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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Still-growing China faces crisis supporting ageing population |
| 2005-01-05 |
| by Lindsay Beck, The Scotsman. EFL. Hat tip: Brothers Judd. THE world's most populous nation is still growing, with China's official population expected to hit 1.3 billion tomorrow, despite a quarter-century-old policy of allowing couples to have only one child. . . But while they have helped China curb its birth rate from more than 33 per 1,000 population in 1970 to less than eight per 1,000 three decades later, the country faces new demographic challenges over how to support an ageing population. . . . The strict rules on family size have also created a gender imbalance, with about 117 boys for every 100 girls, as a cultural preference for sons prompts couples, usually in rural areas, to abort girls. . . . . . . or just leave them in the woods to die. One of the guys I work for adopted a little Chinese girl a couple of years ago who was found abandoned out in the wilderness, more dead than alive. Cute little bug, she is, and doing quite well despite the rough start. You gotta wonder, though, what practices like that do to the soul of the culture, and the souls of the people who are forced into them. It is sometimes said that children are God's judgment that life should go on. Where the State replaces God, and decrees no more children, is the State thereby saying that we should give up on the world? Oh, and then there's the other demographic issue: Last year, about 57,000 babies were born in Shanghai, but there were nearly twice as many deaths. Such a large gap has profound implications for the future workforce and for an ageing society. At that rate, they'll end up like Old Europe, only worse. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #16 JB: And the Chinese communists have no problem with importing women as potential wives from nearby countries who may have been "tainted" by Western thinking? Western thinking? Communism is Western thinking. Heck - 99% of everything the Chinese see and touch on a daily basis is of Western origin. (Excluding the food, of course, which is definitely quite uniquely Chinese). JB: The Chinese communists have no problem with diluting their nation's bloodlines? Well, that's encouraging, I guess, that is, apart from the kidnapping aspect. Bloodlines? The Chinese are the biggest mongrels around. Mongols, Huns, Sogdians, Tibetans, Jurchens, Turks, Persians, et al are all represented. China is kind of like the Roman empire, except the Chinese empire lasted, unlike its Roman counterpart. The condition for Roman citizenship was service in the Roman army, acceptance of Roman ways and the acknowledgement of the centrality of the Roman empire. The condition for acceptance into Chinese culture is literacy in Chinese coupled with the acceptance of the supremacy of Chinese culture and of the Chinese nation. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-01-05 10:54:42 PM |
| #15 Joeblow, the bloodlines are traced through the males...it doesn't matter what the mothers are. And China has been quietly importing North Korean women for several years. On the Chinese side of the border there are jobs and marriages for the North Korean women, but not for the NorK men. No problem there with conflicting ideologies, and I'm sure that the NorK women are grateful just for the chance to eat occasionally. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-01-05 10:26:08 PM |
| #14 A child of a Japanese parent can claim Japanese citizenship. And the commie thing isn't nearly as big a deal as you make it out to be. Men are happy to have wives, Chinese men being no exception. Get some facts next time before you go around posting things like "errrk, wrong!" |
| Posted by: gromky 2005-01-05 10:21:28 PM |
| #13 Japanese farmers have imported Southeast Asian wives. Well I stand corrected. Hmmm, I thought that in order to gain Japanese citizenship a child's parents both need to be Japanese. According to your sources, ZF, that's not the case? And the Chinese communists have no problem with importing women as potential wives from nearby countries who may have been "tainted" by Western thinking? The Chinese communists have no problem with diluting their nation's bloodlines? Well, that's encouraging, I guess, that is, apart from the kidnapping aspect. |
| Posted by: joeblow 2005-01-05 8:46:15 PM |
| #12 JB: Errrk. Wrong. You don't win any prize with that multicultural and diversity loving Western educated answer. Chinese men need Chinese women. Ergo, if there is a shortage of Chinese women in China, from what country are you going to import Chinese women?( the clue is the word Chinese) Actually, they'll settle for women. Period. Japanese farmers have imported Southeast Asian wives. Chinese farmers have been importing (actually, abducting) Vietnamese wives. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-01-05 7:20:38 PM |
| #11 BD - "feckless bachelors" is an accurate description of males in the under 35 crowd in SaudiLand, heh. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-05 7:13:09 PM |
| #10 The solution to excess Chinese males is open more coal mines. QED |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-01-05 7:09:46 PM |
| #9 India has the same problem as China as regards a sexual imbalance. Especially in rural areas. It's illegal, but abortion of baby girls is not uncommon now that the technology for sexing in utero is widely available. It's often claimed that China (and India's) feckless bachelors will cause civil disorder unless they can be distracted or got rid of. Sending a few boatloads in the direction of Taiwan does seem suspiciously like murderous stupidity. Good plan then. But then what do they do if India decided to march her Mods 'n' Rockers over the Himalaya...? |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2005-01-05 6:32:24 PM |
| #8 As for women, you can import those. Errrk. Wrong. You don't win any prize with that multicultural and diversity loving Western educated answer. Chinese men need Chinese women. Ergo, if there is a shortage of Chinese women in China, from what country are you going to import Chinese women?( the clue is the word Chinese) |
| Posted by: joeblow 2005-01-05 6:25:27 PM |
| #7 This isn't a "problem". This is the solution they were looking for when they started the whole one-child policy in the first place. Let's see, it's either this scenario, or 500 million more people in the same sized country. As for women, you can import those. |
| Posted by: gromky 2005-01-05 6:17:12 PM |
| #6 Coming soon: |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-01-05 4:56:51 PM |
| #5 RW: If they didn't control the Mao induced population explosion for his peasant - agrarian revolution there would be well over 2 Billion Chinese today all vying for resources, land and other commidities. China's problem is a problem of poor government, not a population problem. Japan has 1/10 the population but only 1/30 the arable land. Taiwan has 1/60 the population but only 1/150 the arable land. Just about every wealthy country in East Asia is more densely populated than China. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-01-05 4:35:41 PM |
| #4 Unfortunately, I think I can see where this is heading... "Where's grandma?" "She's in the well with your baby sister. Now shut up and eat." |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-01-05 4:24:56 PM |
| #3 The problem of China's "popualtion control measures" is that with such an imbalance of males to females makes it worrisome for nations nearby. I read an article not too long agao actually about this very problem of China becoming more pugnacious as a "neighbor" as a result of too many boys/men not having the opportunity to settle down with a woman to raise a family blah, blah. Seriously, the Chinese leaders will soon realize that they've got to "harness" and focus that male energy outward rather than take a chance it make be focused inward in their country and end up toppling their communist thugocracy. |
| Posted by: joeblow 2005-01-05 2:06:11 PM |
| #2 What does China do? If they didn't control the Mao induced population explosion for his peasant - agrarian revolution there would be well over 2 Billion Chinese today all vying for resources, land and other commidities. The moral question of aborting babies and leaving female babies for dead is academic. But the solution to the problem is? Birth Control or the rights of humans to determine the size of their families. I for one have 4 children so I have no room to move here. Question is, What should China do? |
| Posted by: Rightwing 2005-01-05 1:58:35 PM |
| #1 This is what happens when you make it a capital offense to have an older sibling. |
| Posted by: Korora 2005-01-05 12:34:10 PM |