Beijing “will not change family planning policy” 
 
Zhang Weiqing, director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, defended the “one-child policy”, saying: “The problem is not the law; this has led to the prevention of 400 million births”. 
 
 
BEIJING, April 20, 2006  (www.asianews.it/) – The Chinese government “will only make minor changes” to its family planning policy that “must remain stable for the next five years”, said the director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission. Zhang Weiqing was defending the notorious “one-child policy” in an interview with the Beijing-based Study Times.

"The current family planning policy must be kept basically stable, a fundamental measure to cope with China’s demographic explosion,” he said, adding: “China's rising gender imbalance is nothing to do with this policy; it is the fruit of an entrenched concept that boys are better than girls.”

Chinese demography experts say there are 117 males for every 100 females born in China: a disproportion disconcertingly far from the global average of 104 males per 100 females. “Our family planning policy is not the reason for this situation, because the real problem is pre-natal ultrasounds that give parents the chance to know the sex of their soon-to-be-born baby.”

He continued: “Beijing’s priority is to improve the quality of life of the population and to do this, it is necessary to control births: since the early 70s [when the birth control policy was launched], we have been able to prevent around 400 million births. The main challenge lies in changing the perception that boys are better than girls.”