China's One Child Policy Essay

Development and implementation of one child policy
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

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 children. Figure 1

Hudson in their article titled “In Maintaining One-Child Policy, China Undermines Internal Stability.” Moreover, "The Social Impact of China’s One-Child Policy” by Chen Xuefeng reports that as of 2003 “over 90% of all urban children, and over 60% of rural children” had no siblings at all (Xuefeng 74). It is due to its wide success that FPP has to be changed allowing once again for a growth of population in order to catch up with China’s recent development and need to replace older dying workforce. Nevertheless, there are also other factors in play that forced this recent change such as rapid aging of general population and changes in gender