THE EFFECTIVENESS AND IMPACTS OF CHINA'S 'ONE CHILD POLICY'
China's One Child Policy (or Planned Birth Policy, as it is officially known) was introduced in 1979 to limit the country's population growth. Although introduced as a temporary measure, the policy is still in place though relaxed in some areas. Officially, couples are limited to just one child. Second or subsequent pregnancies are met with fines, economic penalties and pressure to have the pregnancies aborted.
The policy is not an all encompassing rule. It has, in practice, only applied to ethnic Han Chinese living in urban areas. Ethnic minorities and those living in rural areas have not been subject to the policy. Nevertheless, the policy has proved very successful in reducing the rate of China's population growth in preventing more than 400 million births. In 1979, when it was introduced, the fertility rate was over 5%. By 2007, the fertility rate had dropped to 1.6%, well below the replacement level of 2.1%.
There have, however, been some unplanned demographic and social impacts. Male children are often prized more highly than girls. This has resulted in cases of neglect and abandonment of female children. Female babies are often aborted, and infanticide has been known to occur. As a result, there is now a gender imbalance; 114 males for every 100 female babies. It has been found that sex ratios and crime rate are connected, with just a 1% increase in sex ratio leading to a 5% increase in crime rate.The parts of China with the most male-biased sex ratios are experiencing a variety of incidences, all tied to the presence of too many young men. These problems include gambling, alcohol and drug abuse, kidnapping, and trafficking of women, incidences of which are all rising steeply in China. Instances of social unrest are becoming larger, more violent, more likely to cross provincial borders, and more diverse in terms of participants and injustice. A study concluded that increased sex ratios are correlated with increased bride abduction, trafficking of women, rape and prostitution. High male sex ratios also lead to a lower rate of female literacy and workforce participation. This is no ideal situation as China needs women in working in the workforce to stabilise the country's economy. (All Girls Allowed).
In the occasion that a couple has more than one child, they are forced to pay a fine. In Jiangsu province, couples with three children (i.e. two more than they’re legally allowed to have) must pay between five and eight times the combined annual income of both spouses. In Beijing, couples had to pay nearly $40,000 for an extra child in 2012, according to China Economic Weekly, though fines can go as high as $176,000. The Chinese government revealed that it collects around $3 billion a year in “social support fees", or fines payed by parents for that extra child. In 2012, 17 out of 31 provinces brought in a combined $2.6 billion. While Jiangxi province officials pocketed around $550 million in fines, Sichuan province collected $394 million and Guangdong province revealed that its residents had coughed up $239 million in 2012 (Quatrz, 2014).
While China’s one-child policy has achieved its social goals by raising living standards, it has not reduced the county’s environmental impact and has possibly caused more harm from the higher consumption rate that resulted from those greater standards. Due to population decrease that resulted from the one-child policy, one-fourth of the population — the equivalent of everyone in the United States — has entered the middle class - inevitably leading to an increase in consumption of food, energy, and other goods and detrimental environmental impacts. The factors concerning China’s economic growth and population have caused abrupt and potentially irreversible changes which have already been manifested through massive fish kills, smog, deforested landscapes. According to Yu Xuejun, a director-general of China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission “To solve China’s problems is to solve the world’s problems”. Unfortunately, China’s attempt to diminish its impact on the environment has led to further environmental issues (China's One CHild Policy, 2014).
The policy is not an all encompassing rule. It has, in practice, only applied to ethnic Han Chinese living in urban areas. Ethnic minorities and those living in rural areas have not been subject to the policy. Nevertheless, the policy has proved very successful in reducing the rate of China's population growth in preventing more than 400 million births. In 1979, when it was introduced, the fertility rate was over 5%. By 2007, the fertility rate had dropped to 1.6%, well below the replacement level of 2.1%.
There have, however, been some unplanned demographic and social impacts. Male children are often prized more highly than girls. This has resulted in cases of neglect and abandonment of female children. Female babies are often aborted, and infanticide has been known to occur. As a result, there is now a gender imbalance; 114 males for every 100 female babies. It has been found that sex ratios and crime rate are connected, with just a 1% increase in sex ratio leading to a 5% increase in crime rate.The parts of China with the most male-biased sex ratios are experiencing a variety of incidences, all tied to the presence of too many young men. These problems include gambling, alcohol and drug abuse, kidnapping, and trafficking of women, incidences of which are all rising steeply in China. Instances of social unrest are becoming larger, more violent, more likely to cross provincial borders, and more diverse in terms of participants and injustice. A study concluded that increased sex ratios are correlated with increased bride abduction, trafficking of women, rape and prostitution. High male sex ratios also lead to a lower rate of female literacy and workforce participation. This is no ideal situation as China needs women in working in the workforce to stabilise the country's economy. (All Girls Allowed).
In the occasion that a couple has more than one child, they are forced to pay a fine. In Jiangsu province, couples with three children (i.e. two more than they’re legally allowed to have) must pay between five and eight times the combined annual income of both spouses. In Beijing, couples had to pay nearly $40,000 for an extra child in 2012, according to China Economic Weekly, though fines can go as high as $176,000. The Chinese government revealed that it collects around $3 billion a year in “social support fees", or fines payed by parents for that extra child. In 2012, 17 out of 31 provinces brought in a combined $2.6 billion. While Jiangxi province officials pocketed around $550 million in fines, Sichuan province collected $394 million and Guangdong province revealed that its residents had coughed up $239 million in 2012 (Quatrz, 2014).
While China’s one-child policy has achieved its social goals by raising living standards, it has not reduced the county’s environmental impact and has possibly caused more harm from the higher consumption rate that resulted from those greater standards. Due to population decrease that resulted from the one-child policy, one-fourth of the population — the equivalent of everyone in the United States — has entered the middle class - inevitably leading to an increase in consumption of food, energy, and other goods and detrimental environmental impacts. The factors concerning China’s economic growth and population have caused abrupt and potentially irreversible changes which have already been manifested through massive fish kills, smog, deforested landscapes. According to Yu Xuejun, a director-general of China’s National Population and Family Planning Commission “To solve China’s problems is to solve the world’s problems”. Unfortunately, China’s attempt to diminish its impact on the environment has led to further environmental issues (China's One CHild Policy, 2014).
"By the midpoint of the century, more than a quarter of the Chinese population will be over 65. And it will be at this point in time (if not sooner) that young adults will face an unprecedented burden of care — what's been dubbed the 4-2-1 problem."
- George Dvorsky
The 4-2-1 problem surrounding the one-child policy means that only children will have to bear the responsibility of supporting both of their parents and, sometimes, all four of their grandparents in their old age, as they cannot rely on siblings to help them care for their aging family. Not just in China, but worldwide, due to technological advancements and improved healthcare, people are living longer and therefore the size of the aging population is growing. The size of China’s population aged sixty and above will grow by 100 million in just 15 years (from 200 million in 2015 to over 300 million by 2030). This growth in the number of elderly people will lead to an increasing demand for services and expenditures related to health care, the costs of which will fall upon China’s only children. With one child providing for six other people in addition to him or her and their families, the financial burden will be demanding. The one-child policy has created a situation in China in which there are too few young people to support a growing, aging population.
China's One Child Policy has come under many criticisms since its implementation in 1979 in its effectiveness and whether it is a viable long term solution to population pressure, which could be adopted by other countries. The Policy, itself, has been extremely effective is slowing China's population growth at an exponential rate, yet the ethics of the Policy is questionable. Many parents have had to force abort their unborn children or have been lead to do exceptionally insane acts in fear, as they can not afford to pay the fine to have their second/third child. Such acts include the abandonment of their child (particularly if it is a girl) or going to the extreme of flushing their newborn child down the toilet, as seen in 2013. The One Child Policy is not one that can be sustained for a long period of time as it is doing more harm than good. It is the main cause for gender imbalance, and social and environmental issues that, if not fixed, will continue to grow and become worse in the future. The adoption of this particular policy by other countries would only increase these impacts on a global scale, thus, the One Child Policy is not a long-term viable solution for population pressure.
Examples of propaganda encouraging the 'One Child Policy':
China's One Child Policy has come under many criticisms since its implementation in 1979 in its effectiveness and whether it is a viable long term solution to population pressure, which could be adopted by other countries. The Policy, itself, has been extremely effective is slowing China's population growth at an exponential rate, yet the ethics of the Policy is questionable. Many parents have had to force abort their unborn children or have been lead to do exceptionally insane acts in fear, as they can not afford to pay the fine to have their second/third child. Such acts include the abandonment of their child (particularly if it is a girl) or going to the extreme of flushing their newborn child down the toilet, as seen in 2013. The One Child Policy is not one that can be sustained for a long period of time as it is doing more harm than good. It is the main cause for gender imbalance, and social and environmental issues that, if not fixed, will continue to grow and become worse in the future. The adoption of this particular policy by other countries would only increase these impacts on a global scale, thus, the One Child Policy is not a long-term viable solution for population pressure.
Examples of propaganda encouraging the 'One Child Policy':