In the latest series of events stoking the tensions between Hong Kongers and Mainlanders, Cheung Wan Lai, director of hospital groups at the Hospital Authority, revealed that the quota for foreigners giving birth in Hong Kong has been reduced from 10,000 in 2011 to just 3,400 in 2012. more ›

BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries have contributed to almost half of global growth in the past decade, but their high times may be over as they face an aging labor market. The major effects in demographics are already beginning to be seen in China, where its one child policy is holding itself back from growing a strong young labor force, thus raising doubts on how to fund its growing pension bill. more ›

NMA's latest music video, "No girls born in China anymore", a country-style ode to the one-child policy. more ›

Henan, China's most populous province, has passed new legislation to allow couples to have a second child, provided that both husband and wife are from one-child families. With this move, all of China's 22 provinces, 4 municipalities, 5 autonomous regions now allow couples made up of single children on both sides to have a second child. more ›

Another week, another handy Economist infographic! This time they take on the Chinese one-child policy and its effect on population size if it were theoretically 100% enforced across the board. They couple that with the predictions from the UN a few weeks ago, which estimate the population as it actually will be with the current one-child policy, a policy that has been unevenly implemented with various exemptions and rigidity across China. According to the Economist's chart, if the one-child policy had been enforced strictly, China's population would shrink to less than 200 million within the century! Man, that'd make for a lot more empty cities. More from the Economist here. more ›

Since the 1980’s, Chinese families have been desperately seeking new ways to bypass China’s infamous ‘one-child policy’ (计划生育政策). One loophole around the policy concerns the birth of twins (or triplets, etc.), which the government allows for families, forgoing the usual fines or punishments for having more than one child. Recently, hospitals in Southern Guangdong province have gone quite public with their twin-producing scheme: Say hello to “multiple baby pills”. more ›

The latest from Next Media Animation irreverently covers the increasing adoption of Chinese babies by American families. Worth it for images of Chinese babies phoning in toddler troops to totter through American streets with AK47s. Less funny is the snatching up of adopted children from two-child families in China, sadly actually a problem. more ›

In Shanghai, the monthly reward for registered residents with only one child has been raised from 2.5 to 30 yuan until the child is 16. This makes it the first change for 30 years, as the city's payment is the lowest in the nation. Other provinces already began to raise their contributions years ago. more ›

• According to a report by Shanghai's Oriental Outlook Magazine (found via NTD TV), "a multi-million dollar compensation fund for babies who were sickened by melamine-tainted milk three years ago has been kept secret." WHAT!
• Five of seven recently banned food products were for weight loss (while two others also claimed to contribute to weight-loss by regulating "blood fat"). These products contained illegal additives that could cause high blood presure, accelerating heartbeats, anorexia, insomnia and liver function disorder)... sure, but how ELSE are we supposed to get skinny?
• Even as China’s population ages, research has shown that it’s still too early to relax the One Child Policy.
• Eleven people have gone on trial for the manufacturing and selling of a fake eye medication that caused adverse reactions in 61 victims.

The story of corrupt local officials in Hunan snatching children from poor rural families to sell to adoption agencies isn't a new one--the LA Times covered this story two years ago--but the issue is garnering far more attention after a recent in-depth investigative report from Caixin came out on the 9th of this month. In this video, an Al Jazeera reporter heads to Shaoyang, Hunan to interview families who've lost their children. more ›

"THE city is still waiting to hear whether it can alter the one-child policy and allow residents to have larger families. Local population experts have been in talks on loosening the policy with government departments, but so far there is no timetable. However, Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission, said the city was ready to act whenever an announcement was made. Shanghai has had an extremely low birth rate for years, the commission said, and the ratio of old people to young was greater than in the rest of the country." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

A new survey report shows that even if the government were to relax its one child policy, couples here in Shanghai would not be open to the idea of having a second child because of the excessive financial costs that come with an additional child. more ›

These are just several of a beautiful series of photographs by up-and-comer Fan Shishan, featured on NeochaEDGE. The series, called “2 of Us” “characterizes the effects of China’s one-child policy on the identity formation of young Chinese people,” focusing mainly on their creation of “alter-egos” to substitute for the siblings they never had. It is well worth a look - the rest of the pictures and an interview with Fan are on NeochaEDGE. more ›

Six million census takers given the gargantuan task of counting the world's most populous country began making their rounds yesterday, but despite the government's efforts to accurately account for the population, two groups in particular are proving troublesome. more ›

It's a story that causes a reaction of "THIS STILL HAPPENS?!": A woman, eight-months pregant is dragged out of her house and forced to abort the foetus for violating China's one-child policy. more ›

New rumors have surfaced that China could be changing its infamous one-child policy. According to an independent demographer, He Yafu, the government will start allowing 2 children per couple in five of its provinces next year but skimpy sources makes this sound like another Chinese parent's pipe dream. more ›

As if unsafe food, natural disasters and the possibility of needing to clean up crude oil in nothing but your skivvies wasn't bad enough, men in China may be facing a more dire threat to their health - the one child policy and its resulting lack of women. more ›

Did you know that the one-child policy has been in effect for almost three decades? With the 30th anniversary approaching, Marketplace has an amazingly comprehensive feature on the vast social changes erected by this sweeping regulation - how it affected parents, the children themselves and all of society. They even have a quiz (test all you know about the one child policy!) and this handy infographic above (made even more handy by little info pop ups when you click on certain years). Worth a look, definitely. more ›

While the one-child policy itself is actually loosening up a bit in China, it seems that couples are choosing to go the single kid route anyway... because of how much it would cost to raise one. more ›

While some news outlets tend to get downright hysterical about China's gender imbalance problem, discrepancies in census figures here suggest a much more optimistic view - looks like families shouldered with female children, instead of aborting them, choose just not to declare them instead. more ›

The population of the [Yicheng] county has grown over the 25-year period of the scheme by 20.7 per cent, which is nearly five percentage points lower than the national average, despite families being allowed two children. The experiment also appears to have redressed the imbalance between male and female births in China: the national average is 118 males to every 100 females, but in Yicheng the ratio was in line with the natural norm at 106 to 100.

• In an Obvious News of the Week alert: the one child policy here in China is breeding a generation of really, really bratty people. [China Daily]
• Have you realized how much we love Peter Hessler yet? No? Then how about we feature yet another interview with the man about his new book "Country Driving." [Worldhum]
• Even with Google China hiring again, looks like things aren't quite peachy yet between the internet giant and this country - a Nexus One smartphone event that would've gone through Beijing has been scrapped. It'll still continue in Hong Kong and Taiwan. [Reuters]

• Xinhua has a fun little photo gallery about a cooking competition that was held to greet the Shanghai World Expo. [Xinhua]


• Speaking of food, do you spend money on food like Kanye spends time in the spotlight? Then step up to the challenge and try to get breakfast, lunch, and dinner all for under 25rmb. [Urbanatomy]


• Here’s an update on the adjustment of the one child policy. Due to revisions in the policy some families will be able to have more than one child. Check it out. [BBC]

China has worked hard to overcome its brain drain problem. In the past 30 years it has fought to improve the prestige of its educational institutions, uphold the promise of economic growth and prosperity, and provide a prosperous and comfortable environment for its educated elite. But in spite of the country's efforts, a good portion of educated Chinese still seek opportunities for a one-way ticket abroad. According to a Gallup survey conducted in November 2008, one in five college-educated Chinese wants to emigrate permanently to a foreign country. more ›

In a surprising about face on the one child policy, authorities in Shanghai have launched a campaign to encourage couples to have a second kid, as long as both of them were only children themselves. The Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission said today that officials would be visiting these specific families, publicizing the policy for allowing a second child and providing consulting services. Why the change? It seems that Shanghai is getting increasingly worried about its growing elderly population and is hoping to prevent future labor shortages. So if you live in Shanghai, were an only child, and married someone else who was an only child, the government is now telling you to "Have Children." Source: Xinhua more ›

We see evidence of China's growing gender gap all around us - every time a new ladies' night crops up at a bar, for instance. But now in China, according to a new study, there are officially 32 million more boys than girls under the age of 20. more ›

We all presumed that the one-child policy was going to lead to an aging population, but there's nothing like actual numbers to prove it: 96,700 babies were born in Shanghai last year, while 107,000 people died, according to an official report. more ›

Dr Zhao Baige (vice-minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission) said yesterday that there was a "very serious process" currently taking place regarding the review of China's infamous one-child policy. Her comments were typically tentative but the admission that the policy is under scrutiny from high level officials has been taken by many China-watchers to mean that a gradual relaxation of the rules could be on the cards. more ›