The officials of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have recently defended their decision of rejecting a remarried couple’s appeal to have a baby, standing firm by the region’s family planning regulations.
Huang, a 34-year-old woman, and her husband, who had two children from a previous marriage, appealed to have their own baby in 2014. The local officials denied their request on the grounds that one of them already has two children.
The autonomous region's authorities insisted that what they did was in line with the area's family planning restrictions. However, Huang told the Global Times that they "are allowed to have a baby of [their] own, according to central government guidelines."
China's National Health and Family Planning Commission has issued guidelines that there are only three scenarios by which one of the remarried couples, who is an only child, is allowed to have a single baby. These include if the partner has no child and his or her spouse has two children from a past marriage.
As released in news portal thepaper.cn, an employee of Guangxi's health and family planning commission surnamed Zhao clarified that the guideline is "only a recommendation and local authorities should abide by the local regulations."
The commission employee, however, said that the region's current family planning rules "might be a little harsh" for remarried couples. Zhao further stated that research and investigations are being done on this matter should the need for future amendments arise.
The government has earlier replied to Huang saying that the central government-issued guidelines are not applicable in Guangxi because of the autonomous region's fast growing population on top of its already huge population base.
In Guangxi, remarried couples are only allowed to have a baby if one of them has only one child and the other one has none.
Though the local authorities have implemented a two-child policy in March 2014, no amendments were made regarding those rules that cover remarried couples.