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By Gudrun Schultz

  IRVINE, California, April 23, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Chinese government’s one-child policy has effectively reduced the country’s birth rate to well below replacement levels, triggering an impending demographic crisis, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have found.

  A team of sociologists from the United States and China collaborated on the study, published in the current issue of the journal Population and Development Review, which is the first to use local data on fertility policy and population growth collected from 420 Chinese prefectures.

  In what is being called the first systematic examination of the policy and effects of China’s population control program, the study found that the one-child policy has been “remarkably effective” in forcing the birth rate down close to the government-approved level of 1.47 children per couple, including permitted exemptions across the country.

  Lead researcher Wang Feng, a sociologist professor at UC Urvine, said the actual birth rate of 1.5 children per couple shows an “extraordinary” convergence between policy and reality, “even for China,” in an University press release.

“With the birth rate below replacement level, the country faces serious negative consequences in the long run if it fails to phase out the policy,” Wang warned. He pointed out that the success of the program is causing a disproportionate number of males to females, an increasingly senior population, and a shrinking workforce.

“No country has yet to reverse the trend of below-replacement birth rates, so China’s next step regarding its one-child policy will be an important one,” Wang said.
 
  Despite some government exemptions, the study found that 63 percent of Chinese couples are prevented from having more than one child. As well, researchers found that the exemptions permitted to couples in certain rural areas of the country are limited to a small proportion of the population and governed by highly complicated restrictions.

“We want to clear up confusion about the one-child policy,” said Wang..“Despite what some say, the policy has not been ‘relaxed’ over the years.”

“The system of exemptions resembles the American tax code in its complexity,” Wang said. “But this does not change the fact that the one-child policy applies without exception to a significant majority of Chinese couples.”

  Despite the increasing social problems caused by an enforced low birth-rate, the Chinese government does not appear to be considering a change in policy, Wang stated.

  See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

  Slavery, Prostitution Effect of China’s One-Child Policy
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/mar/04030908.html

  China’s One-Child Policy to Cripple Chinese Economy
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/feb/04021806.html

  China Labels Stanford Researcher “International spy” For Exposing Forced Abortion Policy
  https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/aug/050826a.html

  For many more stories on the issue enter the phrase “China one child” into the LifeSiteNews search at https://www.lifesitenews.com/