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Establishment and implementation of China’s one-child policy
- Consequences of China’s one-child policy
- The end of China’s one-child policy
What is the one-child policy?
When was the one-child policy introduced, why is the one-child policy controversial, what are the consequences of the one-child policy.
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one-child policy
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The one-child policy was a program in China that limited most Chinese families to one child each. It was implemented nationwide by the Chinese government in 1980, and it ended in 2016. The policy was enacted to address the growth rate of the country’s population , which the government viewed as being too rapid. It was enforced by a variety of methods, including financial incentives for families in compliance, contraceptives , forced sterilizations , and forced abortions .
September 25, 1980, is often cited as the official start of China ’s one-child policy, although attempts to curb the number of children in a family existed prior to that. Birth control and family planning had been promoted from 1949. A voluntary program introduced in 1978 encouraged families to have only one or two children. In 1979 there was a push for families to limit themselves to one child, but that was not evenly enforced across China. The Chinese government issued a letter on September 25, 1980, that called for nationwide adherence to the one-child policy.
China ’s one-child policy was controversial because it was a radical intervention by government in the reproductive lives of citizens, because of how it was enforced, and because of some of its consequences. Although some of the government’s enforcement methods were comparatively mild, such as providing contraceptives , millions of Chinese had to endure methods such as forced sterilizations and forced abortions . Long-term consequences of the policy included a substantially greater number of males than females in China and a shrinking workforce.
When did the one-child policy end?
The end of China ’s one-child policy was announced in late 2015, and it formally ended in 2016. Beginning in 2016, the Chinese government allowed all families to have two children, and in 2021 all married couples were permitted to have as many as three children.
There have been many consequences to China’s one-child policy. The country’s fertility rate and birth rate both decreased after 1980; the Chinese government estimated that some 400 million births had been prevented. Because sons were generally favoured over daughters, the sex ratio in China became skewed toward men, and there was a rise in the number of abortions of female fetuses along with an increase in the number of female babies killed or placed in orphanages.
After the one-child policy ended in 2016, China’s birth and fertility rates remained low, leaving the country with a population that was aging rapidly and a workforce that was shrinking. With data from China’s 2020 census highlighting an impending demographic and economic crisis, the Chinese government announced in 2021 that married couples would be allowed to have as many as three children.
one-child policy , official program initiated in the late 1970s and early ’80s by the central government of China , the purpose of which was to limit the great majority of family units in the country to one child each. The rationale for implementing the policy was to reduce the growth rate of China’s enormous population . It was announced in late 2015 that the program was to end in early 2016.
China began promoting the use of birth control and family planning with the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, though such efforts remained sporadic and voluntary until after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. By the late 1970s China’s population was rapidly approaching the one-billion mark, and the country’s new pragmatic leadership headed by Deng Xiaoping was beginning to give serious consideration to curbing what had become a rapid population growth rate. A voluntary program was announced in late 1978 that encouraged families to have no more than two children, one child being preferable. In 1979 demand grew for making the limit one child per family. However, that stricter requirement was then applied unevenly across the country among the provinces, and by 1980 the central government sought to standardize the one-child policy nationwide. On September 25, 1980, a public letter—published by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to the party membership—called upon all to adhere to the one-child policy, and that date has often been cited as the policy’s “official” start date.
The program was intended to be applied universally, although exceptions were made—e.g., parents within some ethnic minority groups or those whose firstborn was handicapped were allowed to have more than one child. It was implemented more effectively in urban environments , where much of the population consisted of small nuclear families who were more willing to comply with the policy, than in rural areas, with their traditional agrarian extended families that resisted the one-child restriction. In addition, enforcement of the policy was somewhat uneven over time, generally being strongest in cities and more lenient in the countryside. Methods of enforcement included making various contraceptive methods widely available, offering financial incentives and preferential employment opportunities for those who complied, imposing sanctions (economic or otherwise) against those who violated the policy, and, at times (notably the early 1980s), invoking stronger measures such as forced abortions and sterilizations (the latter primarily of women).
The result of the policy was a general reduction in China’s fertility and birth rates after 1980, with the fertility rate declining and dropping below two children per woman in the mid-1990s. Those gains were offset to some degree by a similar drop in the death rate and a rise in life expectancy , but China’s overall rate of natural increase declined.

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One Child Policy, Essay Example
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In the early 20 th century, Chinese government was baffled about the fast rate at which the population was growing. The one child policy was enacted in 1979 and is currently in effect. The policy is enforced through incentives such as health care, educational opportunities, job and housing opportunities, and disincentives for violators of the policy. Violators face fines, loss of educational access, and other privileges. Nonetheless, the policy has never been uniformly enforced throughout China. Initially, the goal of this policy was to ensure that the Chinese population remained under 1.2 billion. This goal was intended to be met by promotion of contraception and forced sterilizations. After carefully examining the risks and benefits China’s one child policy, it is believed that a new two-child approach is the best alternative for the future of China.
The one child policy has caused negative demographic consequences. The one child policy had estimated that China’s population would be reduced by more than 300 million in the first twenty years (Mosher, 2006). Although it has decreased the population, it has created a high sex imbalance with males unequally outnumbering females. The one child policy has also been linked to sex-selective abortions, infanticide, and other social safety problems. There are many speculations about what is happening to the girls in Chinese society. For example,
“Medical advancements and technology have played a key role in creating this surplus of boys. The Chinese government contracted with GE to provide cart-mounted ultrasound that could be run on generators so that the most obscure village had access to fetal sex determination. Given the ability to know the sex of their unborn children, many parents aborted female fetuses. Sadly, such abortions do not account for all of the missing girls in China” (Short, 2000).
Many regulations attempt to guard against sex determination abortion, but evidence shows that there has been an increase in the use of ultrasound B machines, which determines the sex of fetuses (Short, 2000). The use of ultrasound technology for abortion purposes is illegal, but it is speculated that sex selected abortions account for the great decline in female births (Wan, Fan, & Lin, 1994). In rural areas, many families simply hide their female children or give them to nearby families in order to avoid reporting the births. Sadly, some girls are just abandoned and left to die (Zilberberg, 2007).
There are several negative side effects of the one-child policy. China does not have a national social security plan. Taking care of the older generations will fall upon the one-child generation. Persons over the age of 65 currently make up about 25 percent of the population. Consequently, a one child will be responsible for taking care of four grandparents and two parents. This has become known as the “4:2:1 problem”. Another negative consequence is what has grown to be called the “Little Emperor Syndrome”, which discusses the psychological effects the one-child policy has on the children. These children have been called the spoiled generation because they are doted by parents and grandparents. The rise in childhood obesity has been linked to this syndrome. One in every five Chinese children is obese (Zhan, 2004). China has been traditionally known for great health and dietary practices. A final consequence of the one-child policy has been the difficulty of men to find a woman to marry. A direct result of this scenario is the increase in trade and sell of kidnapped women. To date, about 110,000 have been freed during crackdowns by Chinese government in Vietnamese and North Korea. It is believed that this increase in sex ratio imbalance will lead to the increase in sex related crimes and violence (Fong, 2002).
There are several steps that the Chinese government can take to remedy the many problems that the one-child policy has created. One immediate remedy would be the elimination of the use of the ultrasound B machine to determine fetuses’ sex before birth. This would eliminate mothers aborting female children. Another remedy for the problem is to relax or eliminate the one-child policy. Relaxing the policy would allow families in certain areas to have more than one child to help balance the sex ratio. In other words, in areas where men greatly outnumber women, parents would be able to have more than one child. Yet, eliminating the policy could possibly fix the problem. This would allow nature to take its course and over time the problem would be eliminated. Finally, enacting a two-child policy would help increase the decreasing female population. There is no quick remedy that will fix this problem overnight for the Chinese countries. When couples are allowed to have two children, it might discourage them from discriminating against female babies (Fong, 2002). A two child policy will allow will double the birth rate and close the gap of children to parent to grandparent gap. This will take time and will require some drastic changes in the way Chinese society views females. Through education, women will continue to fight for equality and hopefully, parents will one day value female children just as much as they value male children. Finally, an incentive program could be implemented. First time parents who have a female child could be given some type of monetary incentives and allowed to have a second child. However, the second child will not receive the monetary incentive regardless to its sex. However, if the parents have a boy the first time and a girl the second time, they could still receive the monetary incentive. This would encourage a balance between the sexes and parents would not prefer one sex over the other.
Stories of forced abortions and sterilizations are common in China. For example,
“Enforcement of the one-child policy during the early 1980s was controversial not only in China but around the globe. Early stories emerging from the rural villages focused on coercive practices, including forced late-term abortions and involuntary sterilization, as well as the “neighborly” snitching on pregnant couples who dared to conceive a second child. Backlash in rural communities throughout China prompted the government to modify the rule in the mid-1980s, allowing a second child in families whose first child was either a girl or disabled” (Liu, Wyshak, and Larsen, 2004).
Many have accused the Chinese government performing forced abortions on women who were past the abortion cut off limit. Many of the forced abortions are carried out on unmarried women. The family is the basic unit of society and shapes the individual’s behaviors and ideology. Ones interaction and time spent with siblings produce memories that last a life time. Lack of this connection will definitely affect the dynamics of family life. Much research has been done to determine how sibling structure, or the lack of structure, affects individuals in adulthood. China is under the direct influence of Confucian ideology, which teaches that a person’s life is continued through his family. According to this ideology, when a person dies, his spirit and blood remain in the word within his offspring. Traditionally, Chinese families desire large families and emphasis male dominance. Consequently, gender inequality is deep rooted in Chinese culture. Males are expected to fulfill filial duty by inheriting their parents’ estates and performing religious ceremonies. China, along with many other societies, constrains women to the home. Men are the primary source of income for their families (Wong, 1997). Women were not considered as descendants, so they were not given the same opportunities for education and other privileges as males were. Consequently, Chinese society has produced women who are not well equipped to operate society. However, under the one child policy, women are being given opportunities they have never had before. According to data, these girls are receiving education that is equivalent to boys and they are inheriting estates of their families (Liu, Wyshak, & Larsen, 2004). Nonetheless, for the few females that are able to reach such a status, there are countless others who were aborted and abandoned.
Mental and emotional health are issues that are commonly ignored in Chinese society because disclosure of personal problems publicly has been frowned upon for years. Consequently, data on the mental health of adolescents is very scarce. However, in recent years studies have emerged documenting mental issues that children of the one child policy are encountering. A study was conducted on 266 Chinese adolescents who were products of the one child policy. The researchers used the Beck Depression Inventory and discovered that about 65 percent of the children screened meet the criteria for depressed. About 10 percent of them were in the severely depressed range. Girls were also more likely to show traits of depression than only child’s who were male (Chen, Rubin, & Li, 1995).Psychologists believe that the increased incidences of depression and anxiety can be directly linked to the increased pressure that is placed upon female only children. According to Fong, gender directly affects a person’s experience in society. This idea is based upon feminist perspective. Accordingly, females experience the world in a different manner than males do. From birth, females have been expected and taught to behave a certain way due to cultural norms. However, due to the one child policy, many women are expected to confront the unwritten rules they have been taught to live by.
Works Cited
Chen, X., Rubin, K.H., & Li, D. (1995). Depressed mood in Chinese children: Relations with school performance and family environment. J ournal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63 , 938-947.
Fong, Vanessa L. 2002. China’s One-Child Policy and the Empowerment of Urban Daughters. American Anthropologist 104 (4): 1098-1109.
Liu, J., G. Wyshak, and U. Larsen. (2004). Physical Well-Being and School Enrollment: A Comparison of Adopted and Biological Children in One-Child Families in China. Social Science and Medicine 59 : 609-623.
Mosher, S. W. (2006). Winter. China’s One-Child Policy: Twenty-Five Years Later. The Human Life Review : 76-101.
Short, S. E., M. Linmao, et al. (2000). Birth Planning and Sterilization in China. Population Studies 54 (3): 279-291.
Wan, C., C. Fan, and G. Lin. (1994). A Comparative Study of Certain Differences inIndividuality and Sex-Based Differences Between 5- And 7-Years Old Only Children andNon Only Children. Acta Psychological Sinica 16 : 383-391.
Wong, Y. L. R. (1997). Dispersing the ‘Public’ and the ‘Private’: Gender and the State in the Birth Planning Policy of China. Gender and Society 11 (4): 509-525.
Zhan, H. J. 2004. “Socialization or Social Structure: Investigating Predictors of Attitudes Toward
Filial Responsibility Among Chinese Urban Youth From One and Multiple ChildFamilies.” International Journal of Aging and Human
Zilberberg, J. (2007). Sex Selection and Restricting Abortion and Sex Determination. Bioethics 21 (9):517-519.
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Essay Service Examples Politics Policy
One Child Policy Essay
- Topics: Policy
- Words: 2311
- This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students' samples.
In this Essay, I analyze the ethics of the One Child Policy and how this regime-mandated population rule influences the people living in China. This essay commences with a summary of the rule with the historic background of the rule and how it used to be applied. Then I attempt into presenting one unintended consequence that has been caused by the “one child’s policy” of (Fong’s, 2016) book and present other authors’ views backed with evidence that supports my argument. I am expanding a range of sources to obtain a perception of the One Child Policy and how its implementation has affected the nation. Another interesting argument by (Nanfu Wang, 2019) has announced an interesting documentary that used subjective testimony to highlight the increased apprehensions of the One Child Policy. I used this documentary as an inspiration of power for what issues and penalties of the rule to examine deep through the policy. There are themes to be presented such as implementation and the families, women, and kids affected by the policy.
I will then present the personal stories and experiences of the individuals effected by the policy and that have been used worldwide by international specialists such as the and the western journalism, World Health Organization and United Nations, researchers like the Atlantic and the New York Times, and peer examined theoretical sources. Furthermore, it is essential to notice that I could not find consistent research articles from Chinese sources itself and on several occasions, there was no confidential data to rely on, that is because to a lack of report preserving or falsified certification, in these instances, I focus on individual testimony and exclusive illustrations to examine the situations and the rule has put citizens in. I apprehend that this does now not point out how massive these capabilities are inside China. Nevertheless, supposing that these topics are telling the reality it acts as precise substantial to have a look at the moral apprehensions of the policy.
The essay will illustrate the penalties of China’s One Child rule and the moral apprehensions that demand to be viewed when imposing a national policy and an unintended scenario that has been caused due to some important factors that will be brough in discussion and considerations. There are reasons why the policy was adopted, therefore, I will use more than one factor to show how it has led to an unintended scenario. According to journalist Mei Fong in her book One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment. A woman during the 2016 Beijing Olympics stands in the middle of the Olympic village with a sign, written on it says “I just want to go to school”. She is quickly forcibly removed by police and the bustle of the Olympics continues. She returns every day with her sign just to be removed within minutes. According to Fong and the small amount of coverage of this protestor, there are people in China who are undocumented in their own country of birth. These lost children are a result of high fines for unapproved second children that can range to be four times the annual income of a family, resulting in them growing up legally not be recognized by China (Fong 2016). Assuming she is correct, the inability of this portion of the population to gain legal recognition creates numerous effects including no access to education and healthcare as well as the inability to get a job. These consequences are entangled with major ethical concerns.This is all a result of one of the main regulatory tools of the One Child Policy being large fines as punishment for those who have more than one child. However, these fines are so large that they can be completely debilitating and result in families unable to pay. Without being to pay the fine the child can never be registered and is left legally not existing. With a financial barrier being a major deterrent for breaking the One Child policy, it lends to the idea of how a policy like this unequally affects those of low socioeconomic backgrounds and creates a greater burden for those disenfranchised.
The star system is a visual and public reward system that pressures both local government and households to embody ideals and reach the numerical goals of the state. For individual families, the stars represent and reward them for what makes a good Chinese citizen, including a star for having only one child (Fong 2016). This use of a reward system creates a culture of pride and motivation. China is a society that values the collective and visually being able to show that you are playing your role for the collective by not having more than one child. This can also act as a negative reinforcement for those who cannot achieve that star. When a family has more than one child they do not earn that star and it is a public marker that they did not play their part in the collective and create shame for not conforming to the policy even if they got approval for a second child (Wang 2019). Visual reinforcement of the One Child policy was a successful tool in making the actions of a community member the responsibility of the entire community.
The first factor was a public health intervention and Mao’s major health campaigns that played on Chinese nationalism overall, having a critical role in reducing mortality rates in China. Public health campaigns and efforts became popular all over the world making the quality of life and health better; however, Maoist China was able to use the nationalist spirit to implement them under the title “Patriotic Health Campaigns” (Babiarz et al. 2015). The 1950s had some of the first public health campaigns focused on sanitation, this included proper disposing of excrement, eradicating pests linked to major health issues: rats, fleas, mosquitos, and bed bugs, and refusal of amputation of the body that leads to greater infection (Jamison 1984; Banister 1987; Hipgrave 2011). As time went on Mao took these sanitation standards and expanded them throughout the country including rural areas. Within Maoist China came new innovations in life-saving vaccines. These vaccines include polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, cholera, and smallpox, which in the case of smallpox was distributed rapidly and widespread to that it was completely eradicated by 1960 with the last cases being in Tibet and Yunnan (Jamison 1984; Banister 1987). Finally, in order to address high infant and maternal mortality rates, most of China’s midwives were retrained in the 1950s under the ‘modern midwifery’ campaign, which had a high emphasis on the importance of sanitation during childbirth (Banister 1987).
The Dunan family is a group in China that was arrested and convicted for human trafficking abandoned babies to orphanages. In 2005, Dunan Yuangeng was wrapped in the 2005 scandal where it was revealed that six orphanages in Hunan, one of the largest suppliers to western adoption centers, were found to have been buying babies (Fong 2016). Dunan Yuangeng and his family were placed in jailed labor for the trafficking of 85 infants, but the reality is they were involved in many more adoptions. They would take these babies in milk powder boxes and travel 600 miles from Guanfonf to Hunan to deliver them to the orphanages (Fong 2016). According to Dunan Yuangeng, he estimates that he alone had sold at least 1,000 babies to orphanages, whether it be from families giving them the infant or being informed that an infant was abandoned in a public place (Tong 2010). He was only charged for 85 infants because it was common practice for the orphanages to falsify documents, as a result making it nearly impossible to track where these babies are from, resulting in thousands of people having no way to know where they came from or under what circumstances they were put up for adoption. China has claimed that no babies that were adopted by Americans were involved in this scandal. The reality is there is already evidence that people adopted to America from several different provinces and adoption centers have been connected to Dunan and the various ways adoption centers have falsified their records.
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Though the selling and lying about babies is clearly unethical, the reality is the reason it grew to the international criminal empire is all due to the demand for healthy babies. Americans and other high-income counties were creating a high demand to adopt babies giving a “donation” of around $3,000 and by 2009 rising to $5,000, resulting in orphanages receiving annual donations of about $300,000 to $500,000 making this a lucrative source of income for the orphanage and their employees (Stuy 2014). As a result, the orphanages were adopting out infants quickly and they were trying to restock their numbers and that is where these human traffickers got involved. The Duncan Matriarch said the orphanage, in the beginning, would pay them $120 a baby and as they reached the early 2000’s they would be paid $250 and by 2005 they got $500 a baby (Fong 2016). When there are not a lot of ways to make money and the alternative is abandonment or infanticide many families and individuals like Dunans would enter the illegal selling of babies to these orphanages.
Sterilization ensured life-long birth control when compared to the pill and the IUD. Sterilization itself is not a bad thing if the woman chooses it without coercion or force. However in China that was not the reality. One of the methods villages and their family planning officers used to slow the growth of their population and not exceed their government allotted birth rate was to require all women to be sterilized after the birth of their first and only child. This is because the village leaders and the larger Chinese government did not trust people with the choice and control of nonpermanent methods of birth control (Fong 2016). Even places like the city of Yicheng, which had a more flexible two-child policy, required women to get sterilized as their main form of birth control and they had to have their second child no earlier than 5 years after the first or risk high fines or coerced abortions (Fong 2016).
The other way the One Child policy has violated a woman’s reproductive rights by removing their ability to choose what they can do with their body is the practice of forced abortion. When a woman gets pregnant and they are not approved to have that child, local government, and family planning authorities used similar methods of coercion as they did for the sterilization of women. Local government leaders like Haung Denggao admit to using persuasive tactics like large fines and the confiscation of valuables to persuade women to get abortions. Not only would these children be aborted, but sometimes the midwife or doctor would induce labor to deliver the baby and kill it (Wang 2019). In this case, women were being coerced into abortion meaning they lost their right to choose what they can do with their bodies. China has some of the most open accessibility for women to get abortions as a means of reducing the population as a part of the open accessibility for family planning resources that came with the One Child policy (Dixon-Muelller 1993). With a lack of regulation by the national government on how to enforce the policy, it has resulted in the coercion of women to abort the children unwanted by the government (Li 2012).
Effects of the One Child Policy on the Chinese and the World Economy:
China’s quick and impending increase in median age over upcoming decadesdefinitely will not be helping its economic growth, which is ironic because economicgrowth is one of the reasons why the policy was created and adopted by thegovernment in the first place. At some point in the near future, the amount of peopleretiring and leaving the workforce may exceed the amount of people graduating from school and entering it. According to Vikram Masharamani’s article“ Is China’s One Child Policy to Blame for its Economic Slowdown,”one of the main factors that drives acountry’s economic growth is its labor force, which means when more people enter theworkforce, it brings more money into the economy and increased productivity. By 2035,20 percent of the population will be 65 or over, so this “labor-driven growth” will not be occurring in China. From the 1980s until 2010, with China’s pre one-child policy, babyboomer generation working to their fullest capacities, China was able to achieve double-digit increases in its GDP growth rates and moved past Japan to officially become the world’s second largest economy (Baozhen). These same workers who helped change China from a struggling communist nation into an economic powerhouse are quicklyapproaching their 60s and 70s, and can only work for so much longer. The problem is,they do not have many children of their own to replace them, and so China may have to say goodbye to its rapidly increasing GDP.
In conclusion, the One Child policy technically was a success, it reduced the population growth of China. However, in the process, it sacrificed the health of their demographics and the human rights of their people. China and its population policy reveal that when
controlling a population and people’s reproduction rate, even with the best intentions has unintended consequences. In the case of China, the mission was to simply limit people to one child in order to avoid resource depletion and economic ruin. It was an ideal case study because it was a policy that was created by its own government and was the most strict form of a population policy that was widely applied to a large population. China and its collective society and the authoritative government still had to face cultural barriers and limitations to its ability to get people to follow the policy resulting in ethical violations against the people of China and the creation of new demographic issues.
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One Child Policy Essay


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One child policy research paper.
Life after hearing about the two child policy is tough. It certainly makes be think,why they didn't introduce this policy sooner. I mean, why did they introduce it right now. Why didn't they introduce it about a century ago. Because of the one child policy I have been abandoned by my own family on the streets of the Hunan province. After so much has happened ,children getting abandoned,more child poverty,and all torture of being abandoned they introduce it now. Either ways life goes on,and I believe that my new family is way better compared to my old family.…
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Could you imagine your leader making up rules about your family? It seems impossible and inhumane, but this is exactly what they are doing in China. China implemented a “one child policy” in the late 1970s in response to a growing crisis created by rapidly exploding population growth (Piper). Essentially the one child policy is not a law but enforced with punishments. This policy allows families to only have one child. Of course in every policy comes something good and something bad.…
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Only-Child policy, aimed at addressing overpopulation, was promoted in 1970s. After 25 years, this policy does have lots of positive effects. At the same time, however, it also causes lots of problems. Since each family only has one child, parents spoil their child, which makes the child fell like the king of the world. In the family, the child doesn’t need to do anything and he can get everything he wants. However, meanwhile, the child faces more pressures from his parents. Take my younger sister for example. She has been told that you don’t need to do any housework and you just need to focus on your study. From Monday to Friday, she is banned watching TV and playing with her friends afterschool. Besides, she has to have piano class and other improving classes at weekend. As for the positive effects, the most obvious effect is that it controls the growth population efficiently. It is reported that it had three to four hundred million fewer people in 2008 with the one-child policy according to the Chinese authority saying, after the introduction of the one-child policy, the fertility rate in China fall from over three births per woman in 1980 to approximately 1.54 in 2011. Moreover, the reduction in the fertility rate and population growth has reduced the severity of problems that come with overpopulation, like 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. Leaf always has two sides, so does the One-Child Policy. I believe that the policy will become more perfect in the…
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China is the world’s most populated country with the population of 1.3 billion people. Since there were so many people in China they had to think about a way to control population so this is where the one-child policy was made. It officially restricts married, urban couples to having only one child, while allowing exemptions for several cases, including twins. This policy was introduced in 1978 and initially applied to first-born children from 1979. The policy is enforced at the local level through fines that are imposed based on the income of the family and other factors.…
How the One Child Policy Is Good for the Environment Essay Example
High-growth populations consume scarce limited resources which have adverse effects on the habitats and ecosystems in the local environment. In a world where the population is too high to sustain its limited resources, this is a major issue and leads to further problems such as environmental degradation and population starvation (Hardin, 1968; Young, 2005). The OCP has saved resources from being otherwise consumed by those unborn, and prevents China’s rate of environmental destruction from being more massive than it already is. This paper argues that the policy helps environmental sustainability and therefore the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should continue enforcing the OCP. Other nations with high-growth rates should also consider implementing similar policies.…
China One Child Policy Paper Essay Example
Imagine a world where one can’t just simply go to the supermarket because there is not enough food. A world where pollution is a daily reality, the air too thick to even breath and the water virtually undrinkable. A place you can no longer buy consumer goods because there isn’t enough materials to make them. This could become a reality, but preventing it has always been on the minds of the Chinese government. War and epidemics had struck China for years, but after the founding of the People's Republic of China, sanitation and medicine improved and prompted rapid population growth. This combined with the movement created by Mao Zedong, China’s previous communist leader, led to rapid population growth that gave China’s monumental population. This monumental mistake took its toll in the food supply when Mao emphasized steel production over farming, food supply slipped behind population growth; by 1962 a massive famine had caused some 30 million deaths. After the population leveled off, the government continued the camping to reduce China’s population. In 1979 the Chinese government introduced a policy requiring couples from China's ethnic Han majority to have only one child. Depending on where they lived parents can be fined thousand of dollars for having an extra child without a permit and can be forced to abort the child and then be sterilized. With all this in mind I not only believe that the one child policy with some adjustments can be a good solution to the overpopulation and issues related to it but also it is a necessary policy. With changes to the policy will greatly improve China’s people living environment and standards. Without this policy we can face serious issues concerning food supplies, depletion of natural resources at a rapid rate, poverty,spreading of diseases due to lack of proper medical care, overcrowded cities that can lead to heavy pollution, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy and higher death rates,…
To What Extent Can the One Child Policy Be Regarded as a Success?
In 1979, China had an estimated 1.3 billion inhabitants. At this time, China contained approximately ¼ of the total population of the world. China’s growing economy and huge population created a huge strain on its carrying capacity and China had to come up with a solution to slow the birth rate down rapidly. In a drastic effort to put an end to the problems, the government started the One Child Policy. The policy meant that all families were allowed a maximum of one child. If they broke this law and conceived another child, the family would have to pay a huge fine, usually the amount of their yearly wages. In some severe cases, the baby was forced to be aborted or had to be sterilised.…
Related Topics
- Overpopulation
- World population
- Population growth

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one-child policy, official program initiated in the late 1970s and early ’80s by the central government of China, the purpose of which was to limit the great majority of family units in the country to one child each. The rationale for implementing the policy was to reduce the growth rate of China’s enormous population.
Debates about the controversial one-child policy have spawned a large literature that examines many issues, including the reasons the CCP launched this campaign, how effective it was in reducing birth rates further, what human rights abuses resulted, how child-rearing and children have been affected, and in what ways Chinese society and the
The one child policy had estimated that China’s population would be reduced by more than 300 million in the first twenty years (Mosher, 2006). Although it has decreased the population, it has created a high sex imbalance with males unequally outnumbering females.
The essay will illustrate the penalties of China’s One Child rule and the moral apprehensions that demand to be viewed when imposing a national policy and an unintended scenario that has been caused due to some important factors that will be brough in discussion and considerations.
The one child policy was first introduced in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s by the central government. The population was rapidly approaching one billion, so Deng Xiaoping implemented the policy to reduce the growth rate of their population.The goal of the policy was the limit the vast majority of families to having only one child.