The one-child policy has helped prevent 400 million births - about the
size of the US and Mexican populations combined - and aided China's rapid
economic development.
Despite that, Zhao said surveys have shown that 60 percent of Chinese
would prefer to have two children, but that the government has no plan to
relax birth limits.
Critics say the policy has led to forced abortions and a dangerously
imbalanced sex ratio due to a traditional preference for male heirs, which
has prompted countless families to abort female fetuses in hopes of
getting boys.
Zhao blamed the imbalanced sex ratio on a
traditional preference for boys and the availability of gender testing of fetuses
with sonograms. She
said the government was addressing the problem with education, subsidies
and strict regulation of sonograms.
In 2005, the government began giving US$150 annual pensions to older
couples with a daughter as a reward for complying with the policy and as
an incentive to others to have just one girl baby.
Government statistics show that 117 boys are born for every 100 girls
in China, well above the average for industrialized countries of between
104 and 107 boys for every 100 girls.
Experts have said the gender imbalance resulting
from sex-selective abortions
and other practices could have dangerous social consequences due to
anticipated shortages of marriageable
young women.
