The Chinese government plans to implement new regulations to ban sex-selective abortion in an effort to counter the widening gender imbalance, Wang Yongqing, deputy head of the Office of Legislative Affairs of the State Council, recently said, Xinhua/People's Daily reports. Sex selection is currently banned in the country under the Population and Family Planning Law ,and the Law on Maternal and Infant Health, but there are no provisions on the applicable punishment if the laws are violated (Xinhua/People's Daily, 8/25).

China's one-child-per-family policy seeks to keep the country's population, now 1.3 billion, at about 1.7 billion by 2050. According to the "Strategic Research Report on National Population Development," released by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, the country's birth rate has decreased from 5.8 children per woman in the 1970s -- when the one-child policy was implemented -- to 1.8 children per woman currently. The one-child policy has led to a gender imbalance in the country because of a preference for male children. According to government statistics, about 117 boys are born for every 100 girls born in China, compared with an average of between 104 to 107 boys per 100 girls in industrialized countries (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/16).

According to Xinhua News Agency, the new regulations will define the responsibilities of regional governments and related government departments in curbing the gender imbalance (Reuters India, 8/25). "There are still risks of fertility rate rebound in China," Wang said, adding that "gaps exist between people's attitudes toward childbearing and China's existing laws on family planning."

Wang said that "several laws and regulations on family planning have been listed on State Council's legislative plan for 2007, including the regulation to ban sex-selective abortion." He added that the State Council is studying the regulation and will release it soon (Xinhua/People's Daily, 8/25).

Related Editorial
The proposal to implement new regulations to ban sex-selective abortions "raises sensitive issues," and "[h]opefully ... it is another sign that the days of the one-child policy, which is at the root of them, are numbered," a South China Morning Post editorial says. The one-child policy has "served a purpose in terms of population control," but "even this justification for it is not as strong as in the past," the editorial says. There are now economic reasons for reconsidering the one-child policy, such as the changing demographics in China and a "need for young people who can support" the economy, according to the editorial.

The policy is "flawed on social and human rights" grounds, "iniquitous in its application," and it has "grossly exacerbated the consequences of the cultural preference" of boys over girls, according to the Morning Post. The Chinese government has "indicated that it will maintain current family planning policies to meet a population target of 1.36 billion by 2010," the editorial says, concluding, "By then, hopefully, it will recognize that the one-child policy no longer makes social or economic sense" (South China Morning Post, 8/26).