P12 Layout 1

INTERNATIONAL TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2016 China to restrict family size for up to 30 years BEIJING: China will stick to family plan- couples are now not keen on having 20 years, 30 years,” Wang said. “After a rich before it got old, Wang said an age- to prevent population growth spiraling ning restrictions for up to 30 years, a sen- more children. period of time, along with demographic ing population was a global problem out of control, but is now regarded as ior Chinese official said yesterday, reject- China’s population is set to peak at changes, and along with changes in the and “an inevitable trend of a society’s outdated and responsible for shrinking ing concern that limits on the number of about 1.45 billion by 2050 when one in population’s socio-economic develop- development”. China’s main problem the labor pool. It has also led to the children had shrunk the pool of workers every three people is expected to be ment situation, we will adopt a different with its labor force was not the number problem of an aging society, with a needed to support an aging population. more than 60 years old, with a shrinking population policy.” He said it was difficult of workers but “how to improve the qual- smaller number of productive young Last year, the ruling Chinese proportion of working adults to support to give a specific time on how long the ity of workers”, he said. people, a phenomenon usually seen in Communist Party announced it would them. But officials would adhere to fami- restrictions on family size would be Wang said there was a demographic industrialized countries. With the adop- relax its long-standing and controversial ly planning restrictions “for the long maintained, saying it was an issue that “imbalance” in China between poorer tion of the two-child policy, China’s labor “one-child policy”, allowing all couples to term”, Wang Pei’an, vice minister of the had to be dealt with “in line with the regions with higher fertility levels than force could rise by more than 30 million have two children. But critics say the pol- National Health and Family Planning times”. cities, where many people are reluctant by 2050 and its aging population will be icy change comes too late to avert a dan- Commission, told a news conference. Asked about the danger the two-child to have more children. The one-child reduced by 2 percentage points by 2030, gerous population imbalance as many “This long-term adherence is at least policy would prevent China from getting policy was introduced in the late 1970s Wang said. — Reuters Eight reasons china off to a rocky 2016 BEIJING: Barely more than a week into dent whose party opposes Beijing’s goal of 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping is hav- unification between the sides. Beijing’s eco- ing a rough time of it, with challenges nomic inducements have failed to per- ranging from a plummeting stock market suade the Taiwanese public of the benefits to new provocations from obstreperous of political union. If opposition Democratic ally North Korea. While none pose an exis- Progressive Party candidate Tsai Ing-wen tential threat to his administration, the wins Saturday, as she is widely expected to world will be watching to see whether he do, Beijing may feel compelled to embark has the sophisticated touch needed to find on economic and diplomatic pressure that durable solutions and maintain stability. could send relations into reverse. It’s Below is a look at eight key issues Xi is con- unlikely that Beijing would go so far as to tending with: back up its longstanding threat to use force to bring the island under Chinese control. Stock market volatility China twice deployed its “circuit break- Politics er” mechanism to halt trading as stock mar- While Xi faces no such electoral chal- kets nosedived by 10 percent in the first lenges under China’s one-party system, he week of the year. Beijing finally abandoned does face resistance from political rivals the mechanism, and left the perception and the vast bureaucracy. Xi shows no sign that regulators don’t have a clue as they try of abandoning his signature anti-corrup- to stabilize a market that more than dou- tion campaign blamed for creating a sense bled between late 2014 and June, then of fear and paralysis among the rank and dived 30 percent, causing deep pain file. His growing cult of personality exudes among retail investors. an exterior confidence. But with the economy slowing and no sign of political reforms, Currency queasiness he may come under pressure from critics Meanwhile, China’s currency, the yuan, and rivals to show results on jobs, growth, has slid to a five-year low against the dollar, good governance and addressing the PYONGYANG: This undated picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 10, 2016 showsNorth forcing the government to spend tens of yawning income gap. Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivering a speech at the Ministry of the People’s Armed Forces. — AFP millions of dollars from its foreign currency stockpile to defend it. The government last South China Sea week guided the yuan 1.5 percent lower to Since the year began, China has landed Kim’s nuke test proves gift of assist hard-pressed exporters, but the three aircraft on a new island it built in the clumsy move sent shockwaves through South China Sea, drawing protests from world markets, further weighing on Vietnam and the Philippines, which have Chinese share prices. competing territorial claims in the region. sorts for S Korean president China’s robust assertions of its claim to vir- Slowing economy tually the entire South China Sea have long Hiccups in the world’s second-largest drawn complaints and sparked the occa- Test stopping Park’s slide in popularity economy are expected to continue in 2016, sional maritime confrontations in the area with growth falling to a six-year low of 6.9 through which $5 trillion in global trade SEOUL: North Korea’s nuclear test has provoked partially banned South Koreans from a jointly poses. The most tangible effect of the South’s percent in the July-September quarter and passes each year. The test flights landed on global outrage, a push for sanctions, even fear. run factory park in the North and allowed huge retaliation so far is that it has helped Park forecast by the International Monetary one of seven new islands Beijing has built But Kim Jong Un’s decision to conduct it has green speakers along the border to begin crank- change the conversation back home. Fund to decline further to 6.3 percent this by piling sand atop reefs and atolls. The US also handed a gift of sorts to his rival in the ing out South Korean K-pop songs and criticism Though the president has a strong base of year. That bodes ill for the economy’s ability is adamant that the new features don’t South. In an instant, Wednesday’s explosion of the North’s leadership. conservative supporters, thousands of oppo- to generate enough new jobs for the more deserve the legal status of actual islands, shifted the focus on the presidency of Park She could have done more to punish the nents took to the streets on several occasions than 7.5 million students due to graduate and the US Navy has flown and sailed close Geun-hye, who has faced several mass protests North, by slapping them with bilateral punitive before the nuclear test to criticize her policies from college this year, while also building to them, drawing a furious response from condemning her leadership in recent weeks. measures and ending the South’s participation and what they saw as her attacks on personal momentum for a transition from an invest- Beijing. Xi now has to defend China’s Park’s swift, hard-line response, including a in the factory park, which is a rare cash cow for and political freedoms. ment-based economy to one focused on actions while avoiding damage to its for- return of cross-border propaganda broadcasts the impoverished, widely shunned North. The There’s resistance to a new requirement for services. eign relations. that Pyongyang loathes, has, for the time being, park, however, is also the last major inter- schools to use only state-issued history text- overshadowed criticism over her leadership Korean project from an earlier era of rapproche- books starting in 2017, which critics call an North Korea Hong Kong style, her alleged abuse of workers’ rights and ment. She’s attempting to walk a delicate line: attempt to whitewash past dictatorships - Despite persistent calls for restraint, China faces continuing opposition from her purported submission to Tokyo in a deal To show South Korea’s intense displeasure with- including that of Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, China’s traditional ally North Korea staged pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong, the meant to end a dispute over Japan’s wartime out killing the possibility of drawing the North who ruled South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s. what it claims was a hydrogen bomb test former British colony that reverted to sexual enslavement of Korean women. into future diplomacy that could settle the The country’s military dictatorship ended only blast on Jan. 6 that sent actual tremors Chinese rule in 1997 while retaining its own Park has temporarily stopped a slide in popu- neighbors’ many differences. in the late 1980s and the divide between left across the border into northeastern China legal and economic systems.

Load more