China's One Child Policy Dbq Essay

The one-child policy was established in 1979 to combat the rapidly growing population in China. The government policy limits Han Chinese couples to one child each. The banner of having as little children as possible was established after The Great Leap Forward when people were forced to give up farming and create an industrial China; this led to a famine that killed an estimated 30 million people. The official one-child limitation was initiated in fear of overpopulation; there would not be enough resources such as water and food to sustain the large population. The one-child policy was a necessary program in order to strengthen the nation and its people. The one-child policy was a solution to an imperative issue that could’ve destructed

A common argument for the opponents is that the policy feeds the negative social consequences such as sex discrimination. As men were seen as culturally preferable, the gender imbalance came into effect after 1986. Though, China banned prenatal sex screening in 1994 and now only-child daughters have been empowered to fight for gender equality. (Doc D) “these teens [urban singleton daughters] have been socialized to value educational and career success and provided the resources with which to achieve it.[Anthropologist Vanessa] Fong argues that this generation of urban singleton girls has been empowered to challenge some of the…gender norms that has long dominated Chinese life…” These girls had no brothers to act as a comparison for their parents, as a result, the girls grew up with education and career success as a priority (a gender norm designated for males). Another argument opponents take note of is the social issues only-children experience. This claim is not supported by research. (Doc F) “Chinese research finds advantages to being an only child: They tend to score higher on intelligence tests and are better at making friends.” They are many misconceptions about China’s one-child policy that are not necessarily