CHINA: OPPOSITION GROWS TO GOVERNMENT'S ONE-CHILD POLICY.

By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Jul. 6, 2009 (IPS/GIN) - When China's population control was imposed in 1980, it was meant to be a temporary measure which the government promised to phase out in three decades. It was intended to halt the baby boom of the 1950s and 1960s.

But as China is preparing to mark the 30th anniversary of its "one-child" policy next year, indications are that the policy would remain in place despite mounting opposition from the general public and experts who question its success.

During the annual session of the National Parliament in March, a senior legislator tabled a proposal for further tightening of the family planning rules, arguing that many of China's current problems stemmed from lapses in implementing the policy.

The world's most populous country is plagued by the depletion of resources amid an oversupply of labour, all of which threaten a serious unemployment crisis, he alleged.

"Without solving China's population problem, we will never be able to measure our country power against that of European countries and the United States," Cheng Enfu, dean of the Marxist Studies Institute with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said during the plenary discussions of the parliament. "Our gross domestic product and our living standards will always lag behind those countries".

Cheng called for a halt to the relaxation of the "one child" policy, predicting that China will not be able to progress if it wavers on population control.