Family Planning Policy Safeguards & Promotes Human Rights in China

China has effectively curbed the excess growth of its population in recent years, and this represents a change of historical importance in its population reproduction. Thanks to this success, the Chinese people's health has significantly improved. Following is the full text of an interview by our staff reporter with Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of the State Population and Family Planning Commission. We hope it will help our readers acquire a better understanding of how China's family planning policy has helped safeguard and promote human rights in the country and the world.

The Trade-Off between Quantity and Quality in Family Fertility Decision:Evidence from China's Family Planning Policy

Based on the Chinese General Social Survey 2006 and 2008 data,this paper assesses the influence of the family planning policy on the qualitative development of children using education attainment and individual income of only children versus children with siblings as parameters.Our results show the following:(1)only children are better-educated than their counterparts with siblings;(2)only children earn higher income in comparison to their counterparts with siblings;(3)the income and education gaps between girls with and without siblings are greater than those between boys;(4)the education gaps between only children and children with siblings are greater for those born in the 1970s,but the income difference between only children and children with siblings is only significant for those born in the 1980s;and(5)the income and education gaps between only children and children with siblings are higher in urban regions.Results indicate that families with only one child invest more resources in children's quality under the family planning policy,which is consistent with the"quantity-quality trade-off"theory proposed by Gary Becker.

Improvement of the Legal System for Addressing the Issue of Elderly Care in China in the Context of Population Aging

Rapid population aging is a social reality facing China at present,and the issue of elderly care has become a hot topic of social concern.Legislation to address the issue of elderly care in the context of population aging should follow systematic concepts to achieve“vertical and horizontal integration.”In terms of content,it is necessary to formulate specific legal approaches around“the elderly and children,”with a focus on guaranteeing the livelihood and protection of the rights of the elderly while taking into account childbirth,employment and other issues.the laws should not only safeguard the social participation and labor rights of the elderly,but also effectively respond to the social challenges brought about by the aging of the population.It is also necessary to optimize the family planning policy to ease the burden of child-raising,improve the population structure and promote the long-term balanced development of the population,thus fundamentally solving the problem of population aging.the effort to improve the legal system to deal with the issue of elderly care in the context of population aging will better advance Chinese modernization.

How did women’s education and differential family planning policies shape transition to second and third births in historical China? New evidence from micro data

The influence of China’s family planning policies on fertility transition is widely acknowledged in research studies.However,little is known about how improve-ments in women’s education have shaped reproductive decisions of Chinese women across different family planning regimes,particularly at micro level.This study uses retrospective pooled birth history data from five consecutive population and fam-ily planning surveys collected over the period 1982-2006 to systematically examine the interrelationship between family planning policies and women’s education,and their interactive effect on the second and third birth transitions.We hypothesize that family planning policies had a differential influence on educational groups in reduc-ing the transition to second and third births.The results from discrete time com-plementary log-log survival models provide strong evidence of differential repro-ductive behavior of education groups across time in China,and the simultaneous influence of women’s education and family planning policies in lowering risks to higher parities.The rates of progression to second and third births tend to be lower after the introduction of rigid family planning policies,and more importantly,the policy impact persisted even after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic factors.The increase in women’s education overall had a depressing effect on transi-tion to higher parities,and family planning policies implemented overtime have had differential effects on women from different educational groups.The findings show that both family planning policies and women’s education have been instrumental in shaping fertility behavior in China.

The long-term impact on the Chinese economy of an aging population

Rapid fertility decline and rising life expectancy are leading to a fast and profound aging of China＇s population. This paper will attempt to analyze the long-term economic impact of population aging. After discussing its impact on employment, domestic consumption, social security programs and public finance, rural-urban migration and urbanization, the Chinese economy＇s comparative advantage in international markets and structural change in industry, we suggest alternative policies of gradually relaxing the fertility control policy, assigning higher priority to the development of human capital, raising the compulsory retirement age, and improving the equity and efficiency of social security programs.