The One Child Policy in China

In 1979, China decided to establish a one child policy which states that couples are only allowed to have one child, unless they meet certain exceptions[1].In order to understand what social impacts the one child policy has created in China it important to evaluate the history of this law. China’s decision to implement a Child policy has caused possible corruption, an abuse of women’s rights, has led to high rates of female feticide, has created a gender ratio problem for China, and has led to specific problems associated with both the elderly and younger generation. Finally, an assessment of why China’s one child policy is important to the United States allows for a full evaluation of the policy.

Background Information about the One Child Policy

After the People’s Republic of China was established several factors such as improved sanitation and medicine led to a rapid population increase. Initially, the population growth was considered to be an economic boom [2] because before it occurred the county had faced a century of wars and epidemics. However, by 1962, China started to promote the use of birth control. Later, in 1979 China was faced with a population that was growing out of control[3], and the government decided that in order to combat the extreme population that they needed to take action. Thus, the Chinese government decided to implement a one child policy.

Once China’s population began to grow at an exponential rate the government feared that there would eventually be social unrest, and chaos. This social unrest and chaos would eventually cause an internal crisis for the country. At that time, China’s leaders believed that population control was one of its top priorities because it was precondition for the coun...

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...e economy. Since China and the United States have interconnected economies instability in China could lead to problems in the United States.

Conclusion

It is clear that China’s one child policy has affected Chinese society in multiple ways. The policy has resulted in corruption in the Chinese government, an abuse of women’s rights, female feticide, and an imbalance in the gender ratio, and potential problems with China’s elderly and younger populations. The Chinese government decided to implement a one child policy in order to counter the effects of rapid population growth. The question to ask is if the benefits of population control really do outweigh the problems the policy has created in Chinese society. It will be interesting to see if the policy continues to affect Chinese culture in the future, and how the changes that have been recently made play out.