China's One Child Policy Dbq

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Patel Maahi Mrs. Warren Honors World History 16 May 2024 How Did China’s One-Child Policy Impact China? One of China’s most influential leaders, Mao Zedong, can be held responsible for the infamous One-Child Policy, an act passed in an attempt to reduce China’s overpopulation situation. Financial means such as heavy taxes on any children after the first, and the retraction of support from the government, were seen to serve as a motivator for Chinese couples to refrain from more than one pregnancy. As a further measure to slow childbirth and enforce abstinence, marriages would be delayed by government officials. The One-Child Policy implemented within China had significantly reduced fertility rates within three decades with the consequence …show more content…

Seeing that a majority of the One-Child Policy’s aftermath had counteractive impacts, one which benefited China was the unexpected increase in GDP per capita. According to The Conversation by Jane Golley’s “The Costs and Benefits of China’s One-Child Policy”, approximately one-fourth of China’s per capita GDP growth within the last thirty years was due to this policy. As a result, “Better nutrition, rising levels of education, longer life expectancies, and higher living standards for the vast majority of Chinese people,” were expected (Document D1). Nevertheless, this singular enhancement was not enough to outweigh the adversity. There were of course drawbacks to acquiring few workers and many more dependents, within the population. The excessive work put onto these few workers was strenuous as they were also held responsible for taking care of and providing for each of their dependents, a danger of overworking easily could lead to a multitude of health complications with mental and physical overexertion over time. China’s One-Child Policy depleted fertility rates; specifically that of female births, served to decrease the replacement rate, effectively reducing the ratio of men and women, and simultaneously acted as the

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