Chinas One Child Policy - Essay Example

CHINA’S ONE CHILD POLICY China’s One Child Policy has been around for several years now, long enough to allow a certain amount of perspective on the vociferous debate that has surrounded this issue. It is one of the foremost examples, worldwide, of a state interfering in the most basic right a person has: the right to reproduce. When the state takes away this right, they have in effect taken away a person’s purpose for living—if you believe life is on earth in order to propagate. As such, this policy has consequences for all of us, especially Chinese people who have been forced to deal with it for many years. One of the purposes of this essay is to examine the debate around this policy. It examines what caused the policy to be implemented in the first place and looks the effects the policy has had on Chinese families and society. Some of the effects can be seen as positive, but it is evident to a reasonable person than many of the effects are highly negative. This debate is clearly very impassioned. While both sides have claims, reasoning and evidence, Toulmin’s model of argumentation is not specifically used by either side. The argument is also a very political one. Each side has different cultures and values, and these form a large part of the context that must be considered when examining the claims and context in this debate. Authorities in China say that since 2000, more than 250 million live births have been prevented by the use of this policy. They claim that if these people had been born, the current infrastructure and social structure in China would be unable to support them and that China would be weaker today. This argument goes to the core of the policy and is one of the main reasons it was implemented in the first place by the Chinese government back in the late 1970s following the period of economic opening led by Deng Xiaping. At the time the policy was implemented by the government there were grave concerns about China being overpopulated and being unable to support its own people. This led some politicians to suggest the one child policy. Another cause was the fact that contraception was not widely available back at the time this policy went into effect. It was harder for women to control their own reproduction; instead, the state decided to take control. The state argues this was done out of necessity because of the social and cultural aspects in vogue at the time. But today, several decades later, many wonder if it was even necessary. For example, has it done much to address this state problem? Even today, China’s birthrate is closer to 2 births per woman at around 1.8 births per woman. This is significantly highly than in many Western developed countries which have a low birth rate and no planning policy. Many of the women in these countries rely on birth control and contraceptives, something Chinese women had trouble doing back in the 1980s. Today many planning clinics offer such drugs and one wonders whether the planning policy is even necessary anymore (although the government has signalled it would be kept in place for another ten years). Whether or not its causes require the policy in the first place, it is clear that it has had a significant impact on Chinese society, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. For example, there are many who suggest that the low number of children Chinese families have has allowed them to significantly increase their savings rate. Instead of paying money for the upkeep and education of their children—things that are usually very expensive—Chinese people are able to save their money in the bank. These savings may have been partly responsible for the significant economic growth seen in China over the last few years. Instead of buying everything on credit, many Chinese actually have money in their pocket to spend. These are important claims used to make the argument. The example above is a positive effect. That said, there are also many possible negative effects of the policy. Many people put forward evidence of this negative aspect when making their argument. For example, the one child policy is unequally enforced. It is much easier to get away with having two or more children if you live in rural areas. In part this is because farmers and people like farmer require more children to keep the land and bring in the harvest; it is also a function of the fact that it is simply harder to keep tabs and to police rural areas where people live far from roads and often in the middle of nowhere. People in urban areas, who are easier to keep an eye on, are often disproportionately affected by the policy. This unequal application of the law has led to an increasing cultural and political tension and divide between rural and urban areas in China. This is another claim that supports the argument that the policy has been a bad one and should be scrapped. Another serious issue and unintended consequence of the program has been a large gender ratio disparity. There are simply more boys born in families than girls these days. How has this come to pass? No one knows for sure, but it is likely that infanticide is being practiced in the countryside against female babies. The problem for rural Chinese is that there is a gender preference for boys over girls. Boys can do more labour and they are also more prized for cultural reasons. If couple can only have one child they really prefer for it to be a boy rather a girl—for whom they would also have to pay an expensive dowry when she marries. This silent killing spree has dramatically affected gender ratios in China. A third serious problem that comes as a result of this policy also similar to the last one. Because the law states that if you do have more than the one child allotted to you you must pay a heavy fine and have no access to the state subsidized programs like schools, etc, and that you have pay for them yourselves, many parents cannot afford these burdens. If they accidentally have more children than they are allowed, they are forced to give them away. Some go to state orphanages which are now overcrowded and have very bad standards. Imagine how sad it would be to go to an orphanage even though your parents are still alive! Other babies are sold to foreigners or adoption agency. This heartache, all in the name of state planning, must be wrenching and has clearly had a powerful affect on the relationship between the people and the state. It remains to be seen whether this policy will be enough to make people boil over with hatred to their government but it is hard to imagine what might do so otherwise. No one likes to see the government involved in managing peoples’ personal lives, and yet this is what we see in China. The Chinese government has taken control of the most basic and individual choices of its citizens. While there might be a few small benefits to the one child policy such as trying to relieve the burden on the system due to overpopulation, the negative effects far outweigh any positive outcome. It is my opinion that this policy is a very negative one. Much of the evidence used to support this claim is solid and makes a great deal of sense. There is also a convincing value argument that the government should not be involved in peoples personal lives to this level. That is where politics is engaged. This debate has a great deal of resonance because of how many buttons it touches and because it involves both morality, politics, love, and life and death. Nevertheless, there seems to be no solid and reasonable argument in favour of the policy that can stand up to scrutiny today. Works consulted Das Gupta, Monica. "Explaining Asias Missing Women," Population and Development Review 31 (September 2005): 529-535. Greenhalgh, Susan. Just One Child: Science and Policy in Dengs China University of California Press, 2008. Hasketh, Therese and Li Lu, and Zhu Wei Xing. 2005. "The effects of Chinas One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years", New England Journal of Medicine, 353, No. 11 (September 15): 1171-1176. Lubman, Sarah. "Experts Allege Infanticide In China Missing Girls Killed, Abandoned, Pair Say". San Jose Mercury News (California), 2000-03-15. Yi, Zeng, et al. "Causes and Implications of the Recent Increase in the Reported Sex Ratio at Birth in China", Population and Development Review 19 (June 1993): 283-302. Zhang, Weiguo. "Child Adoption in Contemporary Rural China," Journal of Family Issues, 27 (March 2006), p. 306. Read More