Thread: Speaking about Superpowers..... CHINA?!

Originally Posted by nulle

I fully agree with that policy.
They had a very good reason for that - to prevent overpopulation.
This is actually a global problem (except in some parts like ex-USSR) - more countries which have too high population growth (especially in Africa) should follow this Chinese policy.

It might come soon enough. And, yes, of course it makes practical sense, if you look at it from a strictly utilitarian perspective.

But I thought you were 100% for freedom & liberty and the rest of the flagship values of "the West".

And now you are suddenly defending the extremely intrusive and oppressive law of a communist dictatorship - a law that is critisized by Amnesty and hundreds of human rights and Christian organisations....!

Surely you have heard that the Chinese sometime perform forced abortions on some women who are found to be breaking this law? That many parents deliberately abort or abandon female foetuses in order to get a boy rather than a girl, and that the Chinese now have a noticeable imbalance between young men and young women - to the degree that some men in rural areas simply buy a wife from a poorer area, or get someone from another country.

Like I said, I personally don't think it's a nice law, but I understand and respect that China felt it was necessary. It is not my business although as a woman and as a Christian I am totally apalled and disgusted at the idea of forced abortions.

But this is EXACTLY the sort of policy that you would have spit venom on for ages if the USSR had come up with, in fact, you have critisized considerably less intrusive policies of the USSR.
Imagine if your mother, sister, wife or girlfriend was dragged off by the police and your baby aborted, leaving her traumatised for the rest of her life.

And Africa is the LEAST populated continent, there is no need for population control there! The reasons for occational bouts of starvation there are related to the skewed agriculture which is largely aimed towards export, and the fast change in lifestyle which was caused by colonialism, and the problems caused by randomly drawn national borders. If those things could be alleviated, then there would be no starvation at all there.

The most overpopulated continent of the world, is actually Western Europe. http://www.wpclipart.com/geography/e..._square_km.png

BTW, in Russia there is the government program to boost population growth. It's called "материнский капитал". Mothers are given money for each newborn (or adopted) child, starting from the second one. Current amount is 387640 roubles (10000 euro), adjusted for inflation every year. This sum of money can be used in three ways only (fully or partly):
- as a payment for child's higher education in the future;
- as a payment for housing improvement (e.g. mortgage payment);
- or as a pension contribution for mother (note: Russian women currently retire at the age of 55).

I hope these measures will make Russian birth rate go up.