China's One Child Policy Dbq

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CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE 1. Imagine you live in a country where having a sibling does not exist. Imagine you could be fined or put in prison just for having more than one child. This is the way of life for people in China, thanks to the One Child Policy. Due to the policy, every Han Chinese couple is only allowed to have one child in an attempt to curve China's out of control population growth. However, China's one child policy was not a good idea because it didn't significantly impact the population, created an imbalanced sex ratio, and caused emotional trauma for families and only children. The first reason why the policy was not a good idea is because it didn't impact the population enough to make the need for the policy viable. During the …show more content…

A sex ratio is the percentage of males and females being born. In China, millions more males are being born compared to females. This has happened because "the one child policy, in combination with a traditional preference for sons and widespread access to ultrasound technology to detect gender" is to blame (Doc E). This will cause horrible problems for future generations. In fact, "30 million or more Chinese men will be looking for a wife in 2030, but will be unable to find one" (Doc E). The 1 child policy has made many men not be able to start a family, which means millions of children will not be born to fill the working class and support the aging …show more content…

A survey of teens in China showed that "58% admitted to being lonely" (Doc F). In an interview, one Chinese girl even admitted that she "used to cut myself on my wrist after being yelled at by my mom and dad because I didn't know who I should talk to or turn to" (Doc F). Also, unlike previous generations in China, the 1 child policy places enormous pressure on "single Chinese children at the bottom of the resulting 4-2-1 family structure" (Doc E). Everyone in your family is dependent, and focusing on you alone. The one-child policy hurts the couples who want to start a family, as well. Also, "significant emotional costs result from not being able to determine your family size, and being coerced into terminating second pregnancies" when you wanted to keep the baby (Doc E). Forcing couples to kill their own unborn second child, putting all the economic pressure on one child, and having generations of lonely children is too high of a cost to justify the use of this

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