Preview

Effects of One Child Policy

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1064 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Effects of One Child Policy
Effects of the One-Child Policy

China is the most populated country in the world with a total of 1.4 billion people, and the population is still growing. (WDI) Overpopulation is a current issue that many countries are dealing with and hope to gain control over. In China the previous leader Mao believed that a strong nation had a large population, but China has doubled its population since then. Now the country is being prevented from advancing due to the effects of a large population. The effects of human overpopulation are global warming, deforestation, depletion of natural resources, starvation, and unhygienic living conditions. Without change, the effects of overpopulation will hinder the growth of the nation.
The One-Child Policy was created to control the overpopulation dilemma. It refers to the limitation that restricts urban families into only having one child. There are exceptions to this rule such as rural couples and ethnic minorities. Couples can be fined thousands of dollars for having a supernumerary child without any permit, yet those who wait to have children or only have one are rewarded with special benefits. Campaign ads promote the policy; the ads show happy couples with one child and usually have a pro population reduction undertone, “Up agricultural production, down population increase, "(Nova). This quote is trying to inform the public that living conditions will improve if everyone cuts down on having children. The policy is also promoted through radio, television ads, and print media. The One-Child Policy has slowed down the rapid population growth in China but has produced some undesirable effects that will only get worse.
The Chinese traditional culture has a long tradition of son preference. The reasoning is that they financially support the family, the brides become primarily part of the groom’s family, and sons are also more helpful working the farm. The practice of female infanticide was a common practice before 1949, but this



Cited: "A Brief History of China 's One-Child Policy - TIME." Breaking News, Analysis, Politics, Blogs, News Photos, Video, Tech Reviews - TIME.com. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. . Chen, Xuefeng. "THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF CHINA’S ONE-CHILD POLICY." Harvard Asia Pacific Review. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. . "Kidnappers Swoop on China’s Girls - Times Online." The Times | UK News, World News and Opinion. Web. 02 May 2011. . Krock, Lexi. "Population Campaigns." Nova. PBS. Web. 29 Apr. 2011. . Online, People 's Daily. "Young Chinese Couples Face Pressure from "4-2-1" Family Structure - People 's Daily Online." People 's Daily Online - Home Page. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. . "Women Tricked, Trafficked into China." RFA Home. Radio Free Asia. Web. 22 Apr. 2011. . "World Development Indicators | Data." Data | The World Bank. Web. 15 May 2011. .

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In the documentary, China’s Lost Girls directed by Allan Myers, it goe into China’s One Child Policy. On of the major topics this documentary is the Social Structure of China and how this policy will affect it in the long run. To begin, China’s social structure and culture compared to ours, here in the United States, is far different. China’s culture places more value on men than they do women. Because of that, there is more pressure on the women to help please the needs of the man. Though because of this inconsistency of value between…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    English 151 Major Paper 2

    • 1994 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Potts, Malcolm. "China 's One Child Policy." Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. 19 Aug. 2006. Web. 18 Feb. 2012. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1550444/>.…

    • 1994 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ever wonder if the one-child policy worked out in china? China's population was increasing too fast, almost to one billion. The communist party feared china's population and created a policy named The One-Child Policy that started in 1980. Now we discuss if this policy was a good idea for china or not. More evidence has been found in the documents about this policy not being a great idea afterall. The population still has been growing because of exceptions. Female babies have been killed because at the time a male babies were wanted more than a female baby. Also, some children without a sibling show social issues with parents. More evidence will be stated on why the One-Child policy was not effective.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In today’s society, China’s population was put into consideration by their government. They decided that each couple were to have only one child each. This was established as the one-child policy. Both situations were initiated to maintain their population. Also, it is stated that some families did not obey this regulation and had more than one child.…

    • 1282 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wong, Edward. "Reports of Forced Abortions Fuel to End Chinese Law." The New York Times. The New…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 4-2-1 problem refers to an only child in a family who must bear the burden of being responsible for supporting two parents and four grandparents without any support from other siblings. With advancements in technology and better healthcare, by 2050 more than a quarter of China’s population will be over the age of sixty-five (Dvorsky, 2012). By 2040, China’s percentage of elderly people over the age of sixty-five is projected jump to 28% from the previous mark of 12% in 2010, according to the UN. With the mortality rate rising in China, another problem going along with the 4-2-1 problem arises. For example, “Given the current mortality schedule, the likelihood that an 80-year-old Chinese man will see his 55-year-old son die before he does is six percent, and the likelihood an eighty year old woman will outlive her 55-year-old son is seventeen percent, as women live longer” (Wang, 2010). Which means, Chinese parents cannot count on their children to support them when they reach old age as much as they were able to in previous…

    • 1499 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by every level of cultural complexity. It has been practiced from hunter gatherers to modern civilization, including our own ancestors. When pregnant it is understandable that couples wish for either a boy or a girl but, it is another thing if their wish of having either a boy or a girl is guaranteed to come true. Those couples who wish to have a son and has one child turns out to be a girl seem to be in a most painful dilemma. “Cultural norms dictate that daughters marry out and transfer their emotional and economic loyalties to their husband’s family (Jimmerson 1990).” In Chinese culture, son’s are known to support at old age while daughters are viewed as no source of future economic security. Although rural china has no system of old age support, farming couples without sons are faced with a great dilemma of destitution due to old age. Therefore, in certain cases, these rural couples have responded to the great dilemma of not having sons by practicing infanticide on their female neonates. “Female infanticide then became common in traditional china, through natural hardships such as famines, floods, widespread disease and overpopulation often converged with cultural norms that favored sons and encouraged hard pressed families to abandon or kill their infant daughters (Jimmerson 1990).” The costume of the traditional Chinese believes that family members should follow the ancestral tradition. If a living woman was not available, they would often go buy…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    China’s population has increased since 1950 which caused millions to die due to food shortages. To control how many children Chinese people can have, they had to input a policy to decrease the number of children. This policy was an excellent idea for China because it decreased population, made exceptional environment, and more opportunities for the only child.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Put yourself in other people’s shoes. The year is 1980. You just had your 2nd child. You are so excited to see your daughter/son go to school for the very first time, but wait. Everyone is talking about something called “China’s One Child Policy”. You are confused until you find out what it means. The 2nd child that you just had, can’t receive barely any benefits. According to (Document E), “The Costs and who is not allowed to enroll in school or to access the healthcare system.”. Isn’t that just terrible? If your child has something life-threatening wrong with he/she, he/she cannot treat it because of them being the 2nd child. Your child could die because of this policy. Just think about that.…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One reason that the one child policy was a bad idea is because it was unnecessary. A chart shows that China’s fertility rate in 1979 was 2.7 and it decreased down to 1.7 in 2008(Doc B).This evidence supports the claim that the one-child policy was a bad policy because the decline was already in progress.…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Life after hearing about the two child policy is tough. It certainly makes be think,why they didn't introduce this policy sooner. I mean, why did they introduce it right now. Why didn't they introduce it about a century ago. Because of the one child policy I have been abandoned by my own family on the streets of the Hunan province. After so much has happened ,children getting abandoned,more child poverty,and all torture of being abandoned they introduce it now. Either ways life goes on,and I believe that my new family is way better compared to my old family.…

    • 235 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Another conflict that resulted from this policy was the male to female ratio “Most notably, the country’s overall sex ratio became skewed toward males—roughly between 3 and 4 percent more males than females. Traditionally, male children (especially firstborn) have been preferred—particularly in rural areas—as sons inherit the family name and property and are responsible for the care of elderly parents”(Pletcher, One-child policy). The one-child policy generated many issues for families living in China. Other than just the populations containing more males than females, many families that had female offspring were required to put them into orphanages or simply abandon them. Another very harsh consequence of this policy were…

    • 1235 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine a world where one can’t just simply go to the supermarket because there is not enough food. A world where pollution is a daily reality, the air too thick to even breath and the water virtually undrinkable. A place you can no longer buy consumer goods because there isn’t enough materials to make them. This could become a reality, but preventing it has always been on the minds of the Chinese government. War and epidemics had struck China for years, but after the founding of the People's Republic of China, sanitation and medicine improved and prompted rapid population growth. This combined with the movement created by Mao Zedong, China’s previous communist leader, led to rapid population growth that gave China’s monumental population. This monumental mistake took its toll in the food supply when Mao emphasized steel production over farming, food supply slipped behind population growth; by 1962 a massive famine had caused some 30 million deaths. After the population leveled off, the government continued the camping to reduce China’s population. In 1979 the Chinese government introduced a policy requiring couples from China's ethnic Han majority to have only one child. Depending on where they lived parents can be fined thousand of dollars for having an extra child without a permit and can be forced to abort the child and then be sterilized. With all this in mind I not only believe that the one child policy with some adjustments can be a good solution to the overpopulation and issues related to it but also it is a necessary policy. With changes to the policy will greatly improve China’s people living environment and standards. Without this policy we can face serious issues concerning food supplies, depletion of natural resources at a rapid rate, poverty,spreading of diseases due to lack of proper medical care, overcrowded cities that can lead to heavy pollution, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy and higher death rates,…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Social Ecology

    • 1605 Words
    • 7 Pages

    10. Yang, J., (2007). Local Variations of the One-Child Policy and Adolescent China. Journal of Population Studies.…

    • 1605 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    China´S One Child Policy

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau the world’s population consists, of 6,908,497,829 people. China resides as the world’s leading populated country with 1,336,718,015 people. Because, of this over population it maintained fears of their food, resources, and living spaces. The Chinese government then implemented the one-child policy. The one-child policy has prevailed effectively in slowing down the population growth, but it has caused great anguish among Chinese families. Matt Rosenberg explains how one of the problems facing China in recent years is overpopulation. The Chinese government needed to make a policy to cope with the growing numbers of Chinese citizens. China remains the only country in the world where it is illegal to have a brother or sister. China's one child policy became established by the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 as a solution to stop the over population. The Policy states that parents who live in the city subsist to having only one child. When the One Child Policy was put into place in 1979 it had three goals in mind: control the population growth of China, improving the status of women, and eradicating of poverty.…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays