...Economic Impact of the One-Child Policy in China John F. Rodis EMBA International Economics Professor Jim Stodder October 15, 2014 The Economic Impact of the Single-Child Policy in China Thesis Statement: The single-child policy implemented in China more than thirty years ago to slow the rate of population growth, not only had a marginal effect on the growth of the population, but also had the unintended consequence of a long-lasting negative impact on the Chinese economy. Abstract: The Chinese government imposed a single-child policy 34 years ago in response to a rapidly increasing population that was determined to be unsustainable. Last November, the government ended the policy. A careful review of the literature regarding the efficacy of the policy as well as examination of other factors that could have affected population growth was conducted. The result of this review confirmed that the policy—in and of itself--had only a marginal impact on the growth of the Chinese population. However, the policy resulted in a significant change in the demographics of the Chinese population, with the result of China having a significantly older population than many developed nations, but one that aged at a much faster rate. However, unlike these developed nations, neither the Chinese people nor their government is adequately prepared for this rapidly aged population. As a consequence, there will be significant long-lasting negative consequences on the Chinese economy, including...
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...One Child Policy China What is the Policy? In the late 1970’s the Chinese government decided to introduce a number of measures to reduce the country’s birthrate and slow down the mass population growth. One of the greatest and most successful policies was the “One Child Policy”. This policy involves a couple only being allowed one child per family. In 1950 the rate of population change in China was 1.9%, an increase of around 1% would mean that the population would double in less than 24 years. The policy was established by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979, at first this was a temporary measure to limit childbirths but has been continued ever since. At first when the policy was introduced there were two major concerns, how it would affect the booming economy and society in general? Why was it introduced? When the “One Child Policy” was brought into action in 1979 China’s population was 975.4 million people, in 2012 the population of China is around 1.34 billion, this is a growth of 138%. Although this seems a lot China is slowly slowing down their population growth especially compared to India’s which has had a 180% increase. The most recent peak in fertility rates in China was in the late 1960’s when it was 5.91. When the “One Child Policy” was introduced the fertility rate of Chinese women was 2.91 and the country had to slow this down, as they would not have enough resources and a structured infrastructure for the country to keep growing. Previous...
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...fast. So the governor of China instituted the One-Child policy to restrict the growing population. This policy was introduced in 1979 and initially applied to first-born children in the year of 1979. After more than 30 years carry out, the main goal of this policy was achieved. Under the influence, the growth rate declines apparently. In the 1970s, China’s growth rate was 3 percent; in the mid-1980’s, it was 1.2%; and today, China’s growth rate is 0.7 %”( Jackson & Eleen, 2001). On the other hand, this policy also causes several adverse consequences, including high rate of old-age, increased abortion rate, unexpected change of sex ration. There is no doubt this policy’s affection which is obvious. Even though the Chinese government within the pressure of human rights improvement has relaxed the policy and makes this policy more humanistic but some of people still consider the one child policy impact China in a more negative way. Therefore, I will introduce how does one child policy impact towards Chinese society in the below. On the current situation, even the Chinese government makes lots of beneficial changes, this policy isn’t prefect yet. The opposite voice never stops. Some people on the Internet even states that this policy is inhumane and absurd, due to this policy restrict the human right. On the other hand, many people on the Internet refer that this policy is necessary and understandable. They consider one child policy is an effective...
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...One Child Policy: Right or Wrong The world today consists of almost 6.9 billion people. China itself, serves host to more than 1.2 billion people. This astronomical figure is more than 17% of the enite word population. For centuries China has stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences. On the other hand, over the last decade, it has also plummeted economically. A big factor for this massive downfall is its overpopulation within the country. Due to this exponential increase in population, the Chinese government has installed a “one-child policy”. The one-child policy solved the overpopulation issue in China, but it also introduced a variety of other problems to the country. In the early 1900's, China's population was about 420 million. In the past century years, it had grown to 1.2 billion, an increase of almost 800 million people in a 100 years. (Hays) Having this many people in one area means that there is a lot of people to feed, clothe, and house. The population has put a large amount of tension on its limited resources. A quarter of China’s land is either desert, or infertile land, therefore no crops can be grown on the land. Also, it means that people won't want to live on it because they wouldn’t be able to support themselves due to the poor soil. This issue leads to tremendous amounts of population density in the cities. The Chinese government realized that something had to be put in place, otherwise they would never...
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...The one-child policy is the one-child limitation in 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 married, urban couples to having only one child, while allowing exemptions for several cases, including rural couples, 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 Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are completely exempt from the policy. Also exempt from this law are foreigners living in China. This policy was introduced in 1978 and initially applied to first-born children in the year of 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 between 250 and 300 million births from its implementation until 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 social consequences. The policy has been implicated in an increase in forced abortions, of female births, and has been suggested as a possible cause behind China's gender imbalance. Nonetheless, a 2008 survey undertaken by the Pew Research Center reported that 76% of the...
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...workers. The Chinese families were paid to have babies. 1953 The Chinese population had grown to about 583 million people. The Chinese government no longer offered an incentive of pay to have babies. 1963 The Chinese government realized that the families continued to produce babies and they were headed for major problems. The Chinese government came out with, Later Sparcer Fewer Policy. The Policy encouraged Couples to have children later in life, space the births farther apart, and have fewer children. The problem with this policy was that there were already millions of people in China. 1979 Chinese government came up with an extreme plan of the One Child Policy. This policy allows citizens to pick up the birth before the birth of their child. 1980 The Birth Quota System was established to monitor population growth. Target goals were set for each region of the country. Local government officials were responsible for enforcing the population control rules and making sure they did not exceed the the limit they were allotted. Government officials were punished by law and loss of privileges if the pre-established goals were not met. 1980 ( SFPC) Population and Information Research Center was founded. SFPC was established so that different organizations could share information regarding population control. They are responsible for assimilating information and providing it the Chinese government which in turns helps to form policies. China's...
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...Janica “Ken” Marie R. Concepcion Sec. A54A 11516992 “The Dying Rooms” The Chinese Government introduced the one-child policy back in 1978 and implanted it in 1980. The cause of implementing this was the high chance of overpopulation in China. Before the one-child policy was implemented, the government encouraged its people to have as many children as they can since it was believed that it will empower the country. Then in the early 1970’s the population of china grew to more than 900 million, it was here that the government started to encourage its citizens to marry at an older age and have only two children. There were many possible future states that could have happened if the Chinese population was not controlled properly. If the population was left uncontrolled many effects that would negatively influence different aspects of the nation. Overpopulation remains the leading driver of hunger, desertification, species depletion and a range of social maladies across the planet (Tal, 2013). Overpopulation is the main cause of these different kind of effects mentioned, there are also other effects that can be applied like future unemployment, family mismanagement, etc. Although there are unpredicted and undesired effects on implementing this policy, many citizens of China has now believed that it was a wise decision. One of the unpredicted and undesired effects of this policy is called “the dying rooms”, where children, mostly girls, are sent to because they were abandoned...
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...Fancheng Wang Professor Steven Cassedy MMW 22 A10 March 16, 2012 One-child Policy in China China’s one-child policy, one of the most controversial policies, has been intensely changing China’s social structure since 1979. This policy worked as a milestone on controlling the mass amount of population and had a profound impact on all aspects of Chinese’s life. Apparently, it decelerates the growth rate of population; otherwise, there could be 23 million newborns in China annually (Shanor 53). To some extent, this policy relieves a comparative land shortage under the mass population in the countryside (Davin 65). In addition, it raises the average level of education and health care in the city because parents are likely to put more effort into taking care of the only child in the household (Kane 109). Despite its marvelous success in both the city and countryside, some scholars are concerned with the side effects tied to this policy, such as “little emperors”, labor force shortage and an aging society, which will only escalate in the future (Shanor 54). Although this policy impact on people's lives are good or bad cannot draw a conclusion, but through some social problems, it is not hard to foresee the future of this policy having negative influence on the only-child’s different stages of age. Since the first generation of children under this policy have already reached their thirties and have become part of the mainstream society, these side effects have gradually impacted...
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...this 900 million-person increase was added within the last 50 years. In essence, the Mainland China alone contributes to at least twenty percent of the world's contribution. (Ogilvy 2000:97) The Chinese government realized that something had to be done or they would never be able to prosper as a country. Not at the rate they were heading, that's for sure. They decided to set up a plan to reduce the population growth. They called it China's one-child policy. This policy limits a Chinese couple to bearing only one child. (Milwertz 1997:56) Initially, the Chinese government adopted the policy in order to reduce the severe famine that plagued the country. They realized later that it would also help them prosper economically since the overpopulation held them back. The one child policy, although not formally written into law consisted of three main points. Advocating delayed marriage and delayed child bearing, advocating fewer and healthier births, and advocating one child per couple. (Wang 1995:34) Immediately after the policy was enforced, infanticide was introduced. How could a couple murder their child just because it was a female? Gender played a huge role in the Chinese culture. Males were definitely the dominant sex and a family without a male child was looked down at. The Chinese tradition implied that there must be a boy among the children in order to continue the family. They felt that the males carried the name of their ancestors and they...
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...111356 Class: 2ITMC-02 Date: 05/16/2013 Lecturer: Jeroen Hol Table of contents Introduction 3 What is One-Child policy? 3 Positive impact of One-Child policy 4 Negative impacts of One-Child policy 4 Ageing problem 4 Sex ration imbalance 5 Human rights violation 6 Little Emperor behavior and Heavy Burden 6 Conclusion 7 Reference: 8 Appendix: 9 Introduction Today, China is comforted the largest country in the world. The population of China is 1,354,040,000, which is confirmed by Chinese government in January 2013. China as the most populous country in the world has formulated a great national policy for population for population controlling, which is called One-Child policy, in 1970s last century. This great population policy has made big efforts on controlling Chinese population. Undoubtedly, One-Child policy has made historical contribution on the development of China in 34 years. Although Chinese One-Child policy controls the population growth effectively and contributes to Chinese economic development at the initial periods of implementing this policy, the One-Child policy still generates more and more negative impacts on current development in China. What is One-Child policy? During the administration of Chairman Mao Zedong, the crude birth rate decreased from 37 to 20 per thousand (Appendix, figure 1), infant mortality rate reduced sharply from 200 per thousand...
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...Hi Darryl, Would you please review our debate statement? Opening statement: We believe that China should give up the one-child policy. The disadvantages of China’s one child policy are many. It has caused appalling human rights abuses in China, including forcible abortions and sterilizations. Since the policy went into effect, China has had a significant gender imbalance, an abnormal sex ratio. China’s rapidly aging population—combined with lower fertility rates—is expected to present significant social and economic challenges. It also brings other problems, for example, the "four-two-one" problem and unequal enforcement. Argument 0: One-child policy benefits exaggerated The government states that 400 million births were prevented by the one-child policy until 2011; this claim is disputed as official propaganda by Wang Feng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy, and Cai Yong from the Carolina Population Center at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, who put the number of prevented births from 1979 to 2009 at around 100 or 200 million. Argument 1: Low fertility rate can’t maintain the sustainable development of society. According to the sixth census population, currently one couple only has 1.2 children on average. In cities, the number is less than 0.9. Even for people from countryside, it is 1.5. Under ideal mathematic model, the fertility rate should be 2.1. The 1.2 fertility rate means the number of population decrease 40% every generation...
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...Effect of China's one child policy The one-child policy is the one-child limitation in 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 married,urban couples to having only one child.The one-child policy is reward in China because it alleviates social,economic,and environmental problems.But,it also affects Chinese female population,the healthy growth of children and the parents' normal life. The one-child policy affects the female population.In China,it is commonly accepted that sons are preferred as they provide the primary financial support for their parents in their retirement."Bring up sons to support parents in their old age"says a Chinese proverb,even if parents face heavy fines,they will give birth to a boy.As a result,it will lead to the decline of female population. The above is from the point of view of parents,but from the children's point of view we can see that the one-child policy implies that the only child must afford all the family without from brothers' or sisters' help when he grows up.They will have to take care of their parents and grandparents alone in the future. Due to the one-child policy,parents only have one child.It will result in parents' doting on their child.Since each family has only one child,parents can provide everything that the child want.So they can depend on their parents do anything,at the...
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...The one-child policy is a population control policy that was introduced in 1979 to relive social, economic, and environmental problems in China. At the time the growth rate of China’s population was very high and the main purpose of the policy was to limit the large family units in the country to one child each. After implementing the policy, the government hoped to see reduction in the growth rate of its enormous population. Sometimes couples can have a second child only if their first was a girl or had disabilities. As of today, China’s government believes that their one-child policy will result in a wealthier, healthier and happier life for the people of China. After viewing the article, “Plight of The Little Emperors” and documentary, “China’s lost girls” I think the one-child policy implemented in China is not the right way to control over population. I believe that China’s one-child policy has been unsuccessful because it has caused health issues and gender imbalance. The first reason why I think the one-child policy has been unsuccessful is because it has caused health issues. Traditionally in the Chinese culture, the children take care of their parents when they are older. Since the one-child policy only allows them to have one child, they are willing to do almost anything so that child will be successful and support them in old age. By sacrificing themselves, these parents may face health issues. In the article “Plight of The Little Emperors” one mother...
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...One Child Policy The One Child Policy has been a law in China since 1979. Deng Xiaoping established it because the Chinese population had tripled since 1900. The Chinese government felt that this policy would improve social, economic, and environmental issues. The One Child Policy restricts the number of children urban married couples can have to one and the exceptions to the policy are rural couples and ethnic minorities. Rural area couples are an exception to the policy if the first born is a girl or has a physical disability, mental illness, or mental retardation. The institution of the one child policy has drastically influenced china on a political, social, and economic level. The Chinese government estimated that it has three to four hundred million less people because of the policy and that it has prevented overpopulation, epidemics, slums, and strain on the ecosystem, but there are still controversial issues involving the one child policy. Kidnapping, female infanticide, sex selective abortion, and unequal boy girl ratio are all results of the one child policy. In order for the one child policy to continue these controversial issues need to be resolved or else it could have a negative impact on the population. These issues are results of a Chinese tradition that in order for the family name to carry on you need a son and boys are just considered to be better then girls especially in rural areas because boys can do better farm work. This tradition is not a law...
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...China’s issue with overpopulation has been a difficult problem to solve for a long time. The Chinese population is one fifth of the world’s population, and China has the biggest land in Asia. Population’s increasing role in consumption can have serious environmental affects on one nation. Moreover, as people consume more, if the population increases more and more, it can cause exhaustion of resources, pollution by industries, decrease the supply of food and hurt the environment. China was overpopulated sharply before the Chinese government provided the family planning policy of "one child per family". Because of overpopulation, the Chinese government needed to provide the family planning policy of "one child per family." However, the policy caused some side effects on the population. The results are imbalance between developed and undeveloped areas, unbalance of male and female, preference of bearing only male children and increasing of selective-sex abortions. Although China has succeeded with its “one child” policy in the eastern area, the western area of China which is undeveloped still has couples who have two or even more than three children. The eastern area’s residents who live in big cities adhere easily to “one child per a family” policy, but western area’s residents who live in rural area need more than one child. If they have only one child, they cannot be productive in their agriculture; Also the preference of bearing only male children caused an unbalance of male...
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