Lost in translation

"Raise fewer babies but more piggies", "Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected" and "One more baby means one more tomb.": these are but a few examples of slogans from China's one-child policy. Hopefully something has been lost in the translation. But even if not, according to recent reports, there is a push to have the policy explained in "more amiable", AKA less threatening, terms. A list of 190 acceptable slogans is currently being issued, with the older slogans to be banned. The move was explained by the official Xinhua news agency as the result of a decision by the National Population and Family Planning Commission "to win more understanding to the country's population control policy."
Among the new slogans recommended are "The mother earth is too tired to sustain more children" and "Both boys and girls are parents' hearts."
Despite China's 28-year-old family planning policy limits, China has the largest population in the world (1.3 bn in 2005). But without the policy, which limits urban couples to one child and allows some families in the countryside to have a second child if their first is a girl, the numbers would have been much higher. However, critics would also say that it would have prevented forced abortions, female fetus abortions, and sterilizations.