Born by Plan, Dead by Random

One Child Policy, or Birth Planning as called in Chinese, came into effect in early 1980s. Since then, the birth of babies in China has been under strict planning. Parents-to-be need to apply for a birth permit from local governments to have their first baby delivered; and those without the permission were forced to accept abortion. Each family only has one quota for baby birth. Sterilization operation was required after mother delivered their first baby; and for those who got pregnant again, they always ended up abortion regardless how big the fetus was. That's why my generation always mock ourselves as the people "born by plan".

In contrast to the strict planning of birth, people seem to die in a much easier way in China. Fragile infrastructure, known as "tofu residue" constructions (豆腐渣工程) due to their poor quality (as weak as tofu) have taken hundreds of thousands of people's lives in China. In the 8.0 earthquake in Wenchuan 2008, a multitude of school buildings collapsed in the earthquake, killing thousands of students; while government buildings stood firmly and most government officials survived. Parents cried over bodies of their young children and urged the government to take responsibilities of squandering millions on these tumbledown school buildings. The government refused to respond, banned related documentaries and arrested several attorneys who tried to help the parents. Years later, the newly constructed high-speed rail system, which proudly claimed to be designed and developed by Chinese engineers, witnessed one of the biggest tragedy in the history of railway in China when two trains collided in July 2011. More than one year has passed, the death toll has never been released by the government, and no remediation of the high-speed rail system has been announced either.

Actually in China, you don't need to experience big earthquakes or take fancy trains to die. People in Beijing find they can die in a rain: in July this year, more than 70 people were drown in a rain in Beijing because of the poor drainage system; if they survive in the rain, they can still die by walking: in Aug, a pedestrian fell into the hot water underneath when the pavement suddenly caved and died out of scald. Similarly, people in Harbin find they can die by passing a bridge: in Aug this year, a less-than-one-year old bridge in Harbin collapsed, killing those on the bridge at the moment. In addition to these man-made accidents, people can also die from offending local government officials, coming across emboldened rich drivers, and recently driving Japanese cars. In short, we die randomly.

Chinese government is always viewed as a remorseless but shrewd businessman who is good at cost-benefit analysis. That explains why it controls the birth rate at all costs, even robbing or murdering. But it still doesn't make economic sense to have citizens die so easily: just think how much less tax you can collect when they die young! They don't even start to pay their pension! Of course local government officials have incentives to provide poor service as they can embezzle the price difference between the fiscal allocations and the real cost, and make the public to take risks of using low-quality infrastructures. But it's not a good deal for the country. So watch out for these harms if you still want to do good business.

Sometimes I ask myself the pros and cons of going back to China in the future. I can see better career opportunities, better food (though much lower quality, the flavor is better) and more familiar culture in China. But there are many concerns as well, one of which is safety. I'm not talking about public security, but the unexpected risks in everyday life. I expect the government to provide public service when I pay taxes, but I can't be credulous of the reliability of these public facilities when our government is notorious of its incapacity and corruption. I was lucky enough to be brought to the world even with the strict planning, and I absolutely don't want to die randomly and leave the world behind.