youngest legal age to have children in china?

[giraffe]

Meanwhile in the US, various governments are also attempting to coerce women to follow the mandated approach to family planning, although with a reverse objective. For example, Arizona is currently looking at legislation that would allow businesses to fire employees for using their health insurance to buy contraceptives but only (and here's the punch line) if the contraceptives are being used to prevent conception and not other medical reasons.

Two sides of the same coin, really.

[civic94]

Oh yea, yialanliu, At my small town college, the chinese kids used facebook becuase it is censored in china, and they think it is really, really cool to meet and have white friends, and add them to their facebook. The guys thought its cool to have a white girlfriend, and the girls think its cool to have a white boyfriend.

While I, on the other hand, thought its really cool to have chinese friends from the mainland to learn more about where my parents came from (I cant ask them about laws, since they left 30 years ago, what they know are probably outdated). They asked me why its so cool to have a chinese girlfriend and why I thought hangoung out with chinese people is cool. I just said.. cause there are not many of us around here man, I see American people all the time, and I cant relate to them as I can relate to a ABC or a Chinese person.

[animal world]

[to animal world, no im not a Mormon missionary, I just find it amazing how in china, a government can control family planning. I knew about the 1 child policy, but i didnt know about the other social issues that it has caused.]

I asked because your very first post here is about the legal age to have children. Although harsh, Chinese Government control over family planning and the one-child policy are understandable. It didn't have much of a choice and i hate to envision the world as it would be now if this policy had never come into being.

Yes, there is much more freedom in the US. There is also the freedom for stupidity. Not only that but often others (taxpayers) will end up paying for someone's stupidity. We live in a complicated, global world. Teenagers should worry about their education and acquire skills to compete in the global market place. They are too young for parenting. They drop out of school and live on welfare--this may be temporary or for a long time.

[civic94]

animal world-

yes in america taxpayers do pay for other peoples mistakes, I told my mainland friends that I know over 10 people in my high school years that got knocked up before graduation, and they dont believe me, they thought the kids parents would spank them or force them to go to school and study hard, like in china. then I told them about spanking and the fact that the parents can go to jail for that..

does anyone know how to quote someone's post? I joined like 2 days ago..

[civic94]

giraffe-

you know If I think about it, maybe if america had a child policy law, it might help. limit people to 2 kids, more if the parents can support it. I see cases where some people have 10 kids, with different dads, while getting cash assistance, food stamps, housing, etc. the more kids they have, the more money they get, its really draining the system that is really there to help the needy. Its not like people in america cared about passing on their last names that they got to have a boy, or they need more children to take care of their farm, the rural country people can just sell their land, or hire people to work in their land to sell their crops.

[gato]

You don't happen to live in Texas, do you?

[civic94]

no, I dont live in TX. Is there some kind of specialty there that I might fit the "mindset" there?

[animal world]

yes in america taxpayers do pay for other peoples mistakes, I told my mainland friends that I know over 10 people in my high school years that got knocked up before graduation, and they dont believe me, they thought the kids parents would spank them or force them to go to school and study hard, like in china. then I told them about spanking and the fact that the parents can go to jail for that..

I am against teenage pregnancy and i am also against spanking. I don't believe at all that not being allowed to spank one's kids has anything to do with teenage pregnancies. I attribute them to teenagers being bombarded constantly by sexy imagery on television and movies and parents who don't communicate well with their children and don't instill good values into them.

[jbradfor]

I attribute them to teenagers being bombarded constantly by sexy imagery on television and movies and parents who don't communicate well with their children and don't instill good values into them.

And I'll add lack of easy access to contraceptives and lack of unbiased information about sexuality. ["Just say no" is not unbiased.] [i realized that's the anti-drug message, but the "abstinence-only" is really the same thing.]

not being allowed to spank one's kids

I am aware of no law in the USA forbidding spanking. Abuse (including extreme spanking) is illegal, not spabking.

[WestTexas]

Has anyone gotten a clear answer from Chinese people as to why the government has these laws about when they can get married? To me not being able to get married before 22 is, well, strange. I've asked a few Chinese people what the purpose of this law is and I can't get a straight answer. The law banning pornography is similar - no one knows what the purpose is, or at least they won't tell a foreigner. The pornography law is one of those Chinese laws which seems to lack any and all enforcement, and I can't really see the purpose.

no, I dont live in TX. Is there some kind of specialty there that I might fit the "mindset" there?

I can only interpret this reference to Texas as meaning, "Texas is the greatest place ever. Thank you for asking me if I might be from there."

[gato]

The minimum age requirement is probably designed to delay the age at which women have kids to limit population growth.

[WestTexas]

The minimum age requirement is probably designed to delay the age at which women have kids to limit population growth.

I don't think this makes sense. Would there really be that many more babies coming out if they moved the marriage age to 18?

[edelweis]

Regarding the original question, my understanding (but I have no source to quote) is that in China women need to be married to legally have a child (the married couple also needs to comply with the 1 child policy). So the minimum age would be the same as marriage... (or marriage + 9 months or something.)

Did I read somewhere (on this board?) that unmarried women can apply for a permit to have a child? can't remember.

What I do remember reading somewhere is that previously a female student who got pregnant was kicked off the university, but later they got more lenient and started allowing the student to stay, provided she got an abortion. (uh, I think this is badly worded but my mind is too fuzzy to find the proper way to word it. I'm not referring to a specific case of pregnant student, but to a policy).

[gato]

One would have to look at whether the minimum age requirement was done before the one-child policy. With the one-child policy strictly enforced, it shouldn't make too much difference if women get married at 18 or 20. But without it, it could mean an extra child for many women. The age requirement is much easier for the government to enforce than the one-child policy itself.

[langxia]

Regarding the original question, my understanding (but I have no source to quote) is that in China women need to be married to legally have a child

Indeed they need to be married to have a child, or at least to cover the legal basis such as hukou etc. So most if not all women will try to only get pregnant if they are married or if they are sure the father will marry her.

[yonglin]

gato is correct in that the high (relative to most other countries) age required for marriage is supposed to limit population growth. Even if everyone only has exactly one (or two, or three...) children, having them later in life will reduce the total population alive at any one point (unless there is some severe malthusian stuff going on...!). Consider, for example, the difference in number of kids born in a century if each woman has a kid at 18 vs. at 36. You may also want to keep in mind that the current age is actually quite low in the context of China's modern history -- if my memory does not fail me it used to be more like mid-to-late 20s in the 1970s.

I don't think there is a consensus in the literature about whether the net effect of the one-child policy has been positive or negative, so I find it quite surprising that so many people here (and in general) seem to endorse it as a "necessary evil". First, most of the reduction in the Chinese birth rate took place before the implementation of the one-child policy (under laxer policies in the early-to-mid 1970s). Second, countries culturally and economically similar to China that didn't have the one-child policy (e.g., Vietnam) have seen overall very similar demographic trends as China. Finally, China now has to deal with population aging at the same time as the more developed parts of Asia at the same time as being much poorer.

I don't think sexy imagery on television has any effect on teenage pregnancy. For example, Canadians watch mainly American TV shows and yet have much lower rate of teenage pregnancy. Also, we have *much* more sex and nudity on TV in Europe but way lower rates of teenage pregnancy. The real reason is probably a very complex mix of religion, values, access to health care, higher education and social services.

[Guest realmayo]

Has anyone gotten a clear answer from Chinese people as to why the government has these laws about when they can get married?

I haven't. But I'd always assumed it's a hangover from the 50s and 60s when the government/party felt it had a right to be involved in almost all aspects of your life, where you worked, lived, ate, who you married. So a rule on when you married seems pretty normal.

[civic94]

To the people that want to know why a man can get married at 22, and Women at 20, my mainland friend told me its because by the time it reaches 3 generations, they save 1 generation. for example, If people can get married at 18, by 3 generations, its 54 years - grandparents age 54, parents age 36, and grandchild can have children since they are 18, so it its like the 4th generation can pop up while the original grandparents are 54.

If the age is raise to 22 for men, then the grandparents will be at least 66 (22 x3) so at age 66, the parents are 44, children are 22 so they can have another generation. so the difference is 12 years. This is to help with population over growth, on top of the 1 child policy. Both of my parents side have many kids (5+) and my grandparents had them young, from age 16 and on. this is during the Mao years and boy oh boy, it really overpopulated china, 5 kids having 5 children = 25 grandchildren, all from 4 people (2 sets of grandparents)

It seems like my original question is still not answered.. whats the youngest age for a woman to have children in china so the government wont fine the family or abort the fetus? I'm not asking whats the age of consent. it seems weird that once 18, a woman is an adult, but she cant get married until 20, and she is still not breaking the law on having too many kids, since its the first one.

[jbradfor]

Actually, it was answered in post #33, if edelweis is correct.

[civic94]

ohh thanks jbradfor, I completely missed it. see how this simple issue has so many controversy and other subjects being asked? thats what I happens when I talk to my mainland friends, since I look like them, but dont speak the national language, dont wear the same clothing, and on top of that, I cant even write my chinese name or speak my chinese name in mandarin (I can speak it in cantonese). so yes, they really thought I was a quack, thats why I want to travel to china and learn more.