Fertility rate in Chinese county exempt from one-child policy lower than national average

The Chinese county of Yicheng, which has been exempt for the last 21 years from the country's one-child-per-family policy, has been found to have a lower fertility rate than the national average, the Christian Science Monitor reports (Ford, Christian Science Monitor, 2/27).

China's one-child policy seeks to keep the country's population, now 1.3 billion, at about 1.7 billion by 2050. Ethnic minorities and farmers are the only groups legally exempt from the rule nationwide.

The policy has led to a gender imbalance in the country because of a preference for male children.

According to government statistics, about 117 boys are born for every 100 girls born in China, compared with an average of between 104 to 107 boys per 100 girls in industrialized countries (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/24).

The national government authorized Yicheng, which has about 310,000 residents, to implement a different policy that allows couples to have two children six years apart.

If couples have a second child within six years, they face fines of $160 per each year early, or about 20% of an average couple's income in the area, according to Yan Chunxiang, family planning head in the Yicheng city of Ren Wang.

In addition, men and women are fined if they marry before age 25 and 23, respectively, which is three years later for both sexes than the national policy.

Yicheng has a lower fertility rate, as well as a lower gender ratio of about 106 males to 100 females, according to the Monitor.

Liang Zhongtang, who designed Yicheng's policy, said if the policy "was successful there, it could have been successfully adopted anywhere else in China."

However, Yu Xuejun, director of the National Population and Family Commission's policy and legislation department, said, "We dare not make a conclusion that the success" of Yicheng's policy "can represent other experiences."

Family planning officials in China have said the one-child policy will be maintained until 2010, but "it is clear that they are studying alternatives," the Monitor reports (Christian Science Monitor, 2/27).