The One-Child Policy of China - Essay Example

China: the one-child policy Introduction Population growth is one of the most serious issues faced by the world today and China has been especially affected by the issue of population growth. As an important measure to check communist China's population growth, the one child policy was established in China by Deng Xiaoping in 1979. The policy, which limits couples to one child, was designated as a 'temporary measure', but it is yet practiced in the nation today, even after a quarter-century since its establishment. "China's one child family policy, which was first announced in 1979, has remained in place despite the extraordinary political and social changes that have occurred over the past two decades. It emerged from the belief that development would be compromised by rapid population growth and that the sheer size of China's population together with its young age structure presented a unique challenge." (Kane and Choi, 1999). Therefore, a reflective analysis of the one child family policy in China confirms that it was developed and implemented in reply to the concerns about the social and economic consequences of the sustained fast growth of population in the country and the execution of the policy was more effective in urban areas than rural areas of China. One of the major criticisms of the policy has been that it brings about inequity against females, who are often aborted, abandoned, or unregistered and there are reports of fines, pressures to abort a pregnancy, and even forced sterilization in the case of second or subsequent pregnancies. The rigorous implementation of the policy became more difficult due to social and economic reforms. However, one of the most important consequences of the policy has been that it eased some of the pressures of rapid population increase on communities and it has reduced the population of the nation by at least 250 million. In this paper, a profound analysis of the one child policy in China is carried out in order to point out some of the good and bad effects accompanying the policy. China: the good and bad effects of one-child policy The one-child policy, which comes under the official translation of family planning policy of the Chinese government, has been one of the very important steps taken by the government in order to control the population growth in the nation and the policy officially restricts the number of children to the urban couples. Introduced by the Chinese government in 1979 to deal with the social, economic, and environmental problems in China, this policy has affected around 35.9% of China's population today. It is essential to realize the various significant aspects of the policy in order to make a good analysis of the good and bad effects of one-child policy in China. In a reflective analysis of the essential aspects of the policy, it becomes lucid that "the aim was to curtail population growth, perhaps to 1.1 billion and certainly to 1.2 billion, by the year 2000. It was hoped that third and higher order births could be eliminated and that about 30% of couples might agree to forgo a second child. The ideal of a one child family implied that the majority would probably never meet it People were to be encouraged to have only one child through a package of financial and other incentives, such as preferential access to housing, schools, and health services." (Kane and Choi, 1999). Thus, the one-child policy was the result of a common realization that the sacrifice of second or third children was very essential for the sake of future generations of China which is the most populous country in the world. One of the crucial factors about China's one-child family policy has been that it has crucially influenced the lives of nearly a quarter of the world's population for more than a quarter of the century and it is essential to realize the good and bad effects of the policy. A background analysis of China's one-child family policy makes clear that the Chinese government embarked on this policy in 1979, following the economic stagnation of the Cultural Revolution, when China was home to a quarter of the world's population. In other words, the one child family policy was introduced at a time when the rapid population growth was recognised as a serious threat to the economic targets of Deng Xiao Ping's reforms and the government realized that strict population containment was indispensable to economic reform and improvement in living standards. Here, it is essential to comprehend that the policy includes a set of regulations which the approved size of Chinese families and these regulations include restrictions on family size, late marriage and childbearing, and the spacing of children. "The State Family Planning Bureau sets the overall targets and policy direction. Family-planning committees at provincial and county levels devise local strategies for implementation. Despite its name, the one-child rule applies to a minority of the population; for urban residents and government employees, the policy is strictly enforced, with few exceptions. The exceptions include families in which the first child has a disability or both parents work in high-risk occupations (such as mining) or are themselves from one-child families (in some areas)." (Hesketh and Zhu, 2005). Significantly, China's one-child family policy is characterized by a system of rewards and penalties, which include economic incentives for observance of the policy and large fines, confiscation of belongings, and sacking from work for nonconformity. As the rewards and penalties are normally meted out at the diplomacy of local officials, the implementation of the policy vary extensively from place to place. The universal access to contraception and abortion in China has been an essential factor influencing the virtual implementation of the policy. Significantly, China's one-child family policy was originally conceived as a short-term measure by the Chinese government. However, the policy has remained in force ever since and the implementation strategy is different in urban and rural areas. Analyzing the positive and negative impacts of the policy in China, Therese Hesketh and Wei Xing Zhu maintains that "the policy has been beneficial in terms of curbing population growth, aiding economic growth, and improving the health and welfare of women and children. On the negative side there are concerns about demographic and sex imbalance and the psychological effects for a generation of only children in the cities. The atrocities often associated with the policy, such as female infanticide, occur rarely now." (Hesketh and Zhu, 1997). Therefore, there have been both positive and negative effects of implementing the one-child family policy by the Chinese government. Although the one child policy has undeniably imposed great costs on individuals, there have been several good results of the policy and most of the Chinese people seem prepared to make such a sacrifice in view of the interest of the country. One of the most important positive outcomes of the one child policy has been that it greatly influenced the government's efforts for population control. According to government sources, the policy has been highly effective in checking the expansion of the country's population. "Government officials said the policy was a great success, preventing at least 250 million births since 1980. " (China steps up 'one child' policy, 2000). Therefore, there are vital evidences to suggest that the one child policy has been very effective in checking the population growth of the country to a great extent. Thus, in their study to measure the effect of China's one-child policy on fertility, Hongbin Li, Junsen Zhang, and Yi Zhu came up with convincing evidence to indicate the vital role of policy in reducing population growth in China. "Using two rounds of the Chinese Population Census, we find that the one-child policy has had a large effect on fertility. The average effect on the post-treatment cohorts on the probability of having a second child is as large as -11 percentage points. We also find that the magnitude is larger in urban areas and for more educated women." (Li, Zhang, Zhu, 2005). Along with these evidences, other important studies on the effects of the one child policy maintain that the policy, through the reductions in fertility, has been effective in checking the population growth of the country. In spite of the various criticisms against the policy, the successes of the policy cannot be underrated and the people of the nation are highly aware of the implementation of the policy. "In the context of rising costs and rising aspirations throughout China, there is increasing recognition among the four fifths of the population that is rural of the burden to the family of having a third child, and some are even willing to avoid a second. Moreover, since its inception reductions in Chinese fertility have reduced the country's (and the world's) population growth by some 250 million. These reductions in fertility have eased at least some of the pressures on communities, state, and the environment in a country which still carries one fifth of the world's people." (Kane and Choi, 1999). One of the most noticeable effects of this highly controversial policy has been that it is important in fundamentally reshaping family life in China and in reducing population growth in the world's most populous country. According to Susan Short, the associate director of the Population Studies and Training Centre, these policies can have ripple effects on families and they shape family dynamics and the experiences of family members. "While China's one-child policy was designed to reduce population growth in the world's most populous country, its effect extends far beyond what statistics on births are able to capture Considerable emphasis has been placed on the policy's effects on shaping family membership through activities such as sex-selective abortion and infant abandonment. Short's research focuses on how the policy is related to the care, education, and health of children born into families fashioned by the measure." (Cole, 2002). However, there are critics of the policy who maintain that China's one-child family policy was not highly influential factor in the reduction in the total fertility rate. Accordingly, the policy is probably only partially responsible for the reduction in the total fertility rate and the most dramatic decrease in the rate of fertility was before the introduction of the policy. "The most dramatic decrease in the rate actually occurred before the policy was imposed. Between 1970 and 1979, the largely voluntary 'late, long, few' policy, which called for later childbearing, greater spacing between children, and fewer children, had already resulted in a halving of the total fertility rate, from 5.9 to 2.9. After the one-child policy was introduced, there was a more gradual fall in the rate until 1995, and it has more or less stabilized at approximately 1.7 since then." (Hesketh and Zhu, 2005). Similarly, there was a universal trend in the declines in fertility during the past 25 years which is reflected in the cases of China's neighbours in East Asia, such as Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, which have some of the lowest total fertility rates in the world. In contrast to the good effects of China's one-child family policy, there are certain crucial defects and negative effects of the policy which make the critics to argue for a complete withdrawal of the policy. Various critics have condemned the policy's stimulus to sex discrimination which has resulted in the rise in rates of suicide of women in China. "The main criticism of the policy, though, is undoubtedly its stimulus to sex discrimination. Faced with hard choices about overall numbers, the Chinese girl child has once again become expendable. Too many girls, if not aborted, face orphanages or second class lives concealed from the world and with reduced chances of schooling and health care. China has one of the world's highest rates of suicide of women in the reproductive years." (Kane and Choi, 1999). Thus, the policy has increased the pressure to produce the desired child, and it has resulted in a perceived reduction in the value of females. The policy also has influenced the family structure and size in China "One of the most obvious one-child policy effects is change in family and structure due simply to the reduced number of children in the household." (Chow and Berheide, 1994, p. 76). Another major impact of the policy can be seen in the changes in sex ratio in the country and the critics of the policy emphasise the effect of the policy on the sex ratio. Significantly, the proportion of male live births to female live births, otherwise called the sex ratio at birth, ranges from 1.03 to 1.07 in industrialized countries. In China, there has been a steady increase in the reported sex ratio, since the onset of the one-child policy, from 1.06 in 1979, to 1.11 in 1988, to 1.17 in 2001. "Data from the 2001 National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Survey, which was carried out among a nationally representative sample of 39,600 women of reproductive age and is the most recent large-scale survey of reproductive health and fertility, show clearly that the increased sex ratio is not confined predominantly to rural China, as has been previously assumed. There is a marked gradient across birth order: in rural areas, the sex ratio for the first birth is 1.05 (within normal limits), but it rises steeply with birth order. In urban areas, the sex ratio is 1.13 for the first birth and peaks at 1.30 for the second birth but decreases for the third and fourth births (which are rare in urban areas)." (Hesketh and Zhu, 2005). Therefore, China's one child policy has resulted in various negative effects such as imbalanced gender ratio, missing girls issue, aging population, and the problems concerning health care, social security, vitality of economic. Conclusion A reflective analysis of China's one child policy, which was introduced in 1979 as a short-term measure to prevent population growth and to move toward a voluntary small-family culture, confirms that the policy has both positive and negative effects. The policy has become one of the controversial topics of discussion both within and outside China and there have been serious criticisms about the way in which the policy has been executed. Similarly, concerns about negative economic and social consequences also contributed to the controversy regarding the policy which is said to have seriously contributed to Chinas gender imbalance. One of the most important positive effects of the policy has been that the fertility rate decreased dramatically ever since it was introduced. The major negative effects of the policy include imbalanced gender ratio, missing girls issue, aging population, and the problems concerning health care, social security, vitality of economic. References "China steps up 'one child' policy." 2000. BBC News. Retrieved 20 November, 2009, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/941511.stm Chow, Esther Ngan-ling and Berheide, Catherine. (1994). White Women, the family, and policy: a global perspective. SUNY Press. p. 76. Cole, Kristen. (2002). "China's one-child policy and its effects on family dynamics intrigue Brown sociologist." George Street Journal. Retrieved 20 November, 2009, from http://www.brown.edu/Administration/George_Street_Journal/vol26/26GSJ20i.html Hesketh, Therese and Zhu, Wei Xing. (1997). "Health in China: The one child family policy: the good, the bad, and the ugly." Education and debate. BMJ. 314 (1685). Retrieved 20 November, 2009, from http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/314/7095/1685 Hesketh, Therese and Zhu, Wei Xing. (2005). "The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years." Health Policy Report. The New England Journal of Medicine. 353 (11). p.1171-1176. Retrieved 20 November, 2009, from http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/353/11/1171 Kane, Penny and Choi, Ching Y. (1999). "China's one child family policy." British Medical Journal. 319 (7215). p. 992-994. Retrieved 20 November, 2009, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1116810/ Li, Hongbin., Zhang, Junsen., and Zhu, Yi. (2005). "The Effect of the One-Child Policy on Fertility in China: Identification Based on the Differences-in-Differences." Retrieved 20 November, 2009, from http://www.econ.cuhk.edu.hk/discusspaper/00019.pdf Read More