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Sex imbalance won't alter one-child policy in China

China says it will not loosen its so-called one-child policy, despite a top family planning official's acknowledgment yesterday that the policy was partly to blame for creating the problem of too many boy babies and not enough girls.

A baby-boom generation born in the early 1980's has reached marriage and childbearing age, putting China at risk of another massive population boom if the restrictions are dropped, said Zhang Weiqing (張維慶), minister of China's National Population and Family Planning Commission.

Since the late 1970s, China has limited urban couples to one child and rural families to two children in order to control the population and conserve natural resources.

Beijing contends that the policy has helped prevent 400 million births and has aided rapid economic development.

Zhang said many migrant workers have been found to be evading the birth restrictions by having two or more children despite living in cities where couples are only allowed to have one.

Both factors have convinced the government not to alter the basic policy, which the central government had reviewed and renewed without change last month, he said.

However, he acknowledged that the policy has accelerated a growing sex imbalance among newborns, with some 118 boys born for every 100 girls in 2005.
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