Children Of The Dragon : China 's One Child Policy

China is the world's most populous nation and its population has, on average, increased by over 25 people every minute, every day for the past 40 years. (Richards 5) For a developing country such as China, with 22 percent of the world's population and only 7 percent of the world's arable land, rapid and persistent population growth can contribute significantly to the nation's poverty levels and restrain its potential for economic growth. (Gu 42) China's one-child family policy was first announced in 1979. In a 1979 speech, Deng Xiaoping drew the first outlines of a policy to limit population growth, "Use whatever means you must to control China's population. Just do it." (Mosher 50)

China’s One Child Policy was founded in 1949, this policy was founded upon the idea that China’s population was growing at an exponential rate (Doc B). China had one of the largest growing populations at over 150 million every year and with a population density of over 104 people/sq. km in rural areas and in cities up to 22,350/sq. km (Pop. Den.). China’s One Child Policy focuses on lowering the fertility rate of women and in turn lowers the population and population density, this is done by limiting most of the Chinese society to only having one child. China’s One Child Policy was a good idea because it focused on academic achievement, lessened the load on the environment and lowers fertility rates in women which then in turn lowers the already crowded Chinese population.

The one-child policy was implemented in 1979 by the Chinese government (The Economist 3). Its original goal was to restrain the population growth from its expected goal of 1.4 billion to a maximum of 1.2 billion by the end of the century (Kane and Choi 992). The policy was created with little regard to the potential demographic or societal changes, but rather was a political and economic measure to control the abnormally high population growth (Feng et al. 84). China’s population was rapidly growing, but there was a severe shortage of natural

“Thousands of women are being dragged out of their homes, thrown into ‘family planning’ cells, strapped to tables, and forced to abort pregnancies, even up to the ninth month. Forced abortion and sterilization are China’s war on women” ("The Reality of China's" 1). This was said by Reggie Littlejohn, the president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. Due to the rising population and the one-child policy, there are many human rights violations; however there are organizations, such as Women’s Rights Without Frontiers, which are helping to stop the problem.

One of the more extreme measures taken in an attempt to control population has been China's one-child policy. Population advocate Garet Hardin suggests the rest of the world adopt similar policies. This paper is to show a country's government acting on theories that Hardin is popular for and the ethical and environmental effects that it had on people and the land. Hardin fails to see the ethical problems laid out by governments that suppress peoples thoughts and beliefs.

“China Will Have another Major Demographic Problem,” is an article on About.com written by Matt Rosernberg. It explains the great imbalance between man and women due to China’s One Child Policy, and how this situation will disturb the stability and development of China because the high numbers of bachelors tend to damage community by doing crimes and violence. The policy says that a couple could only have a child. This was created as a temporary solution since China was overpopulated by 972 million people in 1979 (Rosenberg). Through years this policy is proven to reduce the population growth. However, there have been some unintended side effects. Not only did this policy create the gender imbalance, but also many other issues, such as: the high population of unmarried men, human trafficking, and the high rate of suicide.

China’s One-Child Policy which was created in 1980, brought much negativity among people, this policy restricted and disabled many human rights and violations in which i totally disagree with this entire policy. It blocked and restricted many family members to inherit and have kids which was a very disturbing matter, it’s sad how at that time parents couldn’t have babies born. There were many other negative impactful factors, there was a lot of racial discrimination among blacks and other races in that time period, people started forcing them to work as a slave tragically. One of the most important major factors that stood out in the One-Child Policy was

In 1979, China decided to establish a one child policy which states that couples are only allowed to have one child, unless they meet certain exceptions[1].In order to understand what social impacts the one child policy has created in China it important to evaluate the history of this law. China’s decision to implement a Child policy has caused possible corruption, an abuse of women’s rights, has led to high rates of female feticide, has created a gender ratio problem for China, and has led to specific problems associated with both the elderly and younger generation. Finally, an assessment of why China’s one child policy is important to the United States allows for a full evaluation of the policy.

With China being formidable of their nation, not having enough resources to support its vast and rapidly increasing population. Officials implemented an extensive population control program that the Communist Party introduced in 1980 as the One-Child policy. Chinese government law that avoids families from having another child. Those only of the Han Chinese ethnic group that make up 90% of the Chinese population are to be fined, and punished with forced sterilization and abortions. While some see the One-Child policy as making their lives easier and are even rewarded with a “Certificate of Honor.” Correspondingly I see it as assault and clearly violates human rights to the families to not let them enjoy the natural phenomenon of human birth.

In the last two decades, China’s economy has grown rapidly, becoming the world’s second largest economy after the U.S. China has gained this achievement by becoming the factory of the world and exporting cheap products to oversea markets. However, recently China has been losing its advantages in the export sector, which its economy is heavily reliant on. New data shows a visible slowdown in manufacturing in China and it’s time for China to reform its manufacturing model to resist this slowdown.

The one child policy is also a costly program for the Chinese Government with over 400,000 people currently working for the policy and annually costs $708.8 million. This is not helped by the fact that the one child policy is creating a generation of youngsters that is not as good a working force compared to the current one; this is due to the fact that the “Little Emperors” are spoiled and do not expect to work for themselves (especially in urban areas, where there are wealthier families). It is thought that with the population (Fig 1) stagnating the economy may stagnate also, due to a smaller working force and one that is less willing to work, an example of the “Little Emperor’s Syndrome” is that there has been a doubling in the number of platinum jewelry sales in China, an expensive gift usually given to children. Although the parental expectations are high, only 2% of Chinese children are able to go to university, which many Chinese scholars suggest may be a sign of the future of the stagnation of the Chinese economy. This all shows that the one child policy may not be aiding the economy that has currently been one of the fastest growing in the world, causing a few people in China to question it.

In the early twentieth century under Mao Zedong’s leadership, the Chinese government encouraged population growth, condemning contraceptives and praising large families. This led to birthrates of over four children per couple. In just a few years, the population had doubled, severely straining Chinese agriculture. From 1959 to 1961, a horrific famine killed as many as thirty million people. Thus, by 1975, the Chinese government had reversed their policy on population growth (Clarke), adopting the slogan “Later, Longer, Fewer.” This campaign urged couples to have two to three children and to begin reproducing at a later age, as well as promoting improved sanitation and healthcare to as to increase life expectancy (“5 Things to Know About China’s 1-Child Policy”).

There are more than 1.3 billion people living and building families in China. Until a century ago, many Chinese families included multiple generations living in the same household. Today, though, it's no longer the norm. A typical Chinese family today includes a married man and woman with one child, and this is generally known as the core family. The percentage of core families continues to rise above other types of family units. This not due to a social coincidence, but a direct reflection of the Chinese government's population control policies.

China has had a one child policy since 1980. The one child policy limits the fertility rate that each woman can have only one child in efforts to cut down the population, and undo what Mao Zedong did to early China. Mao’s goal was to make China the next superpower nation by encouraging people to have many children. Unfortunately, Mao did not know that he was moving China backwards with this kind of thinking. In 1949 after a long civil war over who controlled China, Mao Zedong took control of the newly communist country. Mao wanted China to become a bigger country with a stronger economy so he encouraged people to have more and more children. At the same time, Mao wanted more people to work in the factories and move to the cities. Many problems occurred in this process because too many people moved to the cities and there wasn't enough farmers for their new growing population and economy. Unfortunately, a huge famine occurred, and an estimated 30 million people starved to death as a result. After this disaster, Mao changed his beliefs and then decided he wanted people to stop having more than one child. By 1980 China's population had almost reached 1 billion, and the communist leaders feared that their population was growing too fast. The most logical solution was the one child policy. So, was China’s one child policy a compatible solution to their population problems?

In Beijing, China a girl named Li Xue was born. She was a happy, ordinary looking girl, but you couldn’t guess when looking at her that she was living with a secret. Or that she was, in fact, the secret. Li Xue was a second child. Here in America that is be normal. Most of us have siblings, and some of us even are the second child. But in China that is very uncommon. China made a law in 1979 stating every family could have no more than one child. If you break this law you can have to pay up to one million yuan in fines. (which is the equivalent of $145,619 American dollars). So Li Xue had to spend all of her childhood indoors, where no one could find her. One might ask oneself, why would China have a law on having children? The cause, population