The recent story about a Chinese court ordering a woman to visit her elderly mother every two months underlines a deepening crisis that threatens to undermine the social fabric of the country.
Its root cause can be traced back to the introduction of the draconian One Child Policy in the late 1970s.
As the West discovered years ago, education, rising prosperity and changing social mores can be very effective restrictions on high birth rates, but this was simply not understood by the 1970s Chinese leadership well versed in the authoritarian traditions of Mao Zedong. In its view, birth rates could only be controlled by strict rules coupled by harsh penalties for non-compliance.
The results were laws stating that Chinese couples could have just one child. There were plenty of exemptions and the law was often flouted in the more remote areas of the country, but for around 40 per cent of the population having just one child became an enforced norm.
The results are now becoming apparent. Traditionally, the care of old people in China has been a responsibility of the next generation down. That was fine when there were plenty of children to share the task, but young marrieds in China today are faced with having to look after two sets of parents, and as people live longer, grandparents are also coming into the equation.
As one young executive in Shanghai put it: “I cherish my parents, and I respect my wife’s parents, but we have our own lives and sometimes we are just too busy making a living to visit them often.”
The One Child Policy has also skewed China’s sex ratios as couples decided that a boy was more likely to be able to support them in old age. The latest census figures suggest nearly six boys are being born for every five girls
With very few exceptions little has been done to prepare for the inevitable results of the policy. China’s social security system is rudimentary. Care homes for older people do exist, but they are more akin to the workhouses of 19th century Britain. For older people in China who are not able to save enough for private care, retirement is a bleak prospect.
Faced with this problem China’s authorities have reverted to type. The Elderly Rights Law states that adult children must look after the “spiritual needs” of their parents and makes it an offence to neglect or snub them.
Unsurprisingly, the most enthusiastic supporters of the legislation are the lawyers who will deal with its breaches.
“It’s difficult to put into practice, but not impossible,” insists Beijing lawyer Zhan Yan Feng in an interview with the BBC.
“If no amicable settlement is reached, courts will force a person to visit parents certain times every month. If this person disobeys court rulings, he or she could be fined or jailed.”
Quite what this would do to ease the plight of elderly parents is difficult to ascertain.
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