Front Royal, VA, 07/27/09 – Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute and a renowned China expert, says that Shanghai’s purported “relaxation” of the one-child policy is hardly that, and represents little for most of the citizens of China.
“Shanghai has long had very low birthrates,” says Mosher, who goes on to explain that 15 years ago, the head of Shanghai’s one-child policy was actually having trouble getting people under her jurisdiction to accept a quota for one child, much less for two.
“This official couldn’t fill her quotas for births," he says. “People didn’t want more than one child. Some of the time, they didn’t even want one.”
“This explains Shanghai’s recent move to a `two-child policy’,” says Mosher. “By letting the minority who still want two children to act on their preferences, this will help offset the birth dearth caused by the majority who want only one—or none. The result will still be a de facto one-child policy.”
“As for the rest of the country of China,” Mosher says, “our investigations show that the one-child policy is still being pursued with a vengeance, a vengeance that includes forced abortions.”
