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Running head: CHINA’S ONE CHILD POLICY
China’s One Child Family Policy
Introduction
A crucial element in China’s modernization effort has been to control the country’s
population growth. The China government announced and enacted the One child family policy in
1970, as one of the strategies to achieve the modernization quest (Greenhalgh, 1990). The policy
has remained in place for 25 years despite the extraordinary social and political changes that
have occurred in the country for the last two decades. The core aim of the policy was to curtain
the population growth in the country to approximately 1.1 billion by the year 2000.
The elements of the policy were made clear to everyone in the country: the nation
required the sacrifice of the second child for the sake of its modernization growth and the future
generations (Greenhalgh, 1990). To enforce the policy, the Chinese government levied huge
taxes for those who were determined to have a second child while at the same time punishing
couples for having another child without a permit. On the other hand, the law also incentivized
the households with a single child by offering various benefits such as longer maternity leave to
such families.
Despite the foreseen economic and social advantages of the policy, it has been in
controversy since its inception (Nie, 2005). Some of these contemporary issues that have been
raised and of which are going to be covered in this study include, the successes and failures of
the policy, the varying effects of the policy regarding the geographical differences, and the
propensity that China enjoys from the policy.
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The One Child Family Policy had significant successes in China. First, the policy was
able to structure the country’s population in a great way. It has slowed down the population
growth by an estimated 250-300 million from the year 1979 to 2015 (Nie, 2005). The reduction
in the rate of population growth had been as a result of the reduction of the fertility rate as
provided by the policy. The slow population growth in China has ultimately reduced the
sovereignty of the crisis that comes with overpopulation, like slums, epidemic outbreaks, a strain
on the ecosystem, and the overwhelmed social services such as health, education, and law
enforcement (Piotrowski, 2016). These reductions in fertility had eased some of the pressures on
the Chinese communities, the state, and the environment in the nation which carries around one
fifth of the world’s population.
Far from the population based benefits, the policy was successful in bringing other non-
population advantages. The One Child Policy positively impacted on the health care in the
country (Wang, 2010). The policy provided better health services for women besides reducing
the accidents and injuries associated with pregnancy. Health help was provided for women to
help them to monitor the health of the only unborn child as well as their health (Wang, 2010).
The control on the population growth meant that the was a reduction on the constraint in health
services in the country.
The policy was also successful in increasing both national and household’s savings rate
(Gregory, 1992). The increase in the saving rate has partially been attributed to the policy in two
respects. First, since the families could not depend on their only child to take care of them in old
age, there was an impetus to save money for their future. Second, the average Chinese
households spend fewer resources on children, a factor which had given many Chinese the time
and money to invest. Finally, the policy had enhanced economic growth in the country for the
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last two decades (Gregory, 1992). The primary intention of the One child family policy was
economic; to minimize the demand for natural resources, maintain a steady labour rate, and to
reduce the unemployment caused by surplus labour force, therefore reducing the rate of labour
exploitation.
Besides, the successes mentioned above, the one child policy has also had some
significant limitations. First, the policy led to undesired social consequences. The negative
effects began with the occurrence of a rapid decrease in population. As the wealth and education
levels in the country continue to rise, there are high chances that the fertility level in the country
may remain low (Harrell, 2011). The policy also failed to consider adverse impacts of the
reducing the population growth rate in the country (Harrell, 2011). The policy has been held
responsible for the fertility decrease in the country.
Secondly, the One Child Policy is currently being held responsible for the economic
slowdown that the nation is experiencing (Gregory, 1992). This argument is based on the fact
that there exist three main sources of growth in the China’s economy: labour, capital, and
productivity. The labour in the country seems to be an unmeaningful source of economic growth
in the country (White, 1990). This trend might continue for decades to come as those leaving the
labour poor in the country might exceed those entering it. The few people entering the workforce
in the country- as a result of the One Child Policy are already complaining due to the pressure
from taking care of the aging parents on their own. The interpretation of these trends implies that
China economy will continue to slow for the foreseeable future until the “longest” generation
bears a lot of children to sustain the economy demand.
Thirdly, the policy had also failed to account for the aging population in the country. The
increasing aging population in China can comfortably be described as a product of the
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implementation of the One Child Policy. According to Li (1995), the rapid aging population has
a profound effect on the Chinese culture. The only child in a family has to take care of the aging
parents without the help from siblings (Li, 1995). The long-term consequences of the aging
population are that it increases the burden of caregiving on a single adult child or a spouse who
also have the responsibility to take care of his own family.
Fourthly, the policy has also led to a lot of social misery in China. According to Huang
(2003), too many girls in the country are an orphanage or face second lives with fewer chances
of choosing and health care. China has been observed to have a unique attribute, selective
abortion. Families choose to have boys instead of boys, a stance which has remained to date
(Huang, 2003) There is a clear explanation of this phenomenon; the Chinese culture prefers the
male child to the female child. Also, the One Child Policy doesn’t give families the option to
have both a boy and a child, meaning that the families will do everything to keep the boy child
even if it means getting rid of the girl child. The choice of a boy over a girl led to high rate of
fetus abortions of which they consequences are being experienced to date.
Lastly, the policy has failed in strengthening family structures and formation. The One
Child Policy has had some significant effects on divorce rates in the country. According to Zhang
(2009), the requirement to have only one child have been releasing the couples in the state from
child bearing and rearing burdens, a factor which has allowed them to devote more energy and
time in pursuing their ovation and careers. It’s the child bearing and rearing burden in the
country which has increased divorce and dissolutions of marriages in China (Zhang, 2009). In
summation, the current economic and social propensities which have been a product of the One
Child Policy have increased the divorce rate in China.
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It’s worth noting that there existed regional disparities in the effects of the One Child
policy in China. According to Li (1995), the One Child Policy has been most effective in the
rural area where a large group of people where are ready to have a smaller family. The
acceptability of the policy in the cities was as a result of the fact that it significantly favoured
them in many aspects (Harrell, 2011). Some of the reasons for this correlation and compliance
with the policy include the practical constraints of the urban life which favoured smaller
families, the government incentives, and the changing culture and norms in the cities.
The urban households or workers had been receiving various necessities such as housing,
old-age pensions, food allocation, and health from the government with the aim of persuading
them to adhere to the one-child policy (Li, 1995). This was a big favour since all they were
required is to adhere to the policy, and they would continue enjoying the benefits even after they
are past the child bearing age. Despite the incentives being a form of control on the child bearing
rate, it favoured the households leaving the cities to a large extent compared to the households in
the rural areas.
While the level of government control and incentives on the One Child Policy may have
given the substantial urban reason to comply with the policy, there are other factors which low
birth rate in the China urban areas. The policy favoured the urban women who struggled to meet
their low fertility preference (Harrell, 2011). Most households in the cities tended to comply with
the policy since it was favourable and compatible with their needs or living conditions. Also,
given that the urban people in China live in incredibly cramped quarters, the policy enabled the
urban families to leave a more comfortable life. The notion that the urban people have less of a
need for children compared to the rural parents do, it meant that the One Child Policy was
favorable to them in a great way.
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Also, the birth-planning work was conducted through the woman’s workplace, meaning
that the woman had a high chance of slipping through the cracks of the birth-planning system
(Huang, 1982). This made it possible for the women in the cities to conceal an out-of-plan child
or pregnancy from the authorities. This aspect made the policy to be more favourable to the
urban households since they could easily conceal a second birth which was not the case in the
rural areas.
On the other hand, the impacts of the policy were very different in Chinese rural areas. To
start with, there had been a lot of substantial resistance to the policy as a result of the perceived
disadvantages of the policy to the rural people. As a consequence of the smaller resource base of
rural units, the One Child Policy benefits offered to the peasants in the rural area had been less
generous than those offered to the urbanites (Greenhalgh, 2009). The benefits were not only
small, but the consistently declined in relative attractiveness to the rural parents over time,
making the policy to be a major disadvantage to these parents.
Another issue that affected the policy impact in the rural areas was the education level in
the rural areas. The rural families in the country are less educated compared to the urban cities.
The rural parents, therefore, would prefer bearing a lot of children so that the children can at a
later stage help them economically (Greenhalgh, 2009). This stance makes the rural parents view
the One Child Policy as a major barrier in securing a retirement plan. According to the rural
people, having a son was mandatory because parents expected to leave with their sons in the old
age and to have the boys provide them with the economic support. Therefore, the compliance
worth the One Child Policy placed the assertion in jeopardy since the rural families weren’t
assured of having a son within the familial hierarchy, therefore becoming a major disadvantage
to the rural parents.
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Above all the successes and failures of policy, there is one notable impact of the One
Child Policy in the country: creation of the economic propensity that China is enjoying today.
China annual economic growth rate has been in double for the last two decades -since the
implementation of the policy (Zhang, 2009). The One Child Policy laid economic growth
foundations in the country by allowing both the nation and individual household to invest rather
than focusing a lot of time and energy in bearing many children and taking care of them. It’s this
sacrifice and investment that the nation is today enjoying and likely to continue enjoying for the
next decade (Wang, 2010). Besides, the population control has reduced the constraint for social
resources and services in the country, an aspect that the country is still enjoying to date.
Conclusion
Although the form in which the One Child Policy in China was being implemented and
enforced was unacceptable -through abortions and sterilizations, it was not inherently a bad
policy. The policy was able to create economic propensities that the nation will enjoy for the next
one decade. The current population in China is using resources at a sustainable rate, an aspect
which is credited to the One Child Policy. While there are many positive outcomes associated
with the policy, its negative impact on the social structures in the country cannot be
underestimated. The policy disoriented the various social structures and values that were upheld
by the Chinese culture, particularly by the rural people.
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