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One Child Policy and China’s Future

One Child Policy and China’s Future
One Child Policy and China’s Future

One Child Policy and China?s Future

The boom of population since1949 was a heavy burden to the newly founded republic.The severity of problems that come with overpopulation, like epidemics, slums, overwhelmed social services (such as health, education, law enforcement), and strain on the ecosystem from abuse of fertile land and production of high volumes of waste, had made the decision that we must do something to limit the population growth. Therefore, the One-Child Policy was carried out.

The One-Child Policy is the population control policy of the People's Republic of China. The Chinese government refers to it under the official translation of family planning policy. It officially restricts the number of children married couples can have only one child, although it allows exemptions for several cases, including ethnic minorities, and parents without any siblings themselves. A spokesperson of the Committee on the One-Child Policy has said that approximately 35.9% of China's population is currently subject to the one-child restriction. The policy does not apply to the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau, or Tibet. The policy was introduced in 1978 and initially applied to first-born children in 1979. It was created by the Chinese government to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China, and authorities claim that the policy has prevented more than 250 million births from its implementation to 2000. The policy is controversial both within and outside China because of the manner in which the policy has been implemented, and because of concerns about negative economic and social consequences. The policy is enforced at the provincial level through fines that are imposed based on the income of the family and other factors. Population and Family Planning Commissions exist at every level of government to raise awareness about the issue and carry out registration and inspection work. Despite this policy, there are still many citizens that continue to have more than one child.

There are a couple of difficulties at the beginning of the One-Child Policy?s enforcement. China has a long tradition of son preference. The commonly accepted explanation for son preference is that sons in rural families may be thought to be more

helpful in farm work. Both rural and urban populations have economic and traditional incentives, including widespread remnants of Confucianism, to prefer sons over daughters. Sons are preferred as they provide the primary financial support for the parents in their retirement, and a son's parents typically are better cared for than his wife's. In addition, Chinese traditionally hold that daughters, on their marriage, become primarily part of the groom's family. Male-to-female sex ratios in the current Chinese population are high in both rural and urban areas. Hence, the Chinese parents tried all kinds of means to get a son, even against the law.

The introduction of the one-child policy has a profound impact in China. Firstly, the fertility rate in China fell from over three births per woman in 1980 (already a sharp reduction from more than five births per woman in the early 1970s) to approximately 1.8 births in 2008. The Chinese government estimates that it had three to four hundred million fewer people in 2008 with the one-child policy, than it would have had otherwise. However, “China still has one million more births than deaths every five weeks.”China?s population is still increasing quickly. Secondly, the policy as a great success in helping to implement China's current economic growth. Thirdly, the suicide rate of women in childbearing years (generally between 15 and 34) has increased considerably since the policy was implemented, especially in smaller Chinese cities. This is believed to be due to pressure to give birth to a single child, as it is usually desired to have a male child. Fourthly, it is reported that the focus of China on population control helps provide a better health service for women and a reduction in the risks of death and injury associated with pregnancy. At family planning offices, women receive free contraception and prenatal classes. Help is provided for pregnant women to closely monitor their health. In various places in China, the government rolled out a …Care for Girls? program, which aims at eliminating cultural discrimination against girls in rural and underdeveloped areas through subsidies and education. Fifthly, the individual savings rate has increased. Since young Chinese can no longer rely on children to care for them in their old age, there is an impetus to save money for the future. Sixthly, the social pressure exerted by the one-child policy has affected the rate at which parents abandon undesirable

children, and many live in state-sponsored orphanages, from which thousands are adopted internationally and by Chinese parents each year. In the 1980s and early 1990s, poor care and high mortality rates in some state institutions generated intense international pressure for reform. Seventhly, Gender-selected abortion, abandonment, and infanticide are illegal in China. But, infanticide was fairly common in China before the 1990s, and more prevalent infanticide has been in recent years. Eighthly, wealthy couples are increasingly turning to fertility medicines to have multiple births, because of the lack of penalties against couples who have more than one child in their first birth; and the number of multiple births per year in China had doubled by 2006.

With just over 1.3 billion people (1,330,044,605 as of mid-2008); china is the world's largest and most populous country. As the world's population is approximately 6.7 billion, China represents a full 20% of the world's population so one in every five people on the planet is a resident of China. China's population growth has been somewhat slowed by the one child policy, in effect since 1979. As recently as 1950, China's population was a mere 563 million. The population grew dramatically through the following decades to one billion in the early 1980s. China's total fertility rate is 1.7, which means that, on average, each woman gives birth to 1.7 children throughout her life. The necessary total fertility rate for a stable population is 2.1; nonetheless, China's population is expected to grow over the next few decades. This can be attributed to immigration and a decrease in infant mortality and a decrease in death rate as national health improves. By the late 2010s, China's population is expected to reach 1.4 billion. Around 2030, China's population is anticipated to peak and then slowly start dropping. In the next few decades, India, the world's second most populous country is expected to surpass China in population. By 2040, India's population is expected to be 1.52 billion; that same year, China's will be 1.45 billion and India will become the world's most populous country. As of 2005, India has a total fertility rate of 2.8, well above replacement value, so it is growing much more quickly than China.

With the development of society, things are changing quickly. Nowadays, China?s main population challenge is turned to the unbalanced population between Man and

Our grate country has successfully achieved the goal to prevent its population from growing too fast, which was set in its first population policy advocating 'one child for one couple, From now on, we should launch a new population policy advocating 'two children for one couple', with the objective of preventing a rapidly aging population with too few children in the future. I believe china?s future will be better and better.

Reference:

Zhu WX. The One-Child Family Policy. Arch Dis Child 2003

CHINA POPIN

Wang JY. Evaluation of the fertility of Chinese women during 1990-2000.

China daily

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