China To Continue Killing Babies.

Ok, not really... but the Communist state's National Population and Family Planning Commission has decided to maintain its Jacky-Chan-tight grip on the reproductive organs of its massive population.

Now, government control of anyone's organs doesn't sit too well with me, but based on China's rate of resource depletion, Brobdingnagian pollution problem, and rapid industrialization, keeping reproduction in check is advantageous for pretty much everyone. Except of course for the baby girls who will never be born... but we're not gonna get into that.

Here is the AP story from today's paper:

Beijing to Keep One-Child Policy,
Acknowledges Gender Imbalance

ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 24, 2007

BEIJING -- China says it won't loosen its so-called one-child policy, despite a government official's acknowledgment yesterday that the policy was partly to blame for a worsening gender-imbalance problem.

A baby-boom generation born in the early 1980s has reached marriage and childbearing age, risking another massive population surge in China if restrictions are dropped, said Zhang Weiqing, minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

Since the late 1970s, China has limited urban couples to one child and rural families to two children to control the population and conserve natural resources.

Mr. Zhang acknowledged that the policy has accelerated a gender imbalance among newborns, with some 118 boys born for every 100 girls in 2005. There are fears the imbalance could lead to many men being unable to find mates.

The policy and easy availability of sonogram technology to determine fetal gender have led many families to abort baby girls. Mr. Zhang declined to give statistics for the annual number of abortions performed in China. He called the gender imbalance "a very serious challenge for China."

Mr. Zhang said the government has committed to solving the imbalance within 10 to 15 years with education campaigns, punishments for sex-selective abortions, and rewards for parents who have girls.

Copyright © 2007 Associated Press

Contrast that with the declining birth rates in 'enlightened' Europe that literally threaten the future of its entire population by not even replacing those who die. Kinda makes you think. I'm not entirely sure of what, but it does make you think.