The Effect of China's One Child Policy

956 Words2 Pages

The future of China’s people China is the world’s most populated country with an astounding 1.35 billion people. That number would be significantly higher if it wasn’t for the family planning policy put into effect September 25th, 1980 under Chairman Mao. This was a population control effort and was considered extremely successful to the Chinese government. However success is defined differently in many countries. In America for instance it usually ends with a positive outcome. The cons of this attempt of controlling the population heavily outweigh the pros. The problem of over-population manifested into economic tragedy. Crime rate, gender gap, forced abortions, and mass suicide are primary problems that stem from the population control efforts of the one child policy. In a little more than a decade China will be losing its title as the world’s most populous country. More importantly China’s demographic have been changing due to unpredictable population changes. The need for a male heir and the One Child Policy has caused china’s gender ratio to be imbalanced. Reason being men are usually the main income-earners because they are more employable and earn higher wages for the same work. Since male babies have a greater income potential, they are less likely to be killed. The average male to female sex ratio was 118:100 in 2010. In rural areas if their first-born is a daughter or suffers from a physical or mental illness families can apply to try again. Families that apply to try again are subject to birth spacing or waiting 3 or 4 years to try again. Additional children will result in large fines up to ten times the average income. Families violating the policy are required to pay monetary penalties and may also lose their employm... ... middle of paper ... ...ild if they so desire. This sounds amazing and many people were thrilled at the thought of people being able to have another child but financially that’s impossible. Having to support your parents for an unknown about of time is a huge obligation. Many Chinese families are in massive amounts of debt and adding another child to that is simply not possible. The Chinese government saw a problem but tried to fix it the wrong way. They have succeeded in controlling their population but in hindsight they have created a problem much more problematic to the Chinese culture. Having way more men than women is only going to cause sex trafficking, selling of brides, and prostitution rates to rises. Homosexuality may even become more accepted in Chinese culture as an end result to the huge gender imbalance. China will never be the same and the worst is yet to come.

More about The Effect of China's One Child Policy

Open Document