Economic and Social Effects of Chinas One-Child Policy - Report Example

HOW THE "ONE CHILD" POLICY HAS AFFECTED THE CHINESE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY Entire Word Count = 2098 (Including References) Synopsis The introduction of the one-child policy in China in 1979 to stem the phenomenal population growth has caused the nation to experience unprecedented effects which include a huge drop in population growth, an increasing population of the aged, rapid economic development, increased female infanticide and orphaned children, and human rights abuse. Introduction China has the largest population in the world. According to the CIA (2014), the Chinese population will clock an estimated 1.355 billion people by July 2014. Tan (2012, p. 43) estimates that China’s population takes up 20% of the world population. Cao et al (2010, p. 359) asserts that the Chinese government noticed the unprecedented high growth way back in the 1970s and got concerned about the extreme pressure that such a large population would put on the nation’s resources. According to Scutti (2014), the Chinese population in 1979 was a staggering 975 million people. Fitzpatrick (2009) points at the inability of the Chinese government to feed the large population following the famine of 1962 that caused 30 million deaths. Furthermore, the leadership argues that it was a hindrance to economic development, sustainability, and modernization. To mitigate this growing problem, the Chinese government initiated a family planning policy that introduced free abortion services and contraceptives. A concerted attempt to reduce the population around 1969 resulted in a huge success as the Chinese population dropped by half. However, this success was short-lived because the population had doubled again by 1976, and this prompted the Chinese government to introduce and enforce the one-child policy in 1979 (Fitzpatrick, 2009). It targeted the majority race, the Chinese Hans but spared all the ethnic minorities. This has resulted in the prevention of 400 million new births (Scutti, 2014). The paper explores the introduction of the one-child policy that requires a married couple, or a woman to give birth to only one child, and the serious implications on the nation both socially and economically. Effects on Populations Growth The one-child policy has caused a huge drop in population growth. According to Cao et al (2010), Chinese fertility rate had dropped to 1.35 births per woman in 2003. By 2006 the Chinese population growth rate had fallen below 1%. Tan (2012) asserts that Chinese population had decreased by 250 million people by 1999. Cao et al (2010, p. 373) argues that the population decline has reached worrying levels because the one-child policy has encouraged women to desist from child-bearing and pursue other exploits such as education and economic development. Cao et al (2010, p. 374) notes that this population decline has seen the population of the old and less-productive people become progressively larger as the population of the younger and more productive population declines. Greenlaugh (2005, p. 276) exposes another crisis created by the Chinese central committee in 1984 when they allowed rural folk to get a second child if the first child was a girl or was disabled. Couples who could not manage to get a first or second born boy child resorted to abortions to eliminate the female. This created a serious imbalance in the ratio of boys to girls. By 1999, the ratio of boys to girls was 120:100. According to Scutti (2014), the sex ratio at birth (SRB) reached an all-time high of 130:100 in 2005. Today, the population of boys below 20 years in China is 32 million higher than that of girls (Scutti, 2014). This also exposes the other effect of large-scale female infanticide that has become an acceptable and common practice in the Chinese society. The magnitude is so high that according to a research on family patterns in China (Chen, 2012, p. 27), between 1971 and 1980, over 800,000 female fetuses were aborted in one region alone. Effects on People’s Attitudes A research conducted in 2010 on 4,208 Chinese women in child-bearing age (Cao et al, 2010, p. 362) revealed that 78.70% of Chinese women have internalized and embraced the one-child policy so much that even if the government offered to educate the children, the women would still not be willing to bring up more than one child. In fact, 7.2% have decided not to have children at all. Again, this survey revealed that even higher incomes for women would not encourage them to have more children. In fact it would cause the reverse as shown in the following graph extracted from Cao et al (2010, p. 364). As women acquired higher education, and the commensurate higher income, their willingness to bear more children dropped tremendously. This unwillingness stems from fear, health and beauty reasons. Evidently as Cao et al (2010, p. 365) reveals, the one-child policy have caused women to assume that bearing more than one child will result in difficulties in finding job opportunities for them and those children. The rationale is if the government supports only one child in such important aspects as education, health, and government jobs, then it would be up to the parent to fully support the extra children by paying for their upbringing, their education, their hospital bills, and finally in securing jobs in the future. Women have developed a very low attitude to child-bearing associating it with unbearable pain, poor health, and loss of beauty. Others still associate child-bearing with loss of leisure, amusement, and loss of opportunity (Cao et al, 2010, p. 367). Cao et al (2010, p. 373) asserts that the one-child policy has encouraged Chinese women to pursue other aspects of personal development such as higher education, and involvement in economic development. In fact, Ren (2013) argues that the one-child policy has helped the girl-child by forcing parents to love their only child, and thus giving her a positive image and status in a patriarchal society. It has boosted gender equality. Zhang (2007, p. 857) argues that today most Chinese women prefer (voluntarily) to have only one child, even if the state allows them to have two children. Interestingly, the young parents do not mind having a daughter as an only child. Economic Effects Greenlaugh (2005, p. 260) identifies the increasing abject poverty among the rural Chinese as another effect of the high population. Again, Greenlaugh (2005, p. 260) notes that the high population was causing shortage of food, and especially grains. The one-child policy has since “accelerated modernization” (Scutti, 2014) and caused China’s economic development to surge forward tremendously. Chen (2012, p. 27) argues that the phenomenal economic growth is as a result of availing a huge human resource to the workplace because the parents are not committed at home. The government also collects huge amounts of taxes from the large workforce, and the fewer children put less pressure on both health and education, and other national resources. However, Chen (2012, p. 28) asserts that the economy will begin to suffer soon from the large pension, health and social welfare burden and a declining workforce because of the growing number of aged people. Greenlaugh (2005, p. 276) argues that this is a threat to future economic growth. G.E. (2013) informs the ration of taxpayers to pension will probably drop to 1:1 by 2030. Furthermore, Wang and Yong (2010) intimate that the dwindling future generation will be overburdened by both parental support and government contributions. Effects on Education In the 1980s, Tan (2012, p. 44) acknowledges the government’s acceptance of the introduction of private schools. The one-child policy has since caused the privatized education sector to grow tremendously because the parents were able to combine their resources and pay for their only child’s education in the expensive elite private schools. The private schools offer higher-quality curriculum and facilities that public schools do not therefore parents opt for private schools to boost the chances of their child getting a job in the modern, technology-driven, and competitive market. Socio-cultural Effects Greenlaugh (2005, p. 275) exposes the brutality with which the Chinese government enforced the one-child policy. In 1983, the government took extreme and diabolical measures which included; a) Sterilization – one parent in a family that had two or more children would be forcefully sterilized. b) Abortion – all unauthorized pregnancies i.e. all second pregnancies after the one allowed child and all third pregnancies for families that wanted a boy but got a girl as the first-born, or a disabled child (Scutti, 2014), were forcefully aborted. The government managed to perform a staggering 14 million abortions and 21 million sterilizations. This achievement came with a steep price on the citizens. The victims went through serious physical and psychological torture, trauma and suffering because of forced sterilization and killing of baby girls, and damaging of the victims’ bodies by surgeons. Again, the tranquility of the village lifestyle was shattered by government-sanctioned violence and fear as peasants who opposed the forced operations crashed with government officers. The one-child policy also has the effect of entrenching authoritarian rule and an infringement of basic human rights in the form of property seizures to compensate for government fines and illegal imprisonments (Chen, 2012, p. 27). In fact, government officers have been known to dispossess mothers of their babies and “sell” them for adoption for prices up to US $3000. In other instances, health officers detain babies until the mothers consent to forced sterilization. The other effect is the increased number of abandoned and orphaned children. According to Chen (2012, p. 27), the most interesting fact is that the abandoned and “orphaned” children are all girls. This is a clear disintegration of family values where parents prefer one child over the other because of gender. The Chinese society places more value on boys than girls especially because the boys are expected to provide for the aged parents (Scutti, 2014). This has provided an opportunity for foreign families to adopt many Chinese girls. Zhang (2007, p. 856) exposes a society that is bedeviled by frustrations, anger, and heartaches due to changing laws. The introduction of the one-child policy forced the families that were expecting a second child under the previous law of “Later marriage, Longer Space, Fewer Children” to unwillingly give up their dream of getting a second child. Scutti (2014) argues that Chinese men faced with the stark reality of never getting married have become the end of family lineage leading to shame, stress, depression, aggression, and alcoholism. Such men suffer mental health problems. Again, the SRB imbalance has created a demand for illicit sex, which in turn has led to an upsurge in human trafficking and prostitution in China. Despite the benefits that the policy portends to the girl-child, Hatton (2013) contends that this is not necessarily a good thing arguing that parents have become overprotective and overbearing denying the child a chance to develop freely. Again, lack of siblings results in negative traits in an only child such as lowered competitiveness, pessimism, and less trusting. Reference List Cao, S., Tian, T., Qi, F., Ma, L., and Wang, G. 2010. An Investigation of Women’s Attitudes towards Fertility and China’s Family Planning Policy. Journal of Biosocial Science, vol. 42, pp.359–75. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), 2014. East and Southern Asia: China. Library – The World Fact Book. [online] Available: [Accessed 26 May 2014] Chen, B. 2012, August 21. China’s Dilemma in Human Rights: Through the Perspective of Critiques Abroad and China’s Response. Journal of Politics and Law, Vol. 5, pp. 25 - 32 Fitzpatrick, L. 2009, July 27. A brief history of China’s One-Child policy. TIME Magazine. [online] Available at: [Accessed 26 May 2014] G.E. 2013, December 10. Why is China Relaxing its One-Child Policy? The Economist. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 May 2014] Greenhalgh, S. 2005, June. Missile Science, Population Science : The Origin’s of China’s One- child Policy. The China Quarterly Journal, Vol. 182, pp. 253 – 276 Hatton, C. 2013, November 22. No Siblings: A Side Effect of China’s One-Child Policy. BBC News Magazine. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 May 2014] Ren, Y. 2013, December 23. How China’s One-child policy overhauled the status and prospects of girls like me. The Telegraph. [online] Available at: [Accessed 27 May 2014] Scutti, S. 2014, January 23. One-Child Policy is One Big Problem for China. Newsweek Magazine. [online] Available at: [Accessed 29 May 2014] Tan, G. 2012. The One-child Policy and the Privatisation of Education in China. State University of New York Article Fall 2012, pp. 43-54 Wang, F., Yong, C. 2010, September 24. China’s One-child Policy at 30. The Brookings Institution. [online] Available at: [Accessed 28 May 2014] Zhang, H. 2007, December. From Resisting to “Embracing” the One-Child Rule: Understanding New Fertility Trends in a Central China Village. The China Quartely Journal, Vol. 192, pp. 855 - 875 Read More

By 1999, the ratio of boys to girls was 120:100. According to Scutti (2014), the sex ratio at birth (SRB) reached an all-time high of 130:100 in 2005. Today, the population of boys below 20 years in China is 32 million higher than that of girls (Scutti, 2014). This also exposes the other effect of large-scale female infanticide that has become an acceptable and common practice in the Chinese society. The magnitude is so high that according to a research on family patterns in China (Chen, 2012, p. 27), between 1971 and 1980, over 800,000 female fetuses were aborted in one region alone.

Effects on People’s Attitudes A research conducted in 2010 on 4,208 Chinese women in child-bearing age (Cao et al, 2010, p. 362) revealed that 78.70% of Chinese women have internalized and embraced the one-child policy so much that even if the government offered to educate the children, the women would still not be willing to bring up more than one child. In fact, 7.2% have decided not to have children at all. Again, this survey revealed that even higher incomes for women would not encourage them to have more children.

In fact it would cause the reverse as shown in the following graph extracted from Cao et al (2010, p. 364). As women acquired higher education, and the commensurate higher income, their willingness to bear more children dropped tremendously. This unwillingness stems from fear, health and beauty reasons. Evidently as Cao et al (2010, p. 365) reveals, the one-child policy have caused women to assume that bearing more than one child will result in difficulties in finding job opportunities for them and those children.

The rationale is if the government supports only one child in such important aspects as education, health, and government jobs, then it would be up to the parent to fully support the extra children by paying for their upbringing, their education, their hospital bills, and finally in securing jobs in the future. Women have developed a very low attitude to child-bearing associating it with unbearable pain, poor health, and loss of beauty. Others still associate child-bearing with loss of leisure, amusement, and loss of opportunity (Cao et al, 2010, p. 367). Cao et al (2010, p. 373) asserts that the one-child policy has encouraged Chinese women to pursue other aspects of personal development such as higher education, and involvement in economic development.

In fact, Ren (2013) argues that the one-child policy has helped the girl-child by forcing parents to love their only child, and thus giving her a positive image and status in a patriarchal society. It has boosted gender equality. Zhang (2007, p. 857) argues that today most Chinese women prefer (voluntarily) to have only one child, even if the state allows them to have two children. Interestingly, the young parents do not mind having a daughter as an only child. Economic Effects Greenlaugh (2005, p. 260) identifies the increasing abject poverty among the rural Chinese as another effect of the high population.

Again, Greenlaugh (2005, p. 260) notes that the high population was causing shortage of food, and especially grains. The one-child policy has since “accelerated modernization” (Scutti, 2014) and caused China’s economic development to surge forward tremendously. Chen (2012, p. 27) argues that the phenomenal economic growth is as a result of availing a huge human resource to the workplace because the parents are not committed at home. The government also collects huge amounts of taxes from the large workforce, and the fewer children put less pressure on both health and education, and other national resources.

However, Chen (2012, p. 28) asserts that the economy will begin to suffer soon from the large pension, health and social welfare burden and a declining workforce because of the growing number of aged people. Greenlaugh (2005, p. 276) argues that this is a threat to future economic growth. G.E. (2013) informs the ration of taxpayers to pension will probably drop to 1:1 by 2030.

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