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One-child families beget one-child families
Wed, Nov 07, 2007 The Straits Times
BEIJING - MORE than half of Beijing's young adults born into one-child families want only one child of their own, or even none at all, even though national policy allows them two, state media reported. China's family planning policy, introduced in the late 1970s, allows urban dwellers to have only one child to control the nation's fast-growing population, which is now 1.3 billion. A concession is that couples who were single children themselves can have a second child.

Just 24 per cent said they would like to have two children, while the rest gave a variety of responses.

The survey was carried out on 1,100 people aged 20-34 who were born into one-child families.

The poll also found that people with higher educational qualifications have a stronger desire for more children because they are financially more secure.

Some cities have relaxed the one-child law to allow people to have more children due to negative population growth, but ruthless enforcement of the policy in other areas - especially in the countryside - has triggered opposition.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE