Srinivas
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Worst-laid plans led China astray
Paging Justin Trudeau: Even China doesn't admire China's administration anymore.
At least certain aspects of it.
On Friday we learned China's infamous one-child policy is being revised. Now couples in which at least one parent is an only child can have two children.
That's because people born when the policy was first implemented over 30 years ago are now starting to have children.
But this is not just a technical issue. This is a human rights issue.
Since the Chinese Communist revolution, China has engaged in a lot of central planning. But this policy is arguably the worst. It violates a person's right to raise a family.
Ask a lot of people what their greatest accomplishment is and many will say their family. Some couples have one child, others more.
It's not the government's business.
If anyone broke China's one-child rule, they were fined a massive amount. Multiple times the average annual salary.
To avoid these punitive measures, people have been driven to desperate measures -- forced abortions, infanticide, abandoning babies and sterilization.
Some reports have said family planning officials actually take away children.
Believe it or not, China actually has family-planning offices in most communities.
However this news does not signal a full abandonment of family planning in China. It's simply a tinkering of the rules.
They should just get out of the top down social planning entirely.
So what should Canada do? If anything?
After all, China has never taken kindly to international pressure. When countries around the world denounced the violent crackdown of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, the leadership was offended.
But as we argued in Saturday's editorial concerning the questionable appointments to the United Nations Human Rights Council -- which includes China -- we need to use every chance we can to speak out against such abuses.
Let countries know the world is watching them.
Last week Trudeau said he admired China because "their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime." Yes, governments can use central planning to force people to do whatever they want. But is it ever right?
Whether it's controlling the environment, economy or size of people's family, it's never right.
Worst-laid plans led China astray |
Editorial
| Opinion
| Toronto Sun
