If both spouses in a couple are the product of a one-child family, i.e. born after 1977 or 1978 they can have two children so long as they have them 4 years apart (minumum time).
This is what my wife (Chinese) translated from the law book governing the family policy - China-wide.
Even though we live in Australia for now we've got our own one-child policy imposed on ourselves - one's enough!!
By the way, I've always wondered, why is it that China has so many people?
10
zwei
11
zwei
I is my understanding, and again from the law book, that in the case of divorce, upon remarrying a different person, the couple can produce a child
12
anonymous
7 million does seem insignificant in a country of 1.3 billion. The annual population growth rate of the US is 0.9%, 50% more than China's 0.6%.
13
tonesie
I have never quite understood this one child policy .My girl friend has 2 older brothers and when I queried how this was possible she told me I was wrong and she had lots of friends with brothers and sisters.
I am however assured that there is some ethnic division and it is more strictly enforced if you come from the Han majority and live in a big city.
It is certainly not as cut and dried as the western media reports it.
14
zhet
Not cut and dried at all.
What is the saying, "The mountains are high and the emperor is far away"? The further a family is from the east coast the laxer is the policy, generally speaking.
15
drumbrake
And also what is true is the number of unreported births, meaning the actual annual population increase is probably more than 0.6%.
16
anonymous
True, drumbrake.
ZHET, I've also heard, "sometimes you have to use the pass instead of the road" or something like that to get things done.
I think it used to be that if you had more than one child, your house could get bulldozed. Now it's just a large fine and the additional children don't get the same educational opportunities. But as with everything else in China these days, money talks.
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