China's One-Child Policy

            Since I was a tiny freshman in high school, I have been taking Chinese as my foreign language, and this year I have also been taking AP Comparative Government for my government class.  I have always wondered more about China’s One-Child Policy and in the past week we have been talking about China in government and it has once again come up making me curious.

            During the time of Mao Zedong, the population growth in China was not viewed as in issue.  The increasing population was instead viewed as human labor and the revolutionary enthusiasm as national assets.  Therefore, during the time of Mao, little was done to promote family planning in China.

            By the early 1970s, the population of China was over 800 million people and was growing at a rate of 2.8 percent per year, meaning China’s population would double in just twenty-five years.  In the 1980s the Chinese government started what has become known as the One-Child Policy.  The policy over time has used various means to encourage or even force couples to only have one child.

            Media campaigns have been used to promote the patriotic virtues and material benefits of having small families.  Incentives, such as more farmland or preferred housing have been offered to families with only one child, and fines or demotions have been given to those who violate the policy.  In some areas of the country, workplace medics or local doctors monitor contraceptive use and women’s fertility cycles, and a couple must have official permission to have a child.  Defiance of the laws has led to forced abortions and sterilizations.

            Now, 30 years later, the population of China is now at 1.3 billion people and the growth is about 0.8 percent per year; which means it was take eighty-seven years for the population to double.  However, the policy has also caused some debate.  The intrusive nature of the family planning and extensive use of abortions as the major means of birth control have led to criticism from the international community.

            Many Chinese farmers have evaded the One-Child Policy by not registering births because of the need for labor following the return to household-based agriculture.  The belief that boys will contribute more to the family and that a male heir is necessary have caused many rural families to make sure that they have a son by taking drastic measures.  Female infanticide and abandonment have increased dramatically, and with the increase in ultra-sound technology the number of sex-selective abortions of female fetuses.  China is now believed to have a gender ratio of nearly 120 boys for every 100 girls, with an estimated 70 million more males than females.  The large gap, it is worried, may have already led to “bride stealing” and other kinds of trafficking.

            The Chinese government, in response to pressure, has begun to relax its policies somewhat.  Forced abortions are now infrequent, although sex-selective abortions have continued.  Rural couples are now allowed to have two children and in the cities the policy is still basically in effect.

            So although the One-Child Policy was able to achieve its purpose in lowering the population growth in China, it has also had some unforeseen consequences that will have to continue to be sorted out in the years to come.

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