The one child policy was introduced in 1979 in order to combat China's growing population problem. In most countries, family planning programs are implemented in order to maintain correct levels of a nation's population, however, in the mid 20th century, Mao Zedong thought that citizens should have as many children as possible. It was his belief that the larger the population of China, the more powerful the nation became. Though this may seem like a flawed concept, at the time, China was facing serious adversity in a developing Western-dominated world. This may lead some readers to question why China's population has still had population booms in years since if the One Child Policy has been in place for thirty-five years?
Firstly, the One Child Policy is not evenly enforced in all areas of China. Though the country boasts having more than three-hundred thousand family planning officials, many of these reside in the urban areas of the country. A large portion of China is still agrarian, and is therefore hard to enforce in rural areas due to the amount of space between households and the resources that would be necessary to reach out to all of them. Additionally, China allows for lifts of the policy if you are an ethnic minority. Their are fifty-six different ethnic groups of Chinese that live throughout the country. The dominant cultural group, the Han, are the only ethnic group that currently are disallowed from having more than one child. Seeing as the Han make up about ninety percent of China (and nearly twenty percent of the entire human species), it is no surprise that they are the only group targeted by this policy (Kong, Genetic Structure of the Han Chinese Population). The most important reason as to why the One Child Policy is not working is because of advancements in medicines and technology. When Zedong encouraged families to have more children in the late 1940s, China's infant mortality rate was 227/1000 births and is currently, in 2014, at 14.79/1000 births (The World-Infant Mortality Rate, Geoba.se). Since the 1940s, the world has seen cures to influenza, pneumonia, meningitis, measles, mumps, as well as the invention of the pacemaker, and the first successful transplants of organs. As a result, even though the birth rate in China has dropped to 12.17 births for every 1000 citizens from 20 births for every thousand citizens in the 1950s (Field Listing:Birth Rate, CIA.gov), the fact that mortality rate has dropped and that the average life span has increased to 75 years from 40.1 years in 1950 (Riley, Nancy E., China's Population Trends), people are living longer, and there is a lack of immediate impact in population size, rendering the One Child Policy relatively ineffective (barring the possibility of a widespread disease or war that increases mortality rate in the coming decades). . |
Top: Depicted is a graph displaying the birth rate per woman in China from the beginning of the One Child policy through the 21st century
Middle: A moving pyramid graph breaks down the portion of populations belonging to each age group from 2012 to 2030. One can see that younger generations are making up less of the population and the bulk of the graph starts to disappear as time passes. Bottom: The final picture displays the breakdown of population by ethnic group in China. One can see the large area of China that the Han group occupies (the Han being the only group that is effected by the One Child Policy). |
With China's One Child Policy being such a cornerstone in Chinese culture and life, it can be expected that not following such rules can lead to punitive measures. As a result, China created many measures in order to deter citizens from having multiple children. It can come with steep financial penalties in the form of taxes, based on the population of the city in which they are born. In Shanghai, a fine of 110,000 yuan would be imposed for a second child, and a fine of 435,000 yuan can be imposed for a third child. In more extreme cases, some have reported that they were given forced abortions, which can have a large emotional toll on citizens, as shown by the video below.
Ultimately, it seems that with the One Child Policy China will eventually head in a direction that will lead to a smaller population. The methods in which they accomplish this may seem outdated, but due to the increasing life expectancy of their citizens, some form of action is necessary in order to sustain resources.
"Field Listing :: Birth Rate." Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency, 2014. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
"Geoba.se: Gazetteer - The World - Infant Mortality Rate - Top 100+ By Country (2014)." Geoba.se: Gazetteer - The World - Infant Mortality Rate - Top 100+ By Country (2014). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014.
Kong, Yao Y.G. "Genetic Structure of the Han Chinese Population Revealed by Genome-wide SNP Variation." NCBI. US National Library of Medicine, Feb.-Mar. 2002. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
"Life Expectancy at Birth, Total (years)." Data. The World Bank, 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.
Riley, Nancy E. "China's Population Trends." Population Bulletin 59.2 (2004): n. pag. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/tibetanSociety/documents/Riley2004.pdf>.