Embracing the New Two-Child Policy Era

Challenge and Countermeasures of Early Care and Education in China

Xiumin Hong, Wenting Zhu, Qun Ma

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000569735
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Crafted from a research project that lasted for three years, this book examines the impacts of China's universal two-child policy under the lens of education and focuses specifically on early childhood. This book not only provides number projection, but also the prediction and judgment of the supply and demand of service resources in early childhood education. It attempts to reveal the attitudes and views of families and stakeholders on the universal two-child policy and present the public's policy requirements for the quality of early childhood education. In addition, it analyses possible problems and challenges in current kindergarten layouts and resources allocation. Lastly, it aims to provide references and bases for formulating the plan that adapts to changes of Chinese preschoolers, supply guarantee of future early childhood education and the construction of public service system. Offering rich insights into the current and future status of education in China, this text will be of interest to students, scholars, and researchers of sociology, early childhood education, contemporary China studies, East Asian educational practices and policy.

1 From restriction to encouragement China’s birth revolution and policy choice

DOI: 10.4324/b22821-2

Since the 20th century, it has been a major task for all countries in the world to formulate birth policies and control population growth. China, as the world’s most populous country, with factors such as the huge population, rapid growth, and uneven regional distribution, has been able to restrict its development of economy and society to a sustainable level. The birth policy concerns deeply social stability and coordinated development, and involves the fundamental interests of most people. Through the birth policy, we can control the number of national populations, and adjust the development trend of human resources to improve our national social productivity and comprehensive national strength. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the government has paid close attention to the issue of child-bearing and released a series of child-bearing policies. In the early days, to solve the problems such as insufficient resource supply capacity and ecosystem destruction caused by rapid population growth, the Chinese government formed a family planning policy in line with its national conditions. China’s birth rate has declined steadily, which has promoted the further coordinated development of population, society, and economy. The family planning policy on reducing birth rate exerted a remarkable effect in this stage.

However, with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, and the combined effects of education, social security, income increase, and women’s employment rate, low fertility has become a global trend, and China’s fertility rate has also begun to decline. By the end of the 20th century, China had stepped into the ranks of low-birth countries in the world. However, with the low birth rate, there was a series of new problems, such as population aging and gender imbalance. The government needed to adjust the birth policy quickly to solve emerging social problems. Since 2002, China has successively carried out the selective two-child policy for couples where both husband and wife were from single child families and the selective two-child policy for couples where either husband or wife was from a single child family. There were new changes in the nature of the birth policies, and the birth policy is more encouraging. Eligible families could give birth again, but whether they gave birth or not depended on their own fertility willingness. Because the number of families covered by the policy was limited, and people had held low willingness to have children generally, the implementation of the policy didn’t reach the expected effect, and the social problems could not be fundamentally solved. Therefore, the universal two-child policy came into being at the right time. Now, the universal two-child policy has been put in place. To implement the newly-born population policy successfully, we must have a deep understanding of the difficulties that may be encountered in the implementation of the birth policy so as to take timely precautions and measures. This chapter looks into the history of the birth policies, and seeks the deep causes behind the birth policy reform from the perspective of political, economic, and cultural changes. On this basis, this chapter discusses the problems and challenges that may be faced in the era under the current two-child birth policy, so as to provide feasible suggestions for the steady implementation of the new policy.

Section 1 The tortuous development of China’s birth policy

In the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, many aspects of life were waiting for prosperity, while the population increased sharply. Driven by the international trend of birth control and its own practical needs, China began to carry out the family planning policy in the 1970s. By virtue of the family planning policy, China had controlled the total population successfully, the people’s living standards had been improved greatly, and the coordinated development of population, resources, and environment had been promoted. But at the same time, there were many problems, such as obstacles of traditional birth thought, and lack of population theory research. In addition, the Chinese government also considered the requirements of social and economic development of that time, which created an extremely tortuous route in the development of family planning policy. The formulation of family planning policy has undergone the development process from blind reference to independence, from a strict one-child operation to a progressive two-child one. In October 2015, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee announced that the two-child policy would be fully universalized. The full liberalization of the two-child policy marks not only a milestone of the century in population progress, but also a new starting point for China’s birth policy.

1 Choice from blind reference to independence

In the early period of the People’s Republic of China, China began to vigorously encourage people toward children bearing, and gave subsidies to families with many children, resulting in the rapid growth of the national population in its early days. Soon numbers reached the first population peak. However, the level of social and economic development at that time could not meet the basic survival needs of so many people. The government gradually realized the necessity of population control, and made efforts to vigorously promote the idea of birth control, which incurred a nationwide birth control boom. The idea was accepted swiftly, but the birth control technology was not guaranteed. To support better contraception for women, the Chinese government organized numerous researchers to invest in the research and development of contraceptive techniques. Meanwhile, the emerging population theory research provided a strong basis for the implementation of the birth policy. In 1973, the population research office was established with the approval of the State Council. In the 1980s, China’s birth research efforts burgeoned. Since 1990, China’s birth rate has been declining steadily, promoting the further coordination of population, society, and economy. China gradually stepped into the ranks of low-birth countries in the world. But along with the low fertility rate, there was a series of new problems, such as population aging and sex imbalance. The government needed to adjust the birth policy to solve these social problems to adapt to the changing times. In addition to the action at the national level, a group of scholars spontaneously organized a research team on the consequences of China’s fertility decline. The team was strongly supported by the National Family Planning Commission. It conducted in-depth research on the impact of fertility decline, providing a solid foundation for the formulation of the national birth policy.

2 A transition from strict one-child to gradual two-child policy

After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the government soon realized the urgency and necessity of controlling the population. Through nationwide education activities, it encouraged people to voluntarily control childbearing. However, since ancient times, China has had such traditional fertility concepts as “the more children, the more happiness,” “a mother honored by her many children,” and “offspring inheriting.” These kinds of thoughts deeply affected the Chinese people, and implied that China’s family planning road was doomed to be bumpy. Since the Great Leap Forward Movement in 1958, people from all walks of life had started a new round of debate on the birth control concept, and the family planning policy had not been developed further. In this context, the fertility work in various places could only survive in the cracks. The following three years of the natural disaster caused a sharp drop in China’s population. Around 1959, China’s birth rate fell drastically, the natural growth rate also dropped to its lowest (Figure 1.1), and the work of birth control was once again shelved. The decline of the fertility rate caused by natural and man-made disasters could not represent the trend of China’s population. After only one year, the population had a significant compensatory recovery, and the second population peak followed. Therefore, the implementation of a family planning policy was again put on the agenda. From “one child is enough, two are just enough, and three are too many for a couple” in 1971 to advocate “one couple has only one child,” from a selective two-child policy to a universal one child for one couple, China’s birth policy has been constantly refined in practice from the day it came into being.

Figure 1.1 China’s birth rate, mortality rate, and natural growth rate from 1949 to 2019.

In 1971, the State Council approved and issued the Report on Strengthening Family Planning Work, emphasizing the need for family planning. This marked the beginning of China’s family planning work nationwide. In the formulation of the Fourth Five-year Plan that year, it was proposed that “one child is enough, two are just enough, and three are more for a couple”.

In December 1973, the first national family planning report put forward the late-rare-less childbearing policy. The Late childbearing referred to the marriage of the male over 25 years old and the female over 23 years old, and the female not giving birth until over 24 years old; the rare childbearing meant the birth interval at least four years; the Less childbearing referred to a couple having no more than two children.

Article 53 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, adopted at the first session of the Fifth National People’s Congress in March 1978, stipulated that “the state advocates and promotes family planning.” So, for the first time, family planning was incorporated into China’s Constitution in the form of law. To achieve the goal of containing the total population within 1.2 billion by the end of the 20th century, the Central Government issued the Report on the First Meeting of the Family Planning Leading Group of the State Council in 1978, which clearly put forward that “it is better for a couple to have one child and two at most.” So far, the family planning policy has embarked on the road of steady development and achieved remarkable results. As can be seen from Figure 1.1, since implementing family planning, China’s birth rate has been effectively controlled. In the short eight years from 1971 to 1978, China’s birth rate has dropped significantly.

On September 25, 1980, the CPC Central Committee issued an open letter to all Communist Party members and the members of the Communist Youth League on the issue of controlling China’s population growth, advocating that “a couple should only have one child.”

In 1982, the Instructions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Further Strengthening Family Planning Work proposed that the rural couple who have practical difficulties with an only child were allowed to apply for a second child.

In 1984, the Central Committee approved and forwarded the Report on Family Planning Work from the Party group of the State Family Planning Commission, proposing that:

the rural family planning may be relaxed more under this control. According to the prescribed conditions, the rural couple can have a second child by approval; we must resolutely stop excessively relaxing childbearing; strictly prohibit the birth of two or more children beyond the planned number, that is, less relaxing of birth prescriptions and prohibiting of childbearing numbers outside the state plan.

With the coming of the 21st century, great changes have taken place in China’s population situation. At the approach of a low birth period, the problems of the labor force persistence, population aging, population structural imbalance, and family structure, all were becoming more and more obvious. While people were worried about these problems, they all turned their eyes to the one-child policy which had been implemented for a long time, hoping to solve the problems through the adjustment of the birth policy.

The Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China implemented in September 2002 clearly stipulated that “the State maintains its current policy for reproduction, encouraging late marriage and childbearing, and advocating one child per couple. Where the requirements specified by laws and regulations are met, plans for a second child, if requested, may be made.”

In November 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee deliberated and adopted the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Several Major Issues of Comprehensively Deepening Reform. It proposed that:

while persisting in the basic national policy of family planning, we will initiate a policy that allows married couples to have a second child if one of the parents is a single child (selective two-child policy), and gradually adjust and improve the birth policy to promote balanced population growth in the long run.

In December of the same year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the Opinions on Adjusting and Improving the Birth Policy, which made clear the importance and general idea of a birth policy improvement.

Within less than two years since the selective two-child policy was implemented, the number of couples applying for re-birth had increased by 1.07 million, and the number of births in 2014 increased by nearly 500,000 from the previous year (Qiao, 2015). Under the influence of the selective two child policy, China’s fertility rate had rebounded to a certain extent, and the phenomena of population aging and high sex ratio at birth had also been alleviated to a certain extent. However, only 5.3% of the total families were in line with the two-child policy (Qiao, 2014a). Therefore, the rise of the fertility rate under this selective two-child policy had not reached the expectations of the government, so it became urgent to improve the fertility rate.

On October 29, 2015, the Communique of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed promoting the balanced development of the population, adhering to the basic national policy of family planning, and improving the population development strategy; “fully implementing the policy that one couple can have two children,” and actively carrying out the action to deal with the aging population. In December 2015, the 18th session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People’s Congress deliberated and adopted the Amendments to the Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China. The universal two-child policy and its supporting laws and regulations were revised and officially implemented since January 1, 2016.

Section 2 Analysis of the causes for the birth policy reform

Notwithstanding necessary and important academic debates on total fertility and demographic data quality, the low fertility level has continued for many years and is becoming increasingly severe at present. According to demography principles, if the fertility rate is lower than the replacement level for a long time, it must lead to negative population growth. After a rapid change from a high fertility rate to a low one, the main contradiction is not the rapid growth, but by reducing the population dividend, and the fertility rate now is close to the level of an ultra-low fertility rate. Obviously, with the era of low fertility, the question is if population research or population work has reached a new historical crossroads. Facing a historical mission, we must work hard, like when we addressed the challenge of a high fertility level after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. No matter which historical period they are in, humans are a part of the natural economic social composite system. The survival and development of human beings cannot be separated from the support of the resource and environmental system. The same is true for individual fertility behavior. Both productivity improvement and technological progress have promoted the development of society, economy, and culture all the time. In turn, the changes of society, economy, and culture can exert a great influence on the spe...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Introduction
• 1 From restriction to encouragement China’s birth revolution and policy choice
• 2 Give birth or not in the second-child era Fertility willingness and its influencing factors
• 3 The second-child views from the children’s perspective
• 4 Studies on parents’ conundrums and social support in the second-child’s education
• 5 Studies on the second child from the eyes of teachers and for preparations of kindergartens
• 6 The children in the two-child era Prediction of zero to six-year-old population based on the two-child policy
• 7 Relationship between the two-child population and education Research on demands for early childhood education
• Index