• China: One-child policy is here to stay

    Alexander F. Yuan/AP

    Parents play with their children at a kid's play area in a shopping mall in Beijing on Jan. 10.

    By Le Li and Alastair Jamieson, NBC News

    BEIJING — China has quelled speculation its controversial "one-child" policy is to be scrapped, instead announcing Wednesday that family planning laws to curb the birth rate will remain.

    "The policy should be a long-term one and its primary goal is to keep a low birthrate," Wang Xia, minister in charge of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said.

    The pronouncement comes after months of speculation that the decades-old restriction would be abandoned.

    In October, a Chinese government think tank urged the policy be relaxed to allow two children for every family in the country by 2015.

    "I’m surprised," said Professor Shaun Breslin, associate fellow at U.K. think tank, Chatham House. "Almost everything we had heard in recent months pointed towards a relaxation of one-child."

    The 1979 law prohibits about one-third of China’s 1.3 billion citizens from having a second child. The policy is officially backed up by fines, but campaigners say more than one million forced abortions are carried out every year.

    It has slowed the spectacular growth of the country’s population, preventing an estimated 400 million births over three decades.

    In a related statement on Wednesday, the family planning commission said China’s current low birthrate "is not stable because, with the exception of some developed cities, the fertility level in most of China's regions will rise if the basic state policy of family planning is abolished."

    "Therefore it is necessary to stick to the basic state policy of family planning to stabilize the current low fertility level," it added.

    Breslin said China’s looming demographic crisis — a huge elderly population supported by a relatively tiny younger generation — highlighted social problems such as the need for greater universal healthcare.

    "For most Chinese people the current system works fine if you have a sore throat, but a knee operation could use up all your savings," he said. "That means many are keen to ensure they have a male child in order to ensure there is enough income in the family."

    He added that Wednesday’s announcement did not mean China’s new leadership was eschewing economic or social reforms. "It can take a year or two for any new leadership in China to introduce change," he said.

    Professor Hu Xingdou, of the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the South China Morning Post it would be difficult for the government to abolish the one-child policy overnight.

    "China still needs a family-planning policy due to our vast population and lack of cropland, as well as the relative deficiency of per capita resources,” he said.

    The one-child rule is mainly enforced in urban areas.

    Wang also announced an expansion of rural healthcare provision for pregnant women, and said efforts "should also be made to rectify the imbalance in gender ratio."

    She also said a "complete working system" would be established to "in light of the great numbers of young migrant workers flocking to the cities for jobs."

    Related stories:

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    Growing calls in China to change the one-child policy

    Not Chinese enough in China? Americans' dilemma

     

  • China's state media finally admits to air pollution crisis

    According to the newspaper China Daily, pollution levels have gotten so bad they're creating respiratory problems, prompting residents to seek air purifiers and face masks. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    By Le Li, NBC News

    BEIJING -- If you have been following China’s state-controlled news media you could be forgiven for thinking that clear blue skies -- not oppressive and choking smog -- have been the rule this winter.

    But, finally, they seem to have noticed there is a problem.

    Days after huge smog clouds settled on some of China’s most important cities, The People's Daily ran two articles on the pollution crisis Monday.

    And while one headline declared that “Beautiful China begins to breathe healthily,” the article itself detailed the extent of the problems.

    Experts and environmentalists describe the impact that air pollution has in China, which burns half of the world's coal.

    China Central Television News Channel also covered the issue extensively over the weekend.

    Visibly high levels of air pollution were probably behind the admissions that the smog -- dubbed “fog” by many -- had reached dangerous levels. 

    On Monday, air pollution reached "critical levels" in 67 of China's cities, CCTV reported.

    State-run media has even begun citing statistics from international environmental group Greenpeace that indicate that more than 2,500 people probably died prematurely in Beijing in 2012 because of air pollution. 

    Thousands of deaths estimated
    Greenpeace estimated that in 2012, more than 8,000 people suffered premature death in four major cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian.

    Wang Zhao/AFP-Getty Images

    Two people wearing face masks make their way along a street in Beijing Tuesday.

    Patients in Beijing hospital’s respiratory and pediatric departments increased significantly recently, The Beijing Evening News reported.

    About 30 percent of the more than 9,000 patients treated every day at Beijing Children’s Hospital in the week that ended Sunday were suffering from respiratory problems, the newspaper added. The hospital declined NBC’s interview request.

    Despite the bad news, some environmentalists were celebrating over the weekend.

    “I’m kind of telling myself it’s great that the air pollution reached this level so that the people and the government can finally pay attention,” Li Bo, a board member of non-profit group Friends of Nature, said.

    Beijing's bureau of environmental protection held a rare press conference Monday to explain the severity of the pollution problem, and outline an emergency plan to reduce the levels of harmful air particles.

    The government’s recent attention to the issue comes after decades of prioritizing economic development over environmental conservation, critics say.

    'How come we survive?'
    On the streets, many seemed unconcerned.

    Ma Xin, a 22-year-old street vendor who sells leather coats, said he did not believe Beijing’s air was all that harmful.

    “If Beijing’s air is as bad as you say, how come we survive?” he said, dismissing data about air quality.

    And Gong Jingyan, who has a masters degree from a top-tier Chinese university and works at one of most prestigious banks in China, said while she realized the “air is harmful,” she did not like wearing a mask because “they look ugly.”

    Gong takes a different approach in an attempt to combat air pollution. “I drink water boiled with pear to help my lungs stay clean,” she said.

    Huang Xue, a manager at a public relations firm, also expressed concern, but said there was little that could be done.

    “We never had this concept of protecting ourselves from air,” she said. “The only thing I could think of doing was to stay indoors.”

    “I am not convinced a mask can do a lot,” she added. “Besides, my 18-month-old son will never keep a mask on.”

    However, there is at least one way to cope: Leave town.

    As soon as Beijing resident Gao Lin, a part-time lawyer and a mother of two, saw Saturday’s record-breaking pollution levels, she bought tickets to Sanya, a resort island in the South China Sea.

    “We are leaving tomorrow,” Gao said. “The only way you can escape from bad air is to leave Beijing.”

    NBC News’ Yanzhou Liu contributed to this report

    Related stories:
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    Video: Is this the worst pollution in the world?
    Chinese pollution protesters clash with police

  • Chinese protest outside newspaper gates in rare censorship demo

    Kyodo News via AP

    A protester holds aloft a banner calling for freedom of speech near the headquarters of Southern Weekly newspaper in Guangzhou, Guangdong province on Monday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    GUANGZHOU, China — Scores of supporters of one of China's most liberal newspapers demonstrated outside its headquarters on Monday in a rare protest against censorship, backing an unusual strike by journalists against interference by the provincial propaganda chief. 

    The protest in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, came amid an escalating standoff between the government and the people over press freedom. It is also an early test of Communist Party Chief Xi Jinping's commitment to reform. 

    Negotiations between journalists and officials, whom the protesters held responsible for replacing a New Year's letter to readers that called for a constitutional government with another piece lauding the party's achievements, continued into the night, a senior journalist who asked not to be named told NBC News.

     

    Police allowed the demonstration outside the headquarters of the Southern Group, illustrating that the Guangdong government, led by new appointee and rising political star Hu Chunhua, wants to tread carefully to contain rising public anger over censorship. 


    The protesters, most of them young, laid down small handwritten signs that said "freedom of expression is not a crime" and "Chinese people want freedom."

    China Nobel winner Mo Yan likens censorship to airport security

    Many clutched yellow chrysanthemums, symbolizing mourning the death of press freedom. 

    "The Nanfang (Southern) Media Group is relatively willing to speak the truth in China, so we need to stand up for its courage and support it now," Ao Jiayang, a young NGO worker with bright orange dyed hair, told Reuters. 

    AP

    Security guards stand near protest banners as flowers are laid outside the headquarters of Southern Weekly newspaper in Guangzhou, Guangdong on Monday.

    "We hope that through this we can fight for media freedom in China," Ao said. "Today's turnout reflects that more and more people in China have a civic consciousness."

    The U.S. State Department on Monday weighed in on the popular agitation for freer speech in China.

    "We believe that censorship of the media is incompatible with China’s aspirations to build a modern information-based economy and society," said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, speaking to reporters at the daily department briefing. "It is, of course, interesting that we now have Chinese who are strongly taking up their right for free speech, and we hope the government’s taking notice."

    Could expand
    Chen Ziming, a Beijing-based political analyst who spent years in prison for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy movement, said the protests could get worse if authorities ignore the protesters demands.

    "I am concerned … that the leaders concerned may not have the boldness and the capability to push for more reform," he told NBC News. "If the problem is not handled properly, there is the danger that it will expand and worsen."

    The non-profit watchdog group Reporters without Borders ranked China at 174th out of 179 spots in its 2011-2012 press freedom index. The United States ranked 47th in the annual report, six rungs above Hong Kong, a former British colony which is administered separately from China's mainland.

    "China, which has more journalists, bloggers and cyber-dissidents in prison than any other country, stepped up its censorship and propaganda in 2011 and tightened its control of the Internet, particularly the blogosphere," the group said in a report about the rankings.

    The attention paid to the protest domestically highlights the unique position of Guangdong, China's wealthiest and most liberal province and the birthplace of the country's "reform and opening up" program. In a symbolic move, Xi chose to go to Guangdong on his first trip after being anointed party chief in November.

    Mo Yan's Nobel win celebrated —and panned — in China

    "That this is happening in Guangdong, a trendsetter of China’s reform, is cause for worry," Bao Tong, the highest ranking party official sent to prison for sympathizing with the 1989 pro-democracy movement, told NBC News.

    "If Guangdong regresses, then it will be a setback for the reform pioneered by Xi Zhongxun," he said, referring to the father of new Party chief Xi Jinping who was once Guangdong’s governor.

    Revelations of vast fortune held by Chinese leader's family may hurt Communist Party image

    Talking to NBC News by telephone from his Beijing home where he remains under virtual house arrest, Bao said China’s new leaders recently called for protecting the constitution and rule of law.

    "What the journalists did was to support the call of the new leaders, and the leaders should be happy, not unhappy," he said.

    Several open letters have circulated on the Internet calling for the Guangdong propaganda chief, Tuo Zhen, to step down, blaming him for muzzling the press. 

     

     

     

     Photographs on microblogs showed banners that said "if the toxin of Tuo isn't removed ... Guangdong will be castrated." 

    "Not since the time of reform and opening up and the founding of China has there been someone like Tuo Zhen," Yan Lieshan, a retired veteran editor at the Southern Weekly newspaper, told Reuters by telephone. "He's too arrogant. He has gone overboard and constantly violates regulations." 

    Xiao Shu, a former prominent commentator at the Southern Weekly, said Tuo required that journalists submit topics for him to approve and that he yanked issues that he disliked. 

    Dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei goes 'Gangnam Style'

    "These details illustrate one problem: that he has established within the Guangdong media a system of prior censorship of the press," Xiao said, calling for Tuo's removal. 

    Chinese Internet users already cope with extensive censorship, especially over politically sensitive topics like human rights and elite politics, and popular foreign sites Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube are blocked. 

    China shut the website of a leading pro-reform magazine on Friday, apparently because it ran an article calling for political reform and constitutional government, sensitive topics for the party which brooks no dissent.

    NBC News' Eric Baculinao, Le Li, Kari Huus and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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