Return to Transcripts main page

NEWS STREAM

China Abolishing One-Child Policy; Bomb Attack in Syrian Marketplace Kills Dozens; Syrian Family Trapped in Moscow Airport; Global Warming Felt Most Dramatically in Arctic; World Leaders Converge on Paris for Cop21 Conference. Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired October 30, 2015 - 8:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:23] KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to

News Stream.

Reports of an attack at a market in Syria killing dozens and underscoring the urgency of peace talks. We'll have a live report across

the border in Turkey.

As well as from the sight of those meetings in Vienna, there is an urgency in

another fight as well.

And we'll take you to the top of the world where the visible effects of climate change are startling.

Iran is at the negotiating table this hour with other world powers in Vienna. It is the first time that Tehran has been asked to join talks in

how to end the bloodshed in Syria.

Now, leaders are trying to find a solution to the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. And the talks come as we receive

word of fresh violence just outside the capital of Syria.

Opposition activists say that at least 55 people have been killed in a rocket attack by government forces.

Now let's go live to Nick Paton Walsh for more on that rocket attack. We'll be going there live in just a few minutes, but first our senior

international correspondent Fred Pleitgen is standing by in Vienna.

And Fred, while world leaders are meeting to end the bloodshed in Syria, we have a reports of this horrific attack on a market just outside

Damascus that must be adding an even sense of urgency and purpose to these talks there.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kristie.

Well, I think there's a lot of things that have led to the negotiations taking place here, also in this format as well. And there it

is indeed a bigger sense of urgency among world leaders that the Syrian crisis needs to be brought to an end as fast as possible.

And of course, this rocket attack is one things that feeds into that, but also the fact that you've had the Russians stepping up in extreme form

their involvement in the Syrian crisis and also, of course, the Iranians as well.

And, Kristie, that's on the reason why the Iranian for the very first time have been invited to these negotiations here in Vienna, because the

United States for their part has said, listen, they have such a huge roll in the Syria crisis right now, with the military presence they have on the

ground, with the way they've been bankrolling the Assad government, that there is not going to be a solution to the Syrian crisis if the Iranians

are not at the table as well.

It's something that was very difficult for a lot of America's allies to swallow, in particular the Turks and the Saudis as well who have said

from the very beginning, they want Iranian involvement. And they certainly want Bashar al-Assad to go as fast as possible, which is of course

completely contrary to what the Iranians want. They say they wouldn't mind a transitional process, but they do believe that Bashar al-Assad can play a

role in such a transitional process.

So, certainly this is going to be something that's going to make these meetings very difficult to have these differing opinions here, but it's

also a fact that there is not going to be any way forward unless all of these parties come to some sort of conclusion, Kristie.

LU STOUT: Yeah, Iran is there at these talks, Russia, other world leaders. But how much progress can be made when Syria and the Syrian

opposition are not there?

PLEITGEN: That's, of course, the key question. You're absolutely right. Either the Syrian government nor any of the Syrian opposition

groups are there at this point in time.

And certainly one of the things that we've been hearing from participants in the meeting is that they believe that if this meeting does

not completely fall apart, if there's not some sort of falling out between the Iranians and the Saudis and other sides potentially, if they decide to

continue in a similar format, then that's already something that would be considered progress.

Of course at some point in the game, at some stage, the Syrian government and Syrian opposition parties, Syrian opposition groups are

going to have to be involved in this process as well.

But the biggest stumbling block at this point in time is still the fate of Bashar al-Assad. What happens to Assad. And again, the Iranians

and the Russians have been saying they believe some sort of political transition is necessary. There should be some sort of unity government in

place in Syria, but they believe that Bashar al-Assad shouldn't just be swept aside. They believe that he could be part of that transitional

process. Of course very much contrary to what some of America's allies believe in all of this who are saying that even if there is a transitional

process it has to be clear that Assad goes.

Now, this is something that is going to have to be worked out. There's going to be a long-term diplomatic process, or many believe it will

be a long diplomatic process, where everybody is going to have to give a little bit. The Iranians and the Russians might have to make some

concessions, the Saudis, the Turks and the Americans will have to make some concessions. That's the only way that they are going to find any sort of

common ground.

Because all of these sides have recognized -- this is something that Secretary of State Kerry says -- that there isn't going to be a military

solution to this conflict. And he also says all the sides at this point in time should focus on the things they agree on.

Everybody agrees that agrees that ISIS needs to be defeated. Everybody agrees that Syria needs to be maintained as a unified and that

the Syrian government institutions need to be preserved.

The one thing that they cannot agree on is the fate of Syria's current president. So that's something that is really going to be at the center,

and probably the most divisive point in these negotiations not just as they happen today, but if they continue this format as it continues as well,

Kristie.

[08:06:03] LU STOUT: That's right, the future of Bashar al-Assad, the major stumbling block to these talks underway in Vienna this day. Fred

Pleitgen reporting for us live, thank you.

Now let's get more now on that reported rocket attack near Damascus. Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is monitoring

developments from Gaziantep in Turkey. He joins us now.

And Nick, while we have leaders gathering there for talks in Europe, a marketplace was attacked in Syria. Who was targeted? And what happened?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it does appear that for the second time in as many months dozens of people have

lost their lives by it seems a pretty indiscriminate shelling one can only presume by the Syrian regime of a marketplace in Douma.

Now there are harrowing images across social media of the aftermath here. And one activist saying so far 55 have thought have lost their

lives, 200 injured. I should say that it does tragically seem that that toll will rise, because we're hearing from activists, too, that just

yesterday the hospital that services that area, a rebel-held area, was targeted or nearly hit by two strikes, we understand.

That forced the hospital to close to they are now dealing with this huge number of casualties without any real medical infrastructure to back

them up.

In some of the social media videos you do see ambulances at the scene. And in fact one of those videos when the ambulance another shell lands

close enough to it to shroud it in dust.

So, a brutal scene there in Douma, one, frankly, that that place is not immune to. Many almost consider to be at some point routine. It's

been hit by 17 to 18 strikes in just the last 48 hours.

So, Kristie, you have to ask yourself, this isn't really going to figure, necessarily, in the talks in Vienna. There aren't any Syrians at

those talks either from the regime or from the rebel side. And those rebels fighting on the war, on the ground there, the militia, well they

don't necessarily communicate much with the people who call themselves the Syrian political opposition in exile outside of Syria. And those Syrian

opposition aren't even at the talks. And frankly I think many in the west and elsewhere don't even quite know whether they have much of a mandate or

constituency left inside Syria.

So, whatever is decided at that table, it's the proxies who are funding the sides here, supporting the regime and the rebels, coming to

their own agreement. Whether that actually washes with anything on the ground and slows this violence down, it's unclear.

LU STOUT: That harrowing video of the aftermath of that attack in that market outside Damascus, and as you point out with Syria and the

Syrian opposition not there at the table in Vienna, what kind of breakthrough can take place? I mean, just a major question mark over that.

Nick Paton Walsh reporting live for us from Gaziantep, many thanks indeed for that.

Now world leaders will soon converge on Paris to try yet again to map out a global blueprint for tackling climate change. But will these talks

break fresh ground? We've got a live report on what to expect straight ahead.

Also ahead, one Syrian family managed to escape their war torn country only to land themselves in bureaucratic purgatory at the Moscow airport.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:11:09] LU STOUT: Now one month from now, Paris will host a major summit on climate change. The Cop21, as its called, will bring together

40,000 people from nearly 200 countries with one aim in mind -- to hammer out a deal to curb global warming.

Now this hour, the UN is set to release a new report on how the world is doing in terms of putting the breaks on greenhouse gas emissions.

And as we wait for that report on the upcoming talks in Paris, the climate situation seems to be worsening. The Arctic is considered to be

ground zero of global warming. And experts say the region is heating up much faster than the rest of the world.

Arwa Damon takes us to Norway for a look at how rising temperatures are having a visible impact.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's late October in the Arctic, freezing cold and snow-covered, as one would

expect. So much just isn't the way it used to be.

JIM JOHANNSEN, ARCTIC TOUR GUIDE: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

(CROSSTALK)

DAMON: Jim Johannsen is a guide here, taking visitors on a tour which includes a glacier. For him, compared to last year, the changes on the

shoreline are obvious.

JOHANNSEN: Last year, you could hardly see the rock formation. Hardly see that as a gray, brown line underneath the glacier. It is shedding a lot

of ice this summer. Obviously it's, something is happening for sure.

DAMON: That something is climate change. And this, the Arctic is ground zero. Scientists say temperatures here have increased at twice the

rate than anywhere else on earth in the last several decades.

(on camera): Normally, by March, these would be frozen over, a layer of ice so thick people would take their snowmobiles from town to outlying

areas. But the last time these waters froze was a decade ago.

(voice-over): We are out with a former fisherman, a Marine biologist and managing director of the university center.

A good catch.

But this cod species is not supposed to be here. They appeared three years ago. That's because the temperature of the water where these cod were

pulled out is four to five degrees warmer than it to be and now the cod can swim here.

(on camera): How do you know that temperature rises because of climate change?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know temperatures in this water in the western side are very, very, because of the variations in the northeast Atlantic

current. That's all. Now we see it on the line. Being more and more evident that it is due to our general rise in the sea temperature of the world

oceans.

DAMON: Earth's climate is changing. Scientists still trying to unravel its mystery and determine how it will alter our future.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Svalbard, Norway.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: Beautiful but worrying video there in that report.

And this is not the first time that world leaders will try to tackle climate change. Will this year make a significant difference?

Now Jim Bittermann is in Paris. He joins me now live. And Jim, we do not want a repeat of those failed talks in 2009, so how is the French

government preparing for this next major climate event?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it spent an enormous amount of money and political capital preparing for this. This

has been a sole occupation of several of the government minister here for some months now. They've built a huge conference center out near the La

Bourgier (ph) airport. And they're set to welcome, as you mentioned, 40,000 delegates, including 80 heads of state who are expected to come

here.

That's part of it.

The groundwork has been laid, really, by the United Nations, of course, who has sponsored there conferences over the last 20 years, now

going to be 21 years, now therefore Cop21. In any case, what they're hoping to achieve is some kind of a global agreement on limiting Greenhouse

Emissions in a way that will hold the global warming effects to two degrees over the next few decades, up to the end of the century, hold the global

warming to two degrees.

Now, what the UN released today is some numbers, some projections of targets by the countries who will be attending this conference that begins

in the 30th of November. And those targets would certainly slow down the amount of global warming, that wouldn't apparently, according to the UN

estimates, would not get the two degrees by the end of this century.

So, even as small as that goal seems to be, two degrees, it seems like it may be unachievable unless there is more commitment from nations in the

years to come -- Kristie.

[08:16:07] LU STOUT: Yeah, two degrees may seem like a small number, but so much is at stake and there's growing evidence of a warming planet as

we saw just now in Arwa's report filed in the Arctic.

So, Jim, how much optimism is there that nations will come together and will reach that climate pact there at the summit in Paris?

BITTERMANN: Well, I think in every one of these conferences there's more and more momentum building, because more and more countries are coming

to a realization -- and more and more private -- people in the private sector are coming to a realization -- that this is going to have a direct

impact on people in the years to come. The number of global warming deniers has diminished. There aren't so many people around -- many people

around anymore that deny the fact that global warming is taking place and is related to man's activities.

So, there's more and more acceptance that something has to be done. The question is how to do it. And like with many things, it centers on

money. I mean, one of the things that the developing world would like to see is more aid from the developed world. In fact, they're talking about

numbers like $13 trillion in spending over the next decade or so. And it's not clear that the developed world is about to shell out that kind of

money, the kind of money that's needed, Kristie.

LU STOUT: All right, Jim Bittermann reporting live for us from Paris. Many thanks indeed for that.

Now people across Indonesia, they are hoping for more rain to help clear a deadly haze that's been choking Southeast Asia for weeks and

months.

Now crews have been working to try to put out the forest fires. David Molko has the latest from the island of Borneo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've been talking for weeks about the scale of human suffering here in Indonesia. More than 500,000 people

sickened and 40 plus million people, according to the government, still breathing in toxic air.

Yes, we've seen a little bit of rain, but it all starts here at the epicenter of this haze crisis. These are the peat lands of central

Kalimantan (ph).

A few hours ago, a firefighting team was here. There were reports of a hotspot on the outskirts of the city of a quarter of a million people.

We saw them with their hoses and the mix of water and chemicals trying to fight any smoke coming up from these peat lands. These are -- this is

carbon rich soil, belching greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Successfully able to stop some of that smoldering.

But even though it's been raining and even though those firefighters were here, we still see smoke coming out of these areas around us, just

gives you an idea of how difficult battling these blazes across the country can be.

It's also a sense of pride amongst these volunteers that they can do their part to make sure people in this area once again have cleaner air to

breath. What they really need, though, is a whole lot of rain.

The president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo has also been in the haze zone. He's monitoring things firsthand. But when activists are looking

for is not only about putting out the fires this year, but a long-term commitment. This is a recurring problem across Indonesia. It has to do

with the murky rights of land ownership and how the backbone of the economy, or one backbone, is clearing land to make room for lucrative crops

like pulp and paper and palm oil.

We'll have to see if the economic and political pressure on Indonesia right now will be enough on the president to follow through on some

promises.

David Molko, CNN, Palakariyah (ph), Indonesia.

LU STOUT: Now here at CNN, we are putting the spotlight on global warming as part of our two degrees series.

Now some experts say if our planet gets just two degrees warming it will cross a boundary that changes our world forever. To learn more, just

go to our Website, it's all at CNN.com/twodegrees.

Now we have much more straight ahead right here on News Stream. Now they successfully escape war, but now they're facing a new battle. A

Syrian family trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare as they try to start over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:40] LU STOUT: Now, we want to take a moment to bring you this, the latest video -- live video of something that we are following very

closely here at CNN -- the influx, the deluge of refugees going into Europe mainly from Syria and Afghanistan.

And what you see on your screen are live pictures coming to us from Slovenia's border with Austria as thousands of migrants try to pass through

the small, small Alpine state.

You can see the crowd of migrants gathering there, barricades all around them, the authorities trying to manage the situation.

Now, as we've seen in our coverage, you've heard of how many of these people are trying to take this route and others to ultimately get to

Germany. Now Germany has promised to send hundreds of border guards to help with the situation to help with the sudden and growing flow of people

there.

Now Slovenia, it has become a key transit point since Hungary sealed its border with Croatia some 10 days ago. Live pictures on your screen

there of the migrant chaos from Slovenia's border with Austria.

Now, Syrian refugees trying to escape war, they find themselves facing more battles abroad. And one Kurdish family knows that all too well. Now,

they want to settle in Russia, but authorities won't accept their travel documents. As Nic Robertson reports, that has left them stuck in a Moscow

airport for 50 days.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Stuck in limbo at a Moscow Airport, a family of Syrian refugees with only their phones to plead

their plight.

RAYNASS MOHAMMED, SYRIAN REFUGEE: My name is Reynass. We are from Syria. We are living in an airport. And this is our life. We are living

in airport in terminal in transition.

ROBERTSON: For the past 50 days they've been held in a transit area as authorities checked their documents.

MOHAMMED: I have two brothers and one sister and father and mother. We want you to help us, please. Here it's very cold for sleeping or for

sitting for came in here is very cold.

ROBERTSON: His father, Hassan, is desperate.

"We need your help," he says, "because here there is no rights of refugees, no one listens to us. I don't know it's such a strange law."

The airport, Sheremetyevo, is no stranger to surprise guests stuck in its bureaucracy. Controversial whistleblower Edward Snowden skulked its

labyrinthine corridors for about 40 days in 2013 before the Russians finally let him in.

The family's lawyer say border officials claim their passports were bogus, but subsequent checks with Damascus prove both them and their visas

valid.

Foreign ministry officials say the family is being treated no differently to other Syrian refugees and expect their case to be resolved

soon.

Levin (ph) is the youngest, just 3-years-old. The children's aunt lives in Russia, has a home for them, is trying to help them. Charity

workers have been delivering some food and toys. And for the past few days the family have been allowed to spend nights in an airport capsule hotel.

Their big fear, they may get sent back to the war they fled.

MOHAMMED: Please help us. Here is very bad. They didn't give it anything for us, no water, no food, no anything. Please, help us. We

(inaudible) with nice hand.

ROBERTSON: For now, lost in transit, a limbo with a very uncertain future.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LU STOUT: You just saw him, you just heard that young boy, this young Syrian refugee plead for help.

And for ways that you can help ease the plight of refugees, go to our website CNN.com/impact.

Now still to come right here on News Stream. We will introduce you to an American volunteer who has paid his own way to Syria to join the ground

offensive against ISIS.

And China, ends the biggest population control experiment of our time. We'll talk to an expert about the effect of the country ending its one-

child policy and introducing the two child policy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:23] LU STOUT: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong. You're watching News Stream and these are your world headlines.

Now the last British detainee at Guantanamo Bay has been released. Sharkeer Amir (ph) had been held at the U.S. military prison for 13 years

without being charged. Now the British foreign secretary Philip Hammond says that Amir (ph) is now on his way back to the UK.

In Saudi Arabia, the jailed blogger Raif Badwai did not receive a scheduled flogging today. Now that is according to someone who is close to

his family. On Thursday, Badawi was honored by the European parliament with the Sakharaov Prize for freedom of thought. He's been behind bars for

three years. And last year, he was sentenced to 1,000 lashes on charges of insulting Islam in his blog posts.

Now, new talks aimed at ending the Syrian civil war are underway in Vienna. Iran is taking part in the discussions for the first time, joining

diplomats from the U.S., Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Now the Syrian government and the opposition are not there.

Opposition activists say at least 55 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in a rocket attack near Damascus. Now the London-based

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says government forces targeted a market in the city suburbs.

An American army veteran is back on the battlefield joining Kurdish forces to fight ISIS. And in this CNN exclusive, he spoke to our senior

international correspondent Clarissa Ward about why he's willing to risk his life on the front line.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Randy Roberts has spent much of the last seven months on the front lines. The former U.S. Army Specialist who

deployed twice to Iraq was studying graphic design in the U.S. when he decided to join the fight against ISIS.

RANDY ROBERTS, AMERICAN VOLUNTEER: I felt like I could -- given my past military experience and that I've been to this region before, that I

could contribute and I could actually help the cause.

WARD: How did you get guidance as to how to get here, who to link up with?

ROBERTS: Well, Google.

WARD: Google? That's how you planned your trip to come and fight ISIS.

ROBERTS: Believe it or not, yes. I simply looked up westerners who had come over here before me.

WARD: Roberts is one of more than 100 westerners who have come to Syria and Iraq to fight with Kurdish forces. The internet is full of

slickly-produced YPG propaganda videos featuring American volunteers. There's even a website selling ISIS hunting kits and offering packing lists

on what to bring. At a small training camp in Northern Syria, we watched some new recruits, among them, two Americans, most did not want to show

their faces. Unlike Roberts, few had any military experience.

ROBERTS: You meet a lot of people who think this is going to be you know, the gaming experience, the Call of Duty because they understand how

to pull the trigger on a controller they know how to do it in real life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Always elbows in and tight to your body.

WARD: Roberts believes the most valuable gift he can offer Kurdish fighters and his fellow volunteers is training. While some Kurdish

fighter's welcome western volunteers as a morale boost, others have dismissed their presence as a nuisance. Do you think you have helped?

ROBERTS: I believe yes, I have.

WARD: But some people would say this isn't your war or this isn't your business.

ROBERTS: It's better to stand up and do something if you think you can help than sit back and watch because hey, it's on the other side of world,

not my problem.

WARD: Certainly the risks are real, one American, Keith Brumfield died fighting alongside Kurdish fighters this past summer in Syria. And Roberts

has seen for himself how tenacious an enemy ISIS can be.

ROBERTS: Outside of the mines that they place all in the field there to keep us from advancing on these villages, they also have little trenches

that they hide in.

WARD: Has it ever crossed your mind that you could get killed?

ROBERTS: Yeah. Yeah.

WARD: That's a price you would be willing to pay?

ROBERTS: Yes, if I got to end of my life and I looked back on this and I had chose not to come out, then it would have bothered me for the rest of

my life.

[08:35:06] WARD: For Randy Roberts being here is a moral duty.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, Northern Syria.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: You're watching News Stream. And still to come, China's one-child policy has forced millions of children to live in the shadows.

And we have more on the policy's dark legacy straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LU STOUT: Coming to you live from Hong Kong, you're back watching News Stream.

Now new details are coming out about China's new two-child policy. Reuters reports that Beijing will leave it to provincial governments to

determine how to implement the new plan.

Now China has had a one-child policy for more than three decades, but the nation is now coping with a rapidly aging population. It's not clear

when the change will take effect as formal approval is not going to happen until next March.

Now for more on what this means, Mei Fong, she wrote about the one- child policy as a correspondent at the Wall Street Journal. She's also the author of the new book called One Child. She joins us now live from CNN

Washington.

Mei, good to see you.

And first off, you say that there is a lot of talk that the one-child policy has ended, but really it hasn't. What do you mean by that?

MEI FONG, AUTHOR: Well, we call it the one-child policy. It's just a terminology for a whole set of regulations regarding procreation in China,

naturally speaking, and in some places it's one-and-a-half in rural areas, some areas you can have a second child provided your first one is a girl,

for example. Or you might be able to have a second child if you are a coal miner, or a fisherman, or a Tibetan.

So there are all sorts of exceptions to the rule. So what we call it a one-child policy for convenience, but actually it isn't really one child.

So, even though we're switching to a two-child policy, it's still in place. Family planning in China is still in place.

LU STOUT: And thank you for emphasizing that.

Now Mei, I want to play a clip of a victim of the one-child policy, her name is Li Xue. She's 22 years old. She now lives in Beijing. She

was born illegally, so in the eyes of the government she does not exist.

Let's listen in to what she has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LI XUE (through translator): As soon as I was born, I became ineligible for house checkups or immunization shots, because I couldn't be

registered or receive an ID card.

When I reached school age, I couldn't go to school. I've never gone to school for a single day. I couldn't find a job without an ID or a

diploma.

I still cannot go to the hospital when I'm sick, or take a (inaudible), or even buy cold medicines at pharmacies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LU STOUT: So that was Li Xue. Her parents eventually lost their jobs because she was born outside the one-child policy. Her family, they live

in poverty in Beijing. So, Mei, Li Xue is one of millions of these unregistered children, now adults, who are victims of the one-child policy.

Tell us about them.

FONG: Yeah, there are an estimated 13 to 15 million of these kind of what they call (inaudible) black children, who don't exist legally in the

system because they were born out of quota.

Now, the problem with legally speaking they actually should be able to get huko (ph) and household registration, but in practice this almost never

happens without the exchange of money and the payment of fines.

Now, in recent years, for example, there have been a rise in legal cases for children suing for the right to get huko (ph). And of course now

that Xi Jinping's government is cracking down on the human rights lawyers who are undertaking these cases, that has put a damper on it.

So, the problem is there are many of them. And the cities, like Beijing and Shanghai, are very reluctant to issue hukos (ph) for them

because they are already full -- 20 million residence. They worry about a big draw on their resources like schooling.

So, it's a big problem.

[08:40:08] LU STOUT: Big problem, more than 13 million children, now adults just waiting for government recognition. And Mei, the one-child

policy has also been blamed for the extreme gender imbalance in China. What is the new population control policy mean for that issue and for women

in China?

FONG: Well, they're going to try and encourage more births of children, including girl children, but you know right now you really have

30 million more men than women. And that's like a population of Canada or Saudi Arabia. And that's not going to change with the new policy. These

existing men are not going to be able to find brides unless China is going to suddenly import 30 million women from overseas, which is highly

improbable.

And that's a big problem going ahead, too.

LU STOUT: And a final question for you, Mei, was the one-child policy ever a good idea? And could China have taken other paths?

FONG: I -- China -- a lot of people tend to equate the one-child policy as a necessary factor. China needed to grow economically. But

there were many other ways to do it. And we can see lots of examples with their neighboring countries, for example, Singapore was able to reduce

population and grow economically, and now they're in a position where they can't even grow their population and they're desperately trying to

encourage -- and that's got -- what's going to happen with China, too, and that's just simply not good going ahead.

So, it was a bad idea. It was a bad idea.

They could have done it better.

LU STOUT: Yeah, one-child policy a bad idea to begin with. Mei Fong, we'll leave it at that. Thank you so much for joining us here on News

Stream. And do take care.

And that is News Stream. I'm Kristie Lu Stout. Don't go anywhere, up next on World Sport we have Alex Thomas joining Amanda Davies, and they've

got a preview of the Rugby World Cup final. Keep it here.

END