The Gap of China’s One Child Policy What’s the point of China’s one-child policy anyway? After the 20 year civil war ended in 1949, the great power of Mao Zedong and his Communist Party became the leaders of China. His intention was to take control of the poor, weakened country and have it prosper. One of his first steps in doing this was raising the population, and encouraged couples of China to have many, many children. The objective was to make fine future workers and raise the economy, however, the result was the overpopulation of China. As shown by the Population Division of the Department of Economics and Social Affairs (PDDESA), in the span of 30 years, there was more than 900 million in population (Doc A). Because of the great number of people, other problems occurred such as severe pollution and the overall quality of life. These conditions were pressured so much that China’s leader expeditiously acted. Under the control of new Communist leaders, they enforced a program called the one-child policy in 1980. This policy, the first of its kind, limited the Han Chinese (90% of the population) to only birth one child couple. Such drastic measures were taken to solve China’s …show more content…
problems, but was the one-child policy really the answer? To simply put it; no, it wasn’t. Despite their efforts to fix overpopulation, its turnout was weak, and caused many problems. Not only was it unnecessary, it caused intense emotional damages, as well as an extreme gender imbalance. A major concern that caused the Chinese government to turn to its one-child policy was its county’s major population problem. To prevent it from increasing at more dramatic rates, the one-child policy was made to decline how many children a woman births in her lifetime, this is fertility rates. However, the policy seemed to “[hasten] a fertility rate decline that was already well in progress.”(Doc B). According to Feng Wang’s and Cai Yong’s article; “China’s One Child Policy at 30”, China’s average fertility rate was cut in half from 5.8 in 1970 to 2.7 in 1979. With the one-child policy put in action in 1979, the average rate merely declined from 2.7 in 1979 to 1.7 in 2008. China’s fertility rate decline in the span of these 29 years is meagar compared to other countries like Brazil, which at this time changed from 4.2 to 1.9 in fertility rates. As seen, this one-child policy didn’t seem to affect these significant numbers as much as when it wasn’t in action. Statistics defending China’s one-child policy fail to see that the already rapid decline of births was in existence way before 1979, and its ‘evidence’ backing the policy up is purely a coincidence. Due to the careless act that China made when enforcing the one-child policy, it has created drastic long-term effects that will greatly disturb their gender ratio.
Data from The Conversation, indicates that there will be 30 million more males than females in 2030. This gap is because males are more valued in a “4-2-1” family structure (Doc E). When a mother gets her ultrasound, doctors are able to determine the gender based on pictures of the fetus. Unfortunately, many female fetuses will get aborted as a result of the extreme preference for sons and since a family can only have one child, this process was even more stress. This means that in less than 12 years, many men will be looking for wives. Of course, they won’t be able to find one, thanks to their country’s one-child
policy. Statistics cannot measure the emotional toil that many people went through because of the one-child policy. Almost every Han Chinese were put through some kind of emotional stress whether they were the single child, a mother, ora grandparent relying on their heirs. One example out of many is Xiao Xuan, an urban singleton daughter interviewed from CNN (Doc F). She states that because of being a single child, she was extremely lonely, and often harmed herself when her parents verbally abused her. She’s not alone, either. About 58% of children of this time reported to be lonely, and selfish because they didn't have a brother or sister to share attention with or talk to. Han children were especially pressured by their parents and grandparents to support the family. In their “4-2-1” family structure, where there are 4 grandparents, 2 parents, and 1 child. When the child’s family gets old and are unable to work, the only descendant has to support the whole family when they grow up (Doc _). Even then, most males won’t be able to find wives because of the gender imbalnce. It is without a doubt that this is a huge burden on single children with no other siblings to help. Thus, any of these children went under physical abuse from their family, had forced kin relations and tremendous stress on old age support. Not only that, but couples were also negatively influenced by the policy. If couples were to accidentally impregnate a second time under the one-child policy, the mother would have to go through a forced abortion. This traumatizing experience for couples, especially the mother, is catastrophic on their wellbeing. To forcefully get their own fetus killed is a monstrous execution. To think that any of these people in China had to keep living day by day with such strains is absolutely horrid, but to experience these events in real life seems unfeasible. Directly, we have the one-child policy to credit for all of this affliction. Although there is strong evidence in favor of the one-child policy, it was made a little dent in a country already declining in fertility rates. Now, the impress of the one-child policy could lead to some serious concerns down the road, like gender imbalance. If the communist government were to refrain from making such a hasty decision, such emotional damages from abortions, abuse, and loneliness would’ve been prevented. So really, what was the point of the one-child policy? It seemed to do more harm than good afterall. Surely, this can set as an example for the rest of the world on what not to do in a situation like this, or the same problems could occur to another country, just like it did in China.
With overpopulation you get environment problems like water pollution and sulfur dioxide emissions. According to Liu in document C “the population controls have kept sulfur dioxide emissions down by 17.6% and [reduced] water pollution by 30.8%. Without [the one-child policy], he says, the average person in Henan would a less land and a quarter less forest.” With the population control there is less water contamination which means less people will become sick from polluted water. Also in document C it states “Over 30 years of effort, we have put in place a systematic procedure for controlling the population. That has eased the impact on the environment.” This quote shows when the one-child policy was put in place the water pollution and sulfur dioxide went down which helped the environment
During the first half of 50’s government did not limit the population growth but did the exact opposite and actually encourage families to have more children. This was due to the Mao Zedong’s or Chairman Mao’s believe that more population would mean more economic development, more labor and more growth, however, late 1950’s changed that and that is when China began implementing first population control measures. As population reached 600 million Mao expressed his wish for population to remain in this level. Government soon realized that in order to keep population at this level, long term population control would have to be implemented. First they began by simply distributing various forms of contraceptives among general population. As famine of 1959-1961 struck the country it set the policy aside but as soon as country began to demonstrate signs of recovery the family planning campaign resumed where it left with distribution of contraceptives. By the late 1970s, China had experienced success in decreasing fertility rates by increasing the use of birth control under the slogan "Late, Long and Few". As a result China's population growth dropped by half between 1970 and 1976. Nonetheless, it soon leveled off, making government and officials seek more drastic measures and on September 25, 1980 an open letter by the Chinese Communist Party established One-Child Policy (OCP) also called Family Planning Policy (FPP). Nevertheless the OCP name is misleading since the policy allows for exceptions. For instance rural families with first child being disabled or being girl are allowed to have another child. Also, couples where both bride and groom are single children are allowed to have two ...
Dena Davis in the 5th chapter of “Genetic Dilemmas: Reproductive Technology, Parental Choices, and Children’s Futures” explores the global attitudes, policies, and morality towards determination of sex. She begins with presenting empirical evidence of some preferences held in countries such as India or China where there is a clear desire for male children. This inclination is so deeply held that mothers can be socially and physically harmed when, by pure biological chance, they fail to produce a male child. Davis and others allow sex selection in these cases, purely in the interest of harm reduction of mothers and their daughters born into such a situation. This example is contrasted with so-called “western” societies, where the preference
In our world, millions of babies are being born everyday. However, in China, the number of babies being born is too much for their country. So the government decided to make a policy called the one-child policy. This policy limited families in China to only having one kid. Was the one child policy a good or bad idea? After researching the topic, I discovered that it was a bad idea because of multiple reasons. These reasons were because children would be too lonely with siblings, it cost a lot of money that wasn’t needed, and because there are less children for jobs.
One of the more extreme measures taken in an attempt to control population has been China's one-child policy. Population advocate Garet Hardin suggests the rest of the world adopt similar policies. This paper is to show a country's government acting on theories that Hardin is popular for and the ethical and environmental effects that it had on people and the land. Hardin fails to see the ethical problems laid out by governments that suppress peoples thoughts and beliefs.
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.
In Hanna Rosin’s article, ‘‘the end of men”, the author begins by stating that women are taking over today’s society, while the position of men have become a thought of the past. The author recognizes the negativity of having girls as firstborns. In the article, the author states, “Many wives who failed to produce male heirs were abused and treated as domestic servants; while some families prayed to spirits to kill off girl children” (Rosin). In this article, the author gives light to how the preference of having males has decimated from the minds of people and how it has been erased from society. And, goes as far as insinuating that women have overtaken the place of men in today’s society and are seen as equal. However, I disagree because I believe that men just want to keep women down and it is demonstrated through discrimination at the workplace, depriving education, and violence towards women.
Single women raising families has become a recent trend. A sense of how far we as a society have come since Shakespeare's time to today verifies that male dominance is dying out. We as a society have shifted towards equality.
to the conclusion at one point that the whole thing was hopeless because it is a biological fact women have babies and that is always a career breaker. I end this paper rather disappointed that now, as it was centuries ago,are allowing their lives to be run by male views and stereotypes. The world is moving forward but unless women stop allowing
This proposal eventually triggered a profound introspection which chronically melted patriarchal cultures. The broad topic of how government’s decisions altered social norms is discussed within five sociological studies in my essay in allusion to the impacts of One Child policy on gender inequality.
China’s One Child Policy is still a current issue today. Before the policy was created, Mao Tse Dong, was China’s communist leader, who believed in planned births. He wanted the country to go by the slogan “later, longer, fewer.” This encouraged families to have fewer children, to space the births out longer, and to have them at a later age in life (Nadia 295). He believed that once people’s education increased so would the practice of birth control. This would help lower fertility rate and could bring some people out of poverty. After Mao Tse Dong’s death, the government took a more active stance on reducing population growth, so the One Child Policy was created and enforced. The One Child Policy became an issue in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but is still a debatable topic today. Deng Xiaoping was China’s new leader who greatly encouraged the new policy to be enforced. He believed that controlling the population would better the country. China’s family planning policy was introduced to alleviate social and economic problems but has increased forced abortions and infanticides.
Huen, Yuki W.P. “Policy Response to Declining Birth Rate in Japan: Formation of a ‘Gender-Equal’ Society.” San Francisco State University. online.sfsu.edu, 11 Sep. 2007. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.
Over population has been a global issue for decades. Medical advances have made it possible for people to live longer and have multiple births, which are just some of the factors contributing to this social problem. Many countries have attempted to battle this issue, but none as intensely as China. China allows the government to have full control over family planning to help reduce the population. In 1979 China created a policy called the "One Child Law" which limits couples to only one child. Although the Chinese government hopes to curb the population boom and benefit society, the One Child Policy has morally questionable results, negative impacts on Chinese society, which should be changed.
During the rein of Mao Tse-tung China’s population was almost at one million. Mao allowed couples to have as many children as they please because to him, “of all the things in the world people are the most precious.”(Fitzpatrick 2). As the as the population continued to grow the government became concerned and decided that population control was necessary in order to remain able to support the citizens of China. Furthermore, the government feared there would not be enough food to upkeep residents. The next leader, Deng Xioping, created the “One Child Policy” therefore preventing families from having more than one child. On September 25th 1980 the policy was instituted. Subsequently this law has prohibited children and parents the experience of having a big family.
Remember that this is for the goodness of mankind. The majority of our population shall consist of males. 30 through 40% of the population will be made up of females and families that will raise females will be chosen by the government. With that being said, extra female babies that are conceived must be aborted. As a whole, the society believes that males will grow up strong and will be able to control and lead society in a well manner.