Behind Shanghai's 'two-child policy'

By Chris Hogg
BBC News, Shanghai

Auntie Gu is part social worker, part community health officer

China's one-child policy means the state takes a close interest in your plans for reproduction.

Recently, officials in Shanghai announced that they wanted couples who met strict criteria to have a second child.

It appeared to some to be a challenge to the one-child policy. But was it?

Gu Mei Qin is a community officer who works in a suburb of Shanghai. She is in her early 50s but looks a lot younger. She has a trendy haircut and is dressed smartly but casually.

It's pouring with rain outside as she trudges up the stairs to an apartment. As she makes her way up she likes people to call her Auntie Gu. "They call me Auntie because I'm like a neighbour to them," she says.

If anyone in the area gets married Gu Mei Qin visits them. "I ask 'Are you pregnant?'," she explains. "I tell them, if you are married, you'll get pregnant one day and then you can come to me for help and information."

Mrs Gu is part social worker, part health visitor.

But she also has another important role. China imposes heavy fines on those who have more children then they are entitled to, so she is also the eyes and ears of the city government, making sure rules are not broken.

Exceptions

That does not mean, though, that she always says no.

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Today she's visiting Li Ting, a young mother who's pregnant with her second child.

Neither Mrs Li nor her husband have brothers and sisters so Auntie Gu has advised them they are allowed to have another baby.

Obviously Mrs Li, a young office worker, is pleased about this. "For us, children are the source of happiness," she says.

"We feel that having children gives us a goal in life, and at work. We live in this flat now, but when we have two children we'll need a bigger flat, so we'll work harder."

Recently the Shanghai government decided to publicise the work Auntie Gu and others do, advising couples it's okay to have a second child under certain circumstances.

Some reports suggested this was a challenge to the one-child policy but the city's Family Planning Committee spokesman, Zhang Meixin, denies that.

He says they have a problem - not enough of the city's residents are having children - and they're trying to address this without breaking the rules set out in the policy.

Grey fears

The fertility rate in Shanghai is quite low, much lower than the national average.

"The government wants to keep the national fertility rate low," he says, "so even if here in Shanghai we want to increase our fertility rate, we can't set a target to increase it. All we can do is hope that people who are allowed to will have more children."

It's a difficult line he and his colleagues have to walk.

The Shanghai officials cannot be seen to be opposing a long-established family planning policy drawn up in Beijing, but Shanghai's registered population is getting older.

Two children are better than one for Mrs Li and her first child

Although there are plenty of younger migrant workers flooding into the city looking for work, there are fears that in years to come there won't be enough young Shanghai residents to care for the older generation of city dwellers.

Mrs Gu says there are 12 families on her estate who are allowed to have more than one child. It's her job to make them aware of this, even though it's not always easy.

"Some people don't like us visiting them," she admits. "They refuse to let us in. I tell them: 'Don't avoid us, We are here to serve you.' We visit them again and again. Even if they say they don't need us to visit them, we keep visiting. Gradually their attitude changes."

Here in Shanghai officials are appealing to the sense of collective responsibility they believe has been developed over the last three decades.

For years most of the city's residents have followed the rules and kept their families small. Now the officials hope those who fit the criteria will answer the call to make their families a little bigger.