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One Child Policy

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Submitted By yuleelee
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Geog 2110 Regional Geography of China Yu Lee Lee 12017973 04-04-2014
Whether China should abolish the one-child policy has been a controversial issue in the society. According to “The effect of China’s one-child family policy after 25 years” (2005), due to the economic stagnation, the limited resources, the baby boomers in 1950s, the Chinese government introduced one-child policy in 1979 for the sake of promoting economic reform, improving the living standard and achieving small-size family in the long term.
In the perspective of population growth, the writers believed that the policy itself is only partially responsible for the reduction in the total fertility rate. Instead, the voluntary “late, long, few” policy between 1970 and 1979 caused the most dramatic decrease in the total fertility rate. While the total fertility rate only had a gradual fall and stabilized at 1.7 since 1995 after the one-child policy was introduced.
The article also suggested that one-child policy is just a contributory factor for the high sex ratio in China. Most importantly, the authors believed that the traditional preferences for males, sex-selective abortion and non-registration of female are the factors accounting for the high sex ratio. Unless there is a change in attitude toward female offspring, the sex ratio will remain high.
What’s more, the article also suggested that the rapid decrease in birth rate and the improving life expectancy has led to an increase ration in old-age dependency and the serious “4:2:1” problem.
Last but not the least, the article bring out that the policy introduced in 1979 is not appropriate to put in enforcement now due to rapid socioeconomic change in China. A cautious and gradual approach to relax the one-child policy should be adopted.
In my opinion, it is an appropriate time for China to adjust its direction and scope of the

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