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05/27/2008: "China's one-child policy has exemptions for quake victims' parents"

In response to inquiries from grieving relatives, local officials announced Monday that parents whose only child was killed or grievously injured in the May 12 earthquake would be exempt from the country's one-child policy.

The exception, issued by the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in Sichuan Province, said qualified parents could apply for legal permission to have another child, according to The Associated Press.

Thousands of parents have openly challenged the government over why so many schools collapsed during the earthquake. An estimated 10,000 students are believed to have died.

The anguish of parents and grandparents has been compounded by the one-child policy, which was introduced in 1979 to control population growth. Provincial officials, especially those in rural areas or in regions with large minority populations, are sometimes given latitude in the application of the regulations. In some places, for example, families are permitted to have more than one child if the first is a girl.

[ And girls are the ones who grow up to give birth so this would be an ineffective policy for population reduction. Any Chinese abroad can reproduce to the max. The policy is therefore encouraging colonialism. ]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/27/asia/27child.php