...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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...----------------------------------- Aug 31, 2005 One Child Policy in China ----------------------------------- Why Government Policy Causes Population Change in China Policy may Cause Population Change. China’s One Child Policy is a very controversial one. It involves only one child per married couple. This has led to high abortion figures (sometimes forced or selective), forced sterilisation and even infanticide. However China had no choice but to adopt such a harsh policy, China’s population in the 1970s was 900 million and rising. China didn’t have enough resources to support this growing population, and had strong regional variations. The government realised something had to change and in the early 1970s strongly driven family planning methods were adopted and in 1979 the one child policy was introduced. China is a huge country (9,600,000 squared kilometres) and has a large number of resources however there is an extreme imbalance between population size and resources available. 1,192 million people live in China that’s 21.4% of the world’s population. This is a lot of people to feed, clothe and house. The population has put a huge amount of tension on the countries limited resources. 25% of China’s land is infertile or desert so no crops can be grown on this land and not many will want to live on it because they wouldn’t be able to support themselves due to the poor soils. China can be split down the middle from the north east to the south, dividing...
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...One Child Policy: The Gender Epidemic During the 1970’s under Mao Tse-tung’s ruling, China’s population was increasing toward one billion people. When he was the ruler, Mao allowed the people to have as much babies as they wanted because to him, “of all the things in the world, people are the most precious.”(Ho) Soon, the population kept rising and the government came to a conclusion that popution control is nesscesary because they fear that there won’t be enough food or resources to support the people. After Mao passed away the next leader, Deng Xioping established the One Child Policy in 1980 to limit the population growth in China. The policy strictly allow couples in China to have only one child with a few exceptions in some areas. If couples disobey the law and have a second child, they would have to pay heavy fines. They can also lose their jobs and create a bad name for their family. In the government’s view when the policy was being introduced, fewer births ment fewer mouths to feed which ment that there is a better chance at prosperity for the people. (Evans 102) According to Paul Wiseman from USA Today, the goal of the policy was to keep the Chinese population below 1.2 billion people through 2000. As it turned out, the policy has failed because the population today is 1.3 billion. It did however lower birthrates due to birth control, abortions, and early deaths of infants. Throughout the years, China began to have an imbalanced gender ratio. There is a significant...
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...1. What is the ‘One-Child Policy’? China’s Demographic Transition Model China’s Demographic Transition Model The Chinese ‘One-Child Policy’ was introduced in 1978 by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. His aim was to limit communist China's population growth by limiting couples t6o only one child. Although designated a "temporary measure," it still continues to be in use a 25 years after it was established. In this time the rule has been estimated to have reduced population growth in the country of over 1.3 billion by as much as 300 million people in the first twenty years. During Mao Zedong’s leadership of China infant mortality declined from 227 births in 1949 to 53 in 1981 per 1000 live births, and life expectancy dramatically increased from around 35 in 1949 to 66 years in 1976. The policy was introduced because up until the 1960s, the government encouraged families to have as many children as possible this is due to president Mao Zedong’s belief that population growth empowered the country. He prevented the rise of family planning programs thus increasing birth rates. The population grew from around 540 million in 1949 to 940 million in 1976. Several years later Song Jian, one of china’s top officials read the books ‘The Limits of Growth’ and ‘A Blue Print For Survival’, he then went onto calculate the correct population for China to be 700 million, 240million less than the population at the time. The One-Child policy was introduced to reduce China’s population to...
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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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...The one-child policy is the China’s population control policy introduced in 1979, which allows all families to have only one child. This policy heavily relies on the Malthus’ policy recommendation originated from the Malthusian model discussed in the lecture, which argues that the rate of population growth would always outweigh the income growth. By implementing the policy, one of China’s expectations would be an increase in income per capita by lowering the population growth rate. While there are ongoing debates on whether the population growth is beneficial or problematic to a country, China’s one-child policy reveals both positive and negative effects on a country’s economic status. Under the one-child policy, Chinese families become easier to afford their basic needs which allow them to invest on their children and to increase their savings. The introduction of one-child policy alleviates the issues associated with the large families who suffer from poverty due to the high number of children to feed; as a result, more Chinese families can afford to...
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...The one child policy was established in China in 1979 because the population was growing extremely fast. The one child policy is a law that prevents families from having more than one child. It only applies to the Han Chinese ethnic group, which makes up 90% of the Chinese population. Sibling-less parents are allowed to have two children. Some Chinese people are in favor of the one child policy (OCP) because their lives were made easier. Other people felt it was not fair to have their rights taken away. I think that the OCP was not a good idea because there’s not enough information to support that it was a good idea. The intention of the OCP was to lower the fertility rate in China and prevent overpopulation. The OCP did lower the fertility rate but caused other problems. For example, in Document B it says that generations after the law was passed, there wouldn't be enough young people to care for the older. The generations will be too apart and then the elderly will not have enough people to replace them or care for them. Other countries that never have had the OCP had their fertility rate lower. In 1970 women used to have around 5.8 average kids, and it lowered to 2.7 kids on average in 1979. The fertility rate lowered before the OCP was made. Even without the OCP China’s population would have probably gone down anyways. The OCP brought a negative social impact on China. As stated in Document E people had to pay fines of $1000 if they had an extra child, and if they...
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...babies who were born this year came from Asia alone. This is an issue because over population can lead to hasty consumption of resources. China who has one of the largest population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, has taken a stance against over population. By introducing China’s One-Child Policy (Family Planning Policy) in 1979, China hopes to decrease its country’s annual population growth. China has implemented the policy by many different ways; propaganda, taxation, and multiple forms of birth control. Though China’s intentions are to give its citizens better living conditions by enforcing its policy, many controversial topics about human rights have risen about the affects of the One-Child Policy. Also other issues that China has to deal with are the major demographic events that will occur. For example the significant and growing gender imbalance. With many negative side effects with China’s One-Child Policy, one thing is certain, China’s policy is working. According to an article from the Joint Force Quarterly called “Graying Panda Shrinking Dragon” written by Matt Isler, China’s One-Child Policy has successfully slowed its population growth and has curtailed over 250 million births sense its inception (pg 2). China’s One-Child Policy has been doing its purpose but at the cost of its own citizens’ human rights. One of China’s largest concerns today is the problem of over population. China believes that for its nation to be prosperous and the people to be happy...
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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 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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...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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...China's population The most surprising demographic crisis A new census raises questions about the future of China’s one-child policy May 5th 2011 | BEIJING | The Economist * * DOES China have enough people? The question might seem absurd. The country has long been famous both for having the world’s largest population and for having taken draconian measures to restrain its growth. Though many people, Chinese and outsiders alike, have looked aghast at the brutal and coercive excesses of the one-child policy, there has also often been a grudging acknowledgment that China needed to do something to keep its vast numbers in check. But new census figures bolster claims made in the past few years that China is suffering from a demographic problem of a different sort: too low a birth rate. The latest numbers, released on April 28th and based on the nationwide census conducted last year, show a total population for mainland China of 1.34 billion. They also reveal a steep decline in the average annual population growth rate, down to 0.57% in 2000-10, half the rate of 1.07% in the previous decade. The data imply that the total fertility rate, which is the number of children a woman of child-bearing age can expect to have, on average, during her lifetime, may now be just 1.4, far below the “replacement rate” of 2.1, which eventually leads to the population stabilising. Slower growth is matched by a dramatic ageing of the population. People above the age of 60 now represent...
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...officials have begun launching pilot programs in five provinces that will ease the country's one-child policy. Sources differ in the details, but it is expected that this shift in policy will be expanded in the coming years, USA Today reported that . China has recognized for decades that its population numbers have taxed its lands resources. China is the world's largest and most populous country. After a population build up, the country experienced a famine in 1962 that caused a reported 30 million deaths. Since that time China has experimented with policies to control births and since the 1970's has instituted a one child policy. The one child policy relies on a mix of incentives and penalties to control birth rates. Individuals suffer fines, social ostracizement. Reports of more forceful control measures, such as forced confinement and sterilization leaked out onto the Internet. The policy has been highly criticized, however since about 1979 the law has prevented 250 -300 million births, saving China from a population explosion the nation would have difficulty supporting. Unchecked growth appears unsustainable. Yet human rights activists have been aware of high numbers of illegal, but common, gender-based abortions. An April, 2009 study published in the British Medical Journal found China has 32 million more boys than girls under the age of 20. The scarcity of females is just one significant issue facing China. A decreased population makes it difficult to support...
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...China’s One Child Policy; Impacts on the Society, the Economy, and the People. By David Goheen Due: December 14, 2007 Executive Summary During the years before the implementation of the One Child Policy, the leaders of China were involved in wars, a great leap forward, and an industrial revolution. In the last twenty five years China’s One Child Policy has affected the country in every way one can imagine. This paper will attempt to explore the major ways the policy has affected the people of China socially, and how the economy has reacted with the change. A brief history on the traditional views of Chinese families, before the policy’s implementation, is outlined ahead of the policy’s background. This is to illustrate where the people of China are coming from, socially and culturally. I hope to convey that this policy has forcefully stolen the Chinese citizens’ basic human right to reproduce and has hurt them physically and emotionally. However, statistically and economically the policy has been a success up to this point. The early psychological status of China’s children with no siblings is looked at to try to understand their mental capabilities of dealing with the pressure of having to be successful. Major flaws that were overlooked could spell disaster for this aging population in the future. The policy has created prosperity for the country, but has also left its citizens suffering. China is now looked at as having a low birth rate, a low death...
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