China's "One Dog Policy" runs into resistance

[Cowperson]

A Washington Post story outlining the turbulence the Chinese government is running into trying to enforce a "one dog policy."

BEIJING - Days after the Chinese government announced a crackdown on dogs in the capital, dog lovers here are quietly walking their pets after midnight and avoiding nosy neighbors. They're also fighting back.
A campaign to protect people from a sharp rise in rabies cases led officials to announce last week that they would limit each household to one dog and ban dogs taller than 14 inches.

getCSS("3176006")"More and more people own dogs. It is pointless to restrict dog-raising. The stricter the government is, the more people will love to own a dog," said Liu Tao, 26, who was at the unauthorized protest Saturday. "We are not blocked from the outside now. With the Internet, we can see how Western countries treat dogs well. It's hard to stop us from communicating with the outside."

While the rules have outraged pet owners, the face-off has also exposed fault lines between older bureaucrats with a mandate to keep public order and a growing middle class that no longer takes the traditional Chinese view of dogs as dishonorable or corrupt.

Moves to curb dog ownership and prevent rabies have led to draconian action in other parts of China in the past. In August, tens of thousands of dogs were killed in Yunnan province in southwestern China after three people died of the disease.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15721402/

Is your dog dishonourable and corrupt?

During Katrina, humans refused to leave their pets behind . . . . will growing prosperity in China lead to similar loyalty?

Cowperson

[JohnnyFlame]

The whole pet thing changed dramatically in the four years we spent in China. Used to be we would be out walking our dog and be a novelty though there were indeed others with dogs. But now there are dogs everywhere and yep lots of people have more than one. Heck and there were big dogs as well though with dang near everybody living in apartments that was hard to fathom.

Our complex had workers who went around and cleaned up the dog poop as well(actually I think it just got incorporated into their cleaning duties).

You name it and it's sitting there now. In the time we were there Walmart, 7-Eleven, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen and on and on and on moved into Tianjin and Beijing had them long before that.

They really couldn't prevent the Chinese people from seeing what is going on around the world and now that more and more of them have cash to spend they want everything from Blizzards to Tibetan Spaniels(threw that in because that is the dog we had there and now because we brought it back with us).

[Bobblehead]

Aren't they enforcing a "One child per family" rule as well?

Wouldn't dogs make a good surrogate for those people who would probably want more children?

[Shazam]

Just send the dogs over to Korea. Problem solved.

[JohnnyFlame]

Originally Posted by Bobblehead

Aren't they enforcing a "One child per family" rule as well?

Wouldn't dogs make a good surrogate for those people who would probably want more children?

Yes and no. The penalty for a second child is financial so some Chinese families with dough already have two children. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that is yet another policy that will bite the dust soon as well.

[Cheese]

The "Cat's rule the world" network says....ban all Dogs, they are evil!

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Is your dog dishonourable and corrupt?

Yes. He's very susceptible to taking bribes and I think he's skimming a little of the top too, to be honest. And he just doesn't keep his promises.

Seriously, how can a dog be corrupt?

[CubicleGeek]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFlame

Yes and no. The penalty for a second child is financial so some Chinese families with dough already have two children. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that is yet another policy that will bite the dust soon as well.

Yeah, it's something like a fine + no government subsidies for the subsequent children. There have been instances where women who violate this too often (say 3rd or 4th child) will be "fixed" involuntarily.

I have a mixed opinion about the single child rule. If you've ever lived in China for an extended period or know people who live there that fall under the average middle class, you understand the challenges of things like education, opportunities, and employment.

The uneven distribution of wealth and the population makes it very difficult for the average person to get anywhere in life. Even if you have the intelligence, you likely will not be able to afford to go to the right schools, even if you have the ability, you likely will never have the opportunity to show it, and even if you have the qualifications you may never be able to find a decent job.

As a matter of fact, they have instituted a mandatory retirement age of 55 for women and 60 for men in order to have the old leave the work force at an earlier age to open up jobs for the young. Many of the most common jobs such as factory work will only hire young people from the poorer rural communities (which represent 95% of the population), work them to the ground, dismiss them (without compensation), and hire young, fresh workers.

The single child rule should get them down to USA levels within 3 or 4 generations and hopefully with their rapid growth, there will be more opportunities for the later generations and a better distribution of wealth.

Since we are on this topic, China also fines a woman (yes, only the woman) for bearing a child before wedlock.