SHANGHAI — Wang Weijia and her husband grew up surrounded by propaganda posters lecturing them that “Mother Earth is too tired to sustain more children” and “One more baby means one more tomb.”
They learned the lesson so well that when Shanghai government officials, alarmed by their city’s low birthrate and aging population, abruptly changed course this summer and began encouraging young couples to have more than one child, their reaction was instant and firm: No way.
“We have already given all our time and energy for just one child. We have none left for a second,” said Wang, 31, a human-resources administrator with an 8-month-old son.
More than 30 years after China’s one-child policy was introduced, creating two generations of notoriously chubby, spoiled only children affectionately nicknamed “little emperors,” a population crisis is looming in the country.
Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission, has said that fertile couples need to have babies to “help reduce the proportion of the aging population and alleviate a workforce shortage in the future.”
Written into the country’s constitution in 1978, China’s one-child policy is arguably one of the most controversial mandates introduced by the ruling Communist Party. Couples who violate the policy face fines — up to three times their annual salary in some areas — and discrimination at work.
In recent years, population officials have gradually softened their stance on the policy. In July, Shanghai became the first Chinese city to launch an aggressive campaign to encourage more births.
Almost overnight, posters directing families to have only one child were replaced by copies of regulations detailing who would be eligible to have a second child and how to apply for a permit. The city government dispatched family planning officials and volunteers to meet with couples in their homes and slip leaflets under doors. The response has been underwhelming, family planning officials say.
Disappointed Shanghai officials say that, despite the campaign, the number of births in the city in 2010 is still expected to be only about 165,000 — slightly higher than in 2009 but lower than in 2008.
