One-child policy change too late for some

(Xinhua) 08:58, November 22, 2013

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A mother holds her child in front of a wall with photos of babies in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, Nov 17, 2013. Couples will be allowed to have two children if one of the parents is an only-child. Pan Kanjun / For China Daily

BEIJING - Ma Xiaoyi carefully puts away her son's clothes and toys, hoping she can soonfall pregnant and have a second child.

Even her five-year-old son Lin Xuan wants a brother or sister. "He often asks me when hislittle brother or sister will be born," said Ma, 34.

When his nursery school teacher tells the children to draw pictures for their family, Linalways writes on his work "to my would-be brother or sister".

Ma has kept every drawing. "They'll make a sweet present when the baby is old enough toread."

Ma's husband, Lin Maogeng, is a single child but she is not.

According to a change in family planning policy announced last week, urban couples like Maand her husband Lin will soon be allowed to have two children -- as long as one of them isan only child.

Demographer Zhai Zhenwu said the new policy would make an estimated 15 million to 20million couples eligible for a second child. It is a significant change to the country's familyplanning policy that has been prevalent for more than three decades.

About 50 to 60 percent of these couples are willing to have a second child, Zhai said,quoting a recent poll by National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Having grown up with an older brother, Ma believes having a sibling can help improve achild's personality and development.

"My brother is five years older than me. He was a caregiver, role model and friend whenwe were children." she said. "I never felt lonely, and our parents never worried about uswhen they were at work."

Today, Ma often risks being late for work as she has to take her son to nursery. She feelsguilty when she has to work overtime and leave Lin with the nanny.

Ma, born in Dalian, a port city in northeast China's Liaoning Province, secured a job inBeijing after she graduated in journalism from university. "It's reassuring to think that mybrother's family live only a few blocks away from my parents. Had I been the only child,it'd never have occurred to me to leave my parents."

What makes Ma want another child is the heartbreak she has witnessed, of older parentswho have lost their only son or daughter.

For over a decade, her job as a journalist has taken her to sites of earthquakes and othernatural disasters, senior nursing homes and hospitals. Ma has witnessed the agony andhelplessness of bereaved parents. It upsets her.

"Talking about two children, most people complain about the high living costs and tuition.But if you have witnessed the pains of those bereaved parents, you'd stop worrying aboutthe burdens a second child brings."

Many of Ma's high income peers already have a second child, and have paid a fine of about300,000 yuan. But for Ma and her husband, both government employees, to violate thefamily planning policy would have cost them their jobs.

Yang Zhizhu, a former teacher in Beijing, was fired after his wife gave birth to their secondchild in December 2009. The couple have two girls.

Yang, who taught civil law at China Youth University for Political Sciences, insisted hewould safeguard his younger daughters' "right of existence" and refused to pay any fine.He is now an activist calling for the abolition of the family planning policy.

"The new policy change is far from enough to offset China's aging problem," Yang said onhis Weibo.com microblogging account. "The country needs to scrap its restrictions onchildbirth as soon as possible."

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（Editor：HuangJin、Gao Yinan）