Sotto: Let’s learn China lessons

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III. INQUIRER file photo

Senate Majority Leader Tito Sotto on Thursday said suggestions to lift China’s one-child policy because of its adverse effects to Chinese society should serve as a warning to proponents of the reproductive health (RH) bill.

“Precisely what we have been saying all along.  Over a billion Chinese and yet the studies prove that their ageing population will ruin their economy and further progress,” Sotto said in a solicited text message.

Sotto’s warning stems from the China Development Research Foundation’s recent recommendation to “loosen” the one-child policy and allow families to have two children by 2015.

This is because China’s younger population of mostly males would have difficulty supporting its ageing population. The gender imbalance is also seen as a future issue.

The Xinhua news agency was quoted saying the think tank further suggested that all population restrictions lifted by 2020.

China’s population hit one billion in October 2011. One authority quoted by the Cable News Network said China’s population could have grown to this number much earlier had it not been for the one-child policy introduced 30 years ago.

But while the policy helped curb China’s population, numerous reports over time said it has also led mothers to abort female fetuses since the culture favored sons over daughters.

Forced abortions, some at the behest of local officials, are still being reported in China today.

Sotto, one of the fiercest anti-RH advocates in the Senate, said China’s experience should serve as an eye-opener to those behind the contentious measure.

“Our country has less than 100 million and some of us want to tinker with it. God has a process of life and death. We should not interfere with His process,” he also said in his text message.

Sotto has consistently pointed out that international organizations with ties to population control interests are behind efforts to approve the RH bill in the Philippines.