Marco Carvalho
China has decided on Monday to increase the limit of children per couple from two to three, an announcement that aims to halt the demographic free fall the world’s most populous nation has been experiencing. The measure rectifies some of the unwanted effects of the brutal “one-child policy” which lasted until 2016 and opens the doors to a more balanced development of the Chinese society, specialists told O Clarim.
Chinese authorities announced earlier this week the decision to expand to three the limit of children that Chinese couples are allowed to have, as the world’s most populous nation faces the menace of a demographic crisis.
With an aging society and challenged by an ever slowing population growth, China has decided to further ease its birth control policy, five years after it has abandoned the draconian “only child” policy that lasted for more than three decades, from 1980 to 2016.
The announcement, made on Monday, soon after a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo, does not completely eliminate the restrictions with which Chinese families must comply, but rectifies some of the excesses and limitations that arose from the “one-child policy” and deserves our applause, claims Father Jose Angel Hernandez, a Mexican priest with a deep knowledge of the Chinese reality: “Growing up together with brothers and sisters is a healthier, more natural way to grow, not least because it implies the idea of a joint development,” Father Angel told O Clarim. “Growing up together, they can learn to share with each other. It’s not just about sharing the financial resources that the family might or might not have. They have an opportunity to take care of each other. That’s the most important. They can share with each other, they can play with each other, they can socialize with children of the same age or of a very close age. It is the healthiest way for someone to develop,” the missionary of the Society of the Divine Word asserts.
Beijing justified the new demographic guidelines with the need to ensure the economic sustainability of Asia’s largest economy, after the results of the nation-wide demographic survey conducted in 2020 revealed, in early May, a faster-than-expected aging of the Chinese population. The drop in the birth rate is seen by Mainland authorities as a great threat to economic progress and social stability, but psychologist Nuno Gomes claims that the main benefits resulting from the adoption of new demographic policies may not even be economic in nature: “I think that anything that imposes a limit ends up being always unnatural. Imposing a limit – be it of one, three, five or ten children – ends up being somehow unnatural,” Mr Gomes, who is also a teacher at the University of Macau, argues. “Growing up with siblings is completely different from growing up without siblings. First of all, because – whether we like it or not – there is competition/cooperation. Parents, of course, will have to be able to manage these circumstances, but positive competition can always be a great thing. And competition is something that does not happen in a one-child family context. In families where there is more than one child, there is a much more immediate disposition to face the challenges of living in society, in a process that starts right there, with their very own siblings. It seems to me very evident and very clear that the presence of a sibling will affect the children’s social and even cognitive development, not least because it will force them to pay more attention to what surrounds them,” the expert claims.
Anger and condemnation
From 1980 to 2016, the People’s Republic of China put into practice strict birth control, justifying the decision with the need to contain what they considered to be the excessive population growth and to preserve resources that were seen as scarce for its expanding economy. The policies were enforced with a particular brutality, with the Chinese authorities imposing heavy fines, carrying out sterilizations and forced abortions, practices that have always been condemned not only by the Catholic Church, but also by human rights organizations.
The progressive liberalization of the demographic restrictions with which Chinese couples are forced to comply, Father Jose Angel Hernandez admits, should divert the Chinese population from a series of practices that violate human dignity: “In order not to infringe the ‘one-child policy’, many families were forced to abort. Abortion is one of the most disastrous consequences of this policy. It’s one of the biggest problems, but it’s not the only one,” the parish priest of Our Lady of Fatima claims. “Many Catholic families chose to hide their children due to the ‘one-child policy.’ They chose not to register them or, alternatively, they handed them over to sisters or relatives who did not have children. Families handed them over to other people to be raised by them, thus avoiding penalties. I personally know several cases in China,” the Mexican priest avows.
The Catholic Church has always opposed birth control measures. In the 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI spoke out against “drastic methods to reduce the birth rate”: “There is no doubt that public authorities can intervene in this matter, but always within the limits of their competences,” the Pontiff wrote. “They can instruct citizens on the matter and take appropriate measures, provided they comply with the dictates of the moral law and that the legitimate freedom of couples is kept fully intact,” Saint Paul VI clarified.
The recently announced changes in Chinese demographic policies should mean, from the outset, that the post “one-child policy” generations should be able to enjoy much more balanced emotional development conditions than the generations that preceded them. The final word, nevertheless – argues Nuno Gomes – still belongs to the parents: “The most important thing – whether a family raises three children, one or ten – is to have conscious parents, who value their children’s emotional health. Emotional and mental health, of course. It is utterly important to realize that children need a lot of attention, affection and need their parents to be there for them. If we achieve this Chinese society will surely prosper even more,” the psychologist concludes.
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