The one-child policy, plus the African community in Guangzhou

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Currentaffairs, Business, News, China Politics, Shenzhen, Chinese, Chongqing, China News, Politics, China, Culture, Sichuan, Hangzhou, Beijing, International Relations, China Economy, Chengdu, Film, Shanghai, Guangzhou

4.7 • 710 Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2012

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

While the African community in Guangzhou has taken to the streets to protest the suspicious death of a foreign national in police custody, the Chinese internet has proven equally volatile as gruesome photos of a late-stage abortion have circulated online to the shock and horror of many netizens. This week, Sinica turns its attention to both events, but mostly to the one-child policy, as we discuss first the history of China's family-planning restrictions and then the political forces within China arrayed for and against the status quo. Trying to steer the discussion through these controversial waters is your host Kaiser Kuo, who is joined in our studio by Alexa Olesen, a long-time China watcher and journalist for the Associated Press who has written extensively on how China's family-planning policies work at the local level. We're also delighted to be joined by Evan Osnos, a staff writer for the The New Yorker, who has covered the African community in Guangzhou. Conspicuously absent for the second week running is Sinica's co-host, Jeremy Goldkorn, who, any minute now — and probably by the time you're reading this — will have become father to a baby girl named Viola! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Cynica podcast, a weekly discussion of current affairs in China
0:13.1	coming to you from the pop-up Chinese studio here in Beijing. I'm Kaiser Guo, conspicuously
0:18.1	not joined this week by regular co-host Jeremy Goldcorn, who by the time
0:22.5	your listeners, you are listening to this, will probably be cradling his newborn daughter,
0:27.6	Viola Uling Goldcorn.
0:29.7	Congratulations to Jeremy.
0:32.0	We are joined again today by Alexa Olson, veteran correspondent for the Associated Press,
0:37.0	who has written extensively
0:38.1	over the years on our topic for the week. Great to see you, Alexa.
0:41.9	Hey, Kaiser. Also joining us is Evan Osnos, staff writer for the New Yorker. Welcome back to the show,
0:46.6	Evan. Thanks, Kaiser. So this week, we're looking at the One Child Policy. Regular listeners
0:52.0	may recall that a few months back we did a show focusing on the
0:55.0	demographic time bomb that China faces from a population that's going gray before it's getting rich.
1:01.0	This time we're going to dive more deeply into the policy that's responsible for all the demographic
1:05.3	challenges that China is going to be facing down the road. Looking at the one child policy
1:09.7	from a number of different angles, it's been in the news a lot. Lately, of course, blind activist, Chen Guangcheng,
1:15.5	who we've talked about at length in episodes past always focused his activism on probably
1:20.3	the darkest and most notorious aspect of the policy, which is, of course, of course, coerced
1:25.2	abortion and sterilization. And in just last week or so, it's been the topic of agonized conversation
1:31.3	across China's social media landscape because of a very disturbing photo
1:35.8	that was uploaded to Sina Weibo of a young woman named Feng Jianmei.
1:41.5	Right after her forced abortion earlier this month,
	...

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