China's one child law

I thought I would blog about China's one child law today. There are a few exceptions to this law. If you are a peasant, meaning a farmer, and your first child is a girl then you can try again for a boy, but this is only if you have a girl as your first child. And for the farmer, two is the maximum number of children that a farming family can have. So you could have two girls. Many farmers want boys to help them farm the land. A married couple can also have two children if each parent is an only child. If a couple gives birth to a child that is physically or mentally challenged then they could have one more child. Minority people in China can have two children because they are a minority group and the government does not want the group to become extinct. Also if a couple gets a divorce, the father can have another child if he remarries and the mother keeps the previous child. Some people do have more than one child without any of the above exceptions and if this happens, they have to pay a fine, which is like double or triple their annual salary. This is meant to be a punishment for having more than one child. Some of the rich people in China opt to have more than one child and just pay the fine. But very few people can afford to pay the fine.

I've also learned that in China it is illegal for anyone to posses a gun. If someone is caught with any weapons, they will be thrown in jail. I spoke with some of the locals last night and they believe that since Americans are allowed to carry weapons that it is a dangerous place. They spoke of the schools and colleges, so I'm assuming that they have heard of the Columbine and some of the shootings that have taken place in the colleges. Other than the pick pocketers here, I think major crimes are a rarity because the penalty is so severe. I read the other day that someone was being sentenced to death for accepting bribes for a realty company. I know that this is a communist country but I have to wonder if we were a lot stricter back home, that maybe we wouldn't have so many problems with the crime rate in regards to shootings and killings. And people getting out of jail after only have one major offense. I spoke with someone from France as well and he told me that he believed that China was one of the safest countries to travel. I also gathered from his conversation that he wasn't too fond of America. I told him I was happy to be living in a free country, but that we all had different beliefs whether or not it was for or against what our democracy as a whole does. And we have the freedom to express our opinions, that not all Americans think alike.