Simon Denyer/The Washington Post – Zhang Yufei, 42, left, his son Zhang Enlang, 13 months, his mother-in-law Li Zhihong and his wife Ma Yanyan, 30, pose for a photograph in their family home in Beijing, China on Nov. 20, 2013. After a relaxation in China’s one-child policy, Zhang and his wife want a second child, but only after Beijing’s heavily polluted air improves.
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In BEIJING — When 36-year-old Lois heard the news that China was relaxing its one-child policy, she was delighted and relieved. The Beijing mother had just discovered she was five weeks pregnant with her second child, a baby who would be illegal under existing law, and the alternatives were bleak. She had ruled out an abortion but faced the prospect of keeping the infant in hiding and not being able to send the child to school. If caught, she could face a fine of more than $50,000.
“When the policy change came out, my friends said it had happened just for me, just like a story you read in a novel,” Lois said in an interview, while her 6-year-daughter skipped and played with friends under an imposing statue of Mao Zedong in a park in Beijing.
But on Wednesday, five days after the announcement, the reality of China’s family-planning policy hit home. Lois read a newspaper article in which officials said that the law would not take effect immediately and that babies born before a yet-to-be-determined date would be illegal.
“If my baby is born just one day early, it is illegitimate,” she said. “It is ridiculous and unbelievable. I feel the unfairness of it, I feel desperation, I feel anger. I feel humiliated.”
The relaxation of the controversial one-child policy, which dates to 1980, is part of a sweeping package of economic and social reforms announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Unveiled amid mounting concern about an aging population and a potential labor shortage, the new family-planning policy states that if either member of a couple is an only child, they may have two children. In the past, urban couples could have a second child if both of them were only children; rural couples could have a second if their first child was a girl.
The change will affect about 15 million to 20 million couples and push up the birthrate by about 1 million births a year, officials and experts say. But China’s overall population level will not be affected much and will still peak below 1.5 billion in about 20 years, from about 1.3 billion now, officials said.
Lois asked to be identified by her English name rather than her Chinese name, to avoid drawing the attention of authorities. The magazine writer is an only child, but her husband, a software engineer, is not. That means they could have only one child under existing rules.
Her daughter paused from her play to say how excited she was about getting a younger brother or sister. Lois said the girl was a very active participant in a discussion about baby names a few days ago, while her young friends had been thrilled to feel the mother’s tummy at the park Tuesday. Now, all the worries have come flooding back.
“My husband is very worried that the neighborhood committee would report us,” Lois said.
A maze of rigid rules
Penalties for parents who break the one-child laws are severe.
Yang Zhizhu, a former law professor at the China Youth University for Political Sciences, lost his job in 2010 and was fined $40,000 when his wife had a second daughter. Last year, he was allowed back but only to do research for a paltry salary of less than $1,000 a month. He is not allowed to lecture.
