Contemporary Issues in the Chinese Economy - Literature review Example

Contemporary Issues in the Chinese Economy Introduction Prior to the 1950s in China, the government was encouraging people to have more children in order to expand the country’s workforce, however, during the 1950s, the population was growing at a rate of 1.9% per annum, and the government was starting to realize that this would lead to unsustainable outcomes (Ebenstein, 2010). China then started to plan and control their population, and in 1979, the ‘one child policy’ was officially implemented where each couple was only allowed to have one child (Hesketh, Lu and Xing, 2005). Benefits, access to education and healthcare were rewarded to families that followed the policy, and others were fined. The policy was more resistant in rural areas as it was Chinese tradition to have a big family. However this policy did bring negative impacts as the birth rate in China has fallen since then and the population growth is has dropped from 1.9% to 0.7% (Zhang and Goza, 2006). The aim of the research is to analyze the impact of the ‘one child policy’ on China and whether the families have followed the policy or not. This research would allow the researcher to collect data based on various families in China and determine the outcomes based on the study. Analysis of the impact of one-child policy on the China’s population Chinese government has announced the one-child policy in order to manage the population growth rate in China. It was basically created in order to avoid the socio-economic problems that arise in the Chinese economy and the policy had a serious impact (Rosenzweig and Zhang, 2009). According to the Chinese government the fall in birth rate could be achieved through introduction of this new policy in China. This represented better education system, population control and employment opportunity in China (Fong, 2002). This policy is considered as the largest initiative by Chinese government to control the population. The policy has been followed by few families whereas the other families have rejected the policies. It has prevented around 250 million births in between 1980 to 2000 (Festini and de Martino, 2004). The Chinese government believes that without imposing such restriction the population would keep on rising in China and the hope for raising the per-capita income in the economy would have been doomed. The uncontrolled population growth is expected to affect the natural resources of the economy (Greenhalgh, 2003). The government has felt the need of the policy in order to control the continuously growing population (Greenhalgh, 2003). However the policy had certain disadvantages that the researcher has studied. It had various issues related to the child birth that is in order to control the population the children where not nurtured properly within the economy. The policy had led to forced abortions and female infanticide which in turn gave rise to a gender imbalance in China. Economic Consequences of changing population structure in China An even bigger issue of the one-child policy is that female babies have been abandoned, put in orphanages and killed as traditional Chinese preferred male babies as they could carry on the family name and this creates an imbalance in the Chinese population, number of men outweigh the number of women by 60 million today (Deutsch, 2006). As these issues were occurring, the one-child policy has actually loosened up recently, parents are now allowed to apply for a second child if their first was a girl, especially in more rural areas as sons are more capable to work in agriculture, even though the parents has to wait a number of years between the pregnancies. If parents had children with physical disability or intellectual disability they were allowed to have two children. s Further if the parents were the only child of the family and had disabilities, they were allowed two children so that one of the children takes care of the disabled parents (Greenhalgh, 2005). People who really want more children could apply for it if they were willing to pay a fine based on their annual income. Around 70% of the Chinese population lived in rural areas due to which it did not actually apply to everyone in the country (Li, Yi and Zhang, 2011). On following the one-child policy the Chinese government had guaranteed employment opportunities to the unemployed in every family (Doherty, Norton and Veney, 2001; Hvistendahl, 2010). Further high income and employment opportunities have diverted the minds of the youths to build up their career rather than focus on marriage and child bearing. If the families had more than one child they had to spend lot of money in their children’s education and bringing them up in the society. Thus the modern families preferred single child for their families. Many other consequences of the one child policy has materialised in the Chinese economy with a lopsided sex ratio among the new born children (Wang, Monteiro and Popkin, 2002). There was a fall in number of new-born children in the government birth reporting system with increased child mortality rates that has led to a social problem of China. The unusual decline in fertility rates in the Chinese economy has resulted in rapid aging of population (Wang, Monteiro and Popkin, 2002). There has been a gender specific fertility policy that allows the families having the first child as daughter to have another child. The families often undergo the sex selected abortion in order to have child of their desired sex (Wang, Monteiro and Popkin, 2002). Hence the families participate in illegal practices of sex determination before the birth of the baby. There are possibilities that the girl child is often hidden by the parents and they do not bother to share it with the government records. The possibility of skewed sex ratio results due to female infanticide or they are even neglected (Short, et al., 2001). Parents of single child had larger benefits compared to the parents having many children. In some cases when the families are rich enough to bear another child they pay a certain fee to the Chinese government such that the government allows the parents to have one more child. Nonetheless it was studied that the children belonging to the overseas economy were not counted under this policy if they do not attain the Chinese citizenship. Over the years the male infant mortality rates have declined much higher compared to the female infants (Zhu, 2003). However in rural areas people oppose the one-child policy because they believe the male infants to be the important assets of the family and continue child bearing until the birth of male child in the family. The rural poor have the superstitions that only the males can act as the earning member of the family and as a result there is rise in infant mortality rates. Through the new policy launched by the Chinese government it has created one of the fastest growing sectors in the modern world. After the launch of the policy in 1980, China had comprised of around 60,000 full time workers working in the field of birth control in the urban areas (Veeck, Flurry and Jiang, 2003). By 1995 the number of personnel engaged in birth control operation rose to around 400,000 (Wang, Monteiro and Popkin, 2002). There are around 92 million members of the China’s family planning association who participate in the Government’s movement to control the birth of infants and the mortality rates (Wang, Monteiro and Popkin, 2002). In 2008, the National population and Family planning commission of China had mentioned that this policy would be continued. Although in 2010 it was reported that majority of the citizens did not follow the policy and therefore has more than one child in the family (Tsui and Rich, 2002). However this policy has contributed to the reduction of population mainly in the urban areas but the rural areas are mainly found to be against the policy. According to the rural poor more number of children in a family implies more earning members. Nonetheless, the rural poor are unable to meet the basic requirement of the children and as a result it further increases the child mortality rates. The children in poor families suffer from the problems of malnutrition and finally there are higher levels of child deaths due to lack of nutritious diet (Wang, Monteiro and Popkin, 2002). Often the poor families treat the male child as very important and they are provided with a healthy diet whereas the females of the family often die out of starvation. Therefore the poor families are against the one child policy and they are not literate enough to adopt the family planning measures. Hence the costs associated with the following of the one-child policy outweighs the benefits of the policy. It was expected that if the policy is properly regulated then the in case the couples choose to have two children, they may not cause any problem of high population growth in the economy. In turn it may be able to meet the rising demands for fertility desires of many individuals. On the contrary if the launch of policy does not pose any problem to the couples of China then this policy can be considered as the best policy for the population control. Due to a strict enforcement of this policy for around three decades it has an impact on the fast growing elderly population within the Chinese economy (Cameron, et al., 2013). However the restrictions under the policy are at provincial levels and some provinces do not follow such strict rules mentioned in the policy. The high female infant mortality rates have reduced the number of female members in the society (BBC, 2014). However even in case of working in an industry the males are preferred compared to the demand for females. It is believed that the female members would be unable to perform the various jobs in an industry. In November 2013 the rule for the one-child policy was finally relaxed that is the couples can have two children. Since the enforcement of the policy, the population dropped and as times evolved with more advanced healthcare, people were also living longer lives. Therefore it was predicted that by 2050 for every 100 people aged 20-64, there will be 45 people aged over 45, compared to the 15 people today (Wordpress, 2012). This had created a modern 4-2-1 phenomenon when the child reached working age, he or she could have to care for two parents and four grandparents (Wordpress, 2012).  However if for some reason the personal savings of the earning member of the family declines the entire family has to depend on some other mode for earning. This would lead to lack of resources for the older generation to sustain as the only earning member of the family cannot afford to look after the parents and grandparents. The strict rules of the policy have been relaxed gradually and in most of the rural areas the policy stated that those family who had their first child as a girl or in case the first child is mentally retarded they can have a second child. However it also stated that the families violating the rules of the policies are liable to be penalised by the Chinese government. Chinese government has considered the policy as a great success to have a high economic growth in China (Wordpress, 2012). This has further reduced various other problems like epidemics, reduction in the number of slums in the city. The researcher has indicated that the suicide rate in China has risen among the female population during the child bearing (BBC, 2012). The most probable cause for such deaths would be the family pressure imposed on the women to give birth to a male child. However it has been found that China’s focus on population control has provided better health services to the females and has reduced the risks of death during pregnancy. The family planning offices in China helps the women by providing free contraception and pre-natal lessons (Wordpress, 2012). The pregnant women can timely monitor their health processes by undergoing health checkups. The Chinese government also initiated a ‘care for girls’ programme in various places in order to give importance to the girl child of the family. The main objective of the programme is to eliminate the gender discrimination and provide proper education and health care facilities to the girl child (Wordpress, 2012). Another advantage of the one-child policy is that it has raised the individual savings rate. As the families having single child need not spend much compared to the families having more than one child. Further the parents of single child will have the motive to save money for their future. The one-child policy has also reduced the demand for natural resources within the economy and has addressed the problems of surplus labour by reducing unemployment within the economy (Cameron, et al., 2013). Due to this policy fewer children were born in the society and there was drastic decline in the population. In the hope of controlling the population there was a negative impact leading to high female mortality rates and female infanticide within the Chinese economy. The policy has resulted in the violation of human rights. The couples of China are forced to have only one child in their family which often goes against their desires. The females in the family are forced to undergo abortion in case they are about to give birth to more than one child. The policy also forces the potentials males and females to undergo various tests before marriage (Cameron, et al., 2013). In case they are found suffering from various diseases like dyslexia or schizophrenia they are not allowed to marry. According to the Chinese government these regulations have reduced the population but it has affected the human rights of the local people (Cameron, et al., 2013). The government decided to impose this policy on the economy of China in order to improve the livelihood of the local people. Conclusion This research suggests that the one-child policy imposed by the Chinese government had the main aim of controlling the population in China. On implementation of this policy there was reduction in the population growth rate in China. But this policy has imposed serious pressure on the citizens on China. It has ruined their prosperity and forced them to have only one child in the family. However the policy had faced several oppositions especially from the rural areas who considered children to be the future earning members of the family. Further they had a preference for male child compared to the females and hence continued child bearing until they had male infants in their family. The policy had followed a relaxation in the later years that the couples were allowed to bear children in case the first child is a girl or if the first child is mentally retarded. The policy was imposed to reduce the burden on the poor families who cannot afford to provide proper food and education to their children. Lack of nutrition among children is a very common problem that arises mostly in poor families. A youthful population causes stress on the economy as young children need health care such as immunizations, as they grow up they need education, providing schools, teachers and resources are costly, as they reach child bearing age, more healthcare costs are entailed. 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