has failed to tick up. In New Zealand's leading daily newspaper just last week there was an interesting article entitled: “One-child policy changes: Why aren't the Chinese rushing to have more kids?”

The answer was not simple: understandably with such a personal decision, there are all sorts of reasons why people chose not to have another child. But some common factors can be teased out. First, there are the practical and economic reasons: it is too hard and too costly to have another child. This is I'm sure a reason many parents the world over choose not to have another baby, and thus the experiences that the article highlights are not unique to China, but are interesting nevertheless:

“When China announced it was relaxing its one-child policy in late 2013, marketing director Kang Lu chatted with her husband about whether they wanted a second baby.

'But given our current circumstances, we quickly abandoned the idea," she said. "It wasn't a tough decision.' … There are no kindergartens here for children under three, while the market for nannies is unregulated, and tales of neglect are rife. Kang's parents had moved to Beijing for three years to help look after her first child, a girl, but now felt too old to help.

Kang also has ambitions for advancing her career, but was faced with the prospect of giving up those ambitions - or giving up her job entirely - to care for a second child. In Beijing's soaring housing market, Kang and her husband certainly couldn't afford a larger apartment, which they figured they would need if they had a boy. And they were worried that the capital's smoggy air could affect a new baby's health.”

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