China May Make Adult Children Visit Their Parents

China's taking a new approach to elderly care.

Visit your parents... or else.

An early draft of amendments to China's already in place elderly care laws proposed requiring adult children to visit their parents, or face the possibility of being sued. The proposal was submitted Monday by the Civil Affairs Ministry to China's State Council, according to the Charlotte Observer.

The National People's Congress, China's government-appointed legislature, could consider the changes when it convenes in March.

The new legislation is the result of a changing social climate in China, according to AOL News. While in the past (for centuries) children were expected to care for their aging parents, this no longer the case for many Chinese.

The reason for the change, according to AOL, is largely related to China's one-child policy, which has left many parents with only one child to care for them. When these children move to big cities and industrial centers in order to find work, they must leave their parents to care for themselves.

The change seeks to address the growing issue of elderly care while China's older population grows.

From the Charlotte Observer:

But China's elderly population is growing rapidly while the number of young adults is shrinking, a huge demographic shift that has been building for decades. While the elderly still make up a relatively small share of China's population compared with some Western nations, demographers predict that the proportion of elderly will nearly double from 2008 to 2025. By 2050, they say, one in four Chinese will be 65 or older.

Comments

[ourelderparents]

06:05 PM on 02/07/2011

It's quite hard to deal with your aging parents and when you don't have enough help, it would be great if our siblings would be forced to visit to help our with our parents! :-)

[Codefile]

10:57 AM on 02/06/2011

Honor thy mother and father. It's in the top 10 (out of 613).

[engchina]

10:51 PM on 02/05/2011

An error - In the comment below I used the term Guangxi Province.
Correction:
The official name is:
Guangxi Drum Autonomous Region,located in southern China.
-EngChina.

[engchina]

10:45 PM on 02/05/2011

It must hard for many Americans to understand how China functions with a population exceeding 1.3 billion people. Think of it this way the population of the US - 308 million is approximately the population of the top 20 Chinese cities and their municipal counties.

Right now we are in the midst of yet another spring festival or Chinese New Year, where you'll see many many inter generational families enjoying parks , and going to dinner.

Many Chinese people I know in Xuzhou Jiangsu Province and Guangxi Province are supporting their parents because there's no social security,. However there are now some private retirement schemes, and there are retirement benefits if you are a government employee .

For a young couple with a young child, having Grandma and Grandpa living with you and taking care of your son or daughter avoids the expense of day care. Many Chinese frown on the word 'daycare' as they do 'nursing home.'
The relationships between grandchild and grandparent are so cherished by the Chinese that they celebrate an annual one day holiday devoted to Grandma and Grandpa.

Given the massive aging Chinese population, a smaller working population,and lack of government benefits for non govt workers at this moment in time -( That might change). It is understandable that there's concern in Beijing about elder care.

I don't think legislation, and forcing people to take care of their aging mums and dads is the answer.
Knowing it's the right thing to do is.
-EngChina.

[saskatoonie]

08:35 PM on 02/03/2011

My Mom lives with our family. She plays the tv much too loudly and turns the water on while I'm in the shower but she has done great things for me and my family and she still tries to help out, it's not perfect but then again neither am I.

[consequenceofsounds]

08:30 PM on 02/03/2011

While it is true that a lot of children unfairly neglect their aging parents, making it a law that they should visit them is the wrong way to go about it. This law won't make exceptions for people who were abused by their parents, because there is no way to prove in a court of law that your parents beat you, raped you, starved you, overworked you 20-odd years ago. And sometimes those parents continue inflicting cruelty onto their children even in old age.

I think there are much more effective ways to address the issue of adult children not looking after their aging parents without literally forcing them to do it. Besides, how would those visits go about? Would there be officials supervising those visits?

[FTracy3]

05:55 PM on 02/03/2011

Great to see you Mom! Now will you sign off on this form so I can get the hell out of here?

[PresidentRobertBooth]

12:55 PM on 02/03/2011

No law would ever make me see my dad, the former Senator Joseph P. Booth
 
A vile man who only cared about Virginia social climbing.
 
A careerist who lobotomised my sister because she was too liberal, and forced me into politics.
 
Even when I won two rigged elections, he still wasn't happy.
 
Curse you father, curse you!!!!

[jessicajuliette]

08:02 PM on 02/03/2011

SO very sad, maybe you should turn that lemon into a lemonade-flavored screenplay.

[etiennemacchias]

12:27 PM on 02/03/2011

I actually like this law. I'm yet a parent but I think children, especially around my generation (Gen. Y), believe they raised themselves on water and air. I do understand parents' every involvement, no matter how infrequent and insignificant, play a role one way or another in developing us into who we are now. Some here complain that some parents are unworthy of any interaction but if they cared enough to let you be who you are today, I think they at least deserve seldom visits.

[onwisconsin]

02:13 PM on 02/03/2011

Depends on the parents. I've seen parents that kids are better off getting as far away from as they can, as they are toxic people. I've also seen kids who are so self-centered that they don't care about truly good parents who have given up a lot to help them become who they are.

[etiennemacchias]

04:59 PM on 02/03/2011

As long as your life isn't directly threatened by such visits, I don't think a hello here and there would hurt anybody. I've had a belligerent father myself but I still love him deep down. As I matured, I realized that he had to sacrifice quite a lot in his own life to let me be who I am today. Maybe I'm only speaking for my own self but I wouldn't mind this law.

[andthatsnotall]

11:34 AM on 02/03/2011

So, the desire of wanting a male child, and only having the option to have one child, is going to turn ugly soon. With a dearth of women who will get to marry the ladies? Old, rich men, probably. I would not be surprised if molestations of women rises significantly. Men will want women and when there are only a few to be found... I think does not bode well for either sex.

[JTWallace]

09:30 AM on 02/03/2011

This is the result of a government with not enough logic to have seen what this would create. China is a vast country. When decisions are made in the Communist mentality, it's the rule or else. Now the result is more males doing the work of women in future. A joke about this situation is, an unattractive young girl in a class of one female to fifteen males runs home from school shouting, ''mommy, mommy, I had only ten marriage proposals today''!

[officiallyforeign]

09:29 AM on 02/03/2011

Isn't it already Chinese law that children are financially required to take care of their parents? I think one of the things western culture struggles to understand is why some cultures have so many children... Often it's because it's free labor and an insurance plan for when parents age.

[JTWallace]

09:17 AM on 02/03/2011

I get from this, which wasn't indicated, that China doesn't give much attention to the elderly. After their usefullness is over, I have to wonder if the Government tosses them aside for the youth to fill the vacancies in the factories, and other jobs which are becoming more proliferate with those jobs America has sent them. I wonder if they are supposed to take financial responsiblity for them as the Chinese governments devotes their efforts toward dominance in world markets. China has never had to worry what citizens have to complain about. Only which news of which they approve and gets into international news.

[saileyboy]

08:34 AM on 02/03/2011

I guess the government assumes all parents were good and deserve the visits. Obviously this is not so. This sounds like the actions of an extreme right wing government.

[andthatsnotall]

11:39 AM on 02/03/2011

Great idea, force the child to go see mom & dad. Yeah, force always works out good, right? No resentment there! And what if they don't go see the folks? What punishment are we looking at? A fine? I'm sure China would love to get more money from their citizens. Or how about some prison time? Yeah, that'll really make those kids be more attentive.

Good grief, what are they smoking over there?

[dorothy bnks]

08:21 AM on 02/03/2011

It's sad that adult children will be court ordered to visit their parents. But that parent/child visitation dilemma happens here in America, but the court would not dare make it a crime if you don't visit our parents. My mother and I didn't have the best mother/daughter relationship, but I called her and as a family we spend holidays and other occasions together.

I wouldn't appreciate my daughters visiting me if they were forced. Does "visiting" mean spending a full day with parents or spending five minutes or five hours? China is going to have a hard time monitoring these visits. In fact, it will be impossible to uncover the cheaters.