China's One-Child Policy Tips Scales

25 Million Men Could Remain Single

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ROME, JULY 29, 2005 (Zenit.org).- China might soon become the most populous country of bachelors, reported a missionary of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions.

Father Giancarlo Politi, speaking on Vatican Radio, said that the one-child policy, instituted to “maintain control over the population, so that it wouldn’t grow enormously,” favors the birth of boys among Chinese families.

“There is still a need to seek by all means to have at least a male child,” said the priest.

As a result of the policy, instituted in 1979, an estimated 25 million young men in China might remain single for life.

“The family without heirs leaves the couple in a relationship of virtual sterility, also from the human and not just the procreative point of view,” he said.

This policy is “truly inhuman,” stated the missionary, in that it stipulates “compulsory abortion for those without permission to have a second child,” said Father Politi.

Off the books

The policy has also “given origin to a practice of having children outside the law.”

Many children are not registered in China. “It will not be possible to indicate the number because it will be speculation,” said the priest.

Although families with money might be able to obtain the registration, “it is true that all those born without permission do not exist” legally, and are the target of blackmail “at many levels,” he said.

He said the law was instituted to redress the effects of an earlier policy based on the motto: “‘The more we are the better,’ as this way we can face the enemy and win.”

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