Joshua Bayona
Ms. Burchi
Cultural Studies E
29 January 2015
Op-Ed: One-child policy
Not as bad for China as people think
By 1978, The Chinese Communist Party recognized the danger of uncontrollable population growth, and in response to its fears, instigated the one-child policy, which forbade more than one child per family to prevent the population of China from growing burdensomely large. In practice, the policy has gained infamy for its supposed infraction upon human rights and for the demographic problems associated with it, notably in the current male-female sex ratio imbalance in favor of the males. It has (according to the PRC) prevented 400 million births during its several decades of use. Despite proffering prevailing
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In the case of the one-child policy, the beneficial outcomes are overshadowed by the emotional concerns of female abortion and the gender discrepancy. China embodies an intrinsic preference for male children, and, as the one-child policy restricts families to only one child, parents often use ultrasound technology to detect female fetuses (if they have not yet had a child) and promptly abort them in order to preserve their single-child quota. However, makeshift institutions known as “safe havens” have been established all throughout China to provide foster homes for unwanted or illegal infants. The prospect of a child being forever separated from its biological parents is of course an upsetting one, but is nevertheless a much better alternative than just murdering illegal or unwanted children. China has by no means turned a blind eye to female discrimination either; by the year 2000, the Chinese government recognized persecution of females and sought to rectify the issue (in part) by inducting policies promoting female education and laws and their values in the family, as Yuen Ting Lee of Asian Journal of Women’s Studies points out. Such policies may never have been started to address such underlying issues if the one-child policy had not forcefully brought them to light. As for the issue of the unsupported aging population, in order to compensate for the workers leaving work to care for elderly family members, China may see opening up to migrant workers from around the world as an adequate alternative, especially if it wishes to maintain its attempts at leading global modernization. The one child policy has created an age gap, but in doing so one can see how it has also indirectly provided China with an outlet for economical growth and modernization that may not have otherwise occurred. The one-child policy and its
By introducing China’s One-Child Policy (Family Planning Policy) in 1979, China hopes to decrease its country’s annual population growth. China has implemented the policy by many different
Since 1980, China has made its people the subject of an intrusive and unfair, One Child Policy. This policy was the result of Chinese officials becoming worried of the countries jump in population from 1960 to 1980 causing a widespread lack of resources, so they decided to induct a law that would make force Chinese citizens to be limited to one child. Because of this controversial policy the question has been raised, did the one child policy positively or negatively effect China? The one child policy did negatively effect China and its people, because it resulted in gender discrimination, unjust punishments and was unnecessary due to the already declining fertility rate.
Finally, The One Child Policy was a good idea because it pushed academic success, lessens the load on the environment, and lowers fertility rates which then lowers the population density of already crowded China. Although China’s One Child Policy was a great idea and has helped China significantly, it has created a gender imbalance of over 32 million males than there are
Most females are not respected and are heavily pressured by their parents. Many Chinese women are expected to be in arranged marriages and are not respected in their family or the work-place. Woman that aren’t even born yet suffer from infanticide. If the parents came to find that they were having a girl from ultrasound- they would abort that child and try for a boy causing pre-birth ultrasounds to be banned. “Negative social consequences, particularly sex discrimination. With boys being viewed as culturally preferable, the practice of female infanticide was resumed in some areas shortly after the one-child policy took effect.” (Document E) “I hate to say it but the one-child policy should party be blamed for some social issues in youth today.” “She wished she has a brother or sister to share all the attention.” (Document F) This evidence supports the claim that the one-child policy was a bad policy because women have always been culturally no preferable, causing unborn females to be aborted.
While china One child Policy was aimed for improvement, the policy has caused some serious social consequences. The New England Journal of Medicine 's article "The Effect of China 's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years" discuss the social consequences of Chinas One child policy. The One child policy in china begin when Chinese governments viewed population containment as a benefit for living and economic improvement. They created a one child policy that limits the size of families, the policy also includes regulations regarding marriage, spacing and childbearing. The strict policy is controlled with rewards and penalties, it applies to minorities of china which are Urban residents and government employees with the exception of one-child families, first children with disabilities and workers in high-risk work settings. The policy three social consequences concerning population growth, the ratio between men and women, and the ratio between adult children and dependent elderly parents. Each social consequences causes disastrous results. The policy is a sex imbalance that creates social consequences. The sex imbalance is what causes the different social consequence with undesirable effects. The first social consequence is decrease in population growth. Population growth in china has declined in the past 25 years. The policy has prevented many births as stated in the article " Chinese authorities claim that the policy has prevented 250 to 300 million births. The total
With more than 1.3 billion people, China has to think about a solution and find ways to deal with its population explosion. In order to have control over population, in 1970, a policy named China’s One Child Policy was introduced. Mingliang argues that, “China, through the one-child policy, has instituted the most aggressive, comprehensive population policy in the world” (1). This policy limits all families in the Republic of China to have only one child, regardless of the sex: however, within this policy there are some exceptions. It is possible to have two children only if the first child is born with a disability, if parents work in a high risk job, if the couple lives in villages, or if the family is a non- Han, otherwise you are
There has been a long history of China’s one child policy, since it was first introduces in 1979 by a Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping (Rosenberg n.p). The law was meant to be temporary and used to control the population; however it is still in use today (Rosenberg n.p). When the policy was first enforced, it only
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
China’s One Child Policy is not effective due to the gender imbalance and social issues that it has caused. Document D reveals that the gender imbalance widened after China’s One Child Policy,”There are 32 million
Due to the one-child policy there are many serious human rights infractions. Since the policy has been in effect, there have been more than 400 million prevented births ("China:
The one child policy only hurt China more due to its lowering fertility rate prior to the policy. “China had already achieved a remarkable fertility reduction, halving the number of children per women from 5.8 in 1970 to 2.7 in 1979.” (Document B) The facts shown here show that the policy was not necessary. In addition, since the population was already going
China’s one-child policy may have worked too well and its reversal may have come too late, according to demographers and economists (Clarke, A 2015).
As a result of there only being allowed one child per household, it was common for the families to want a male baby. With this mindset, it was uncommon for a family to want a female child. When the mothers had a female baby, there would often be times where the child would be aborted or left at orphanages to comply with the One Child Policy. As a result of this happening throughout China, many problems were started. There were arguments that because of this policy, future generations would be greatly affected. By wanting only male children, the abortions of female babies would cause the decrease in population. With this decrease, the male population gets higher because of the want for male children and not female children. Not only did this policy create problems in China, but also internationally conducted problems as well. As the policy became known in China, other countries tried to avoid conflict over the policy, but also got involved. “In 2002 the U.S., under President George W. Bush, withheld more than $34 million in funding for United National Family Planning Administration (UNFPA) programs on this basis, declaring that China's one-child policy led to coercive abortions and involuntary sterilizations.” Other countries realized the problems that were being created through this policy, and did not agree with it. The problems at the start of this policy only continued over
The abolishment of the one child policy was a major reform in China,”A move that would effectively dismantle the remnants of the country's one-child policy”(China’s One-child Policy to End). Eradicating the one child policy was a fairly effective action in ending the horrendous Gendercide that is prevalent in China. The abolishment of the one child policy is an ample step to ending the gendercide in China. Gendercide has been a major cause for the radically skewed gender ratios and unstable population in China. Another action taken in China to end gendercide and balance gender ratios was the change in government propaganda caused by the two child policy. The two child policy allows for couples to have two children instead of one, and the Chinese communist government has even changed propaganda to show two children, a son and daughter, instead of one (China’s one child policy to end). The change over to the two child policy may not seem like much but, it will allow for many couples to have another child, resulting in nearly two million babies to be born. Though abolishing all child limiting policies would be better, the change of policy will help end gendercide, and grow the female population in China. Both the negation of the one child policy, and the new terms of the two child policy. will help end gendercide.
First are the problems of the female abortions and the killing of infants. “As a result, abortions of females have become commonplace, as well as the killing of babies born post-partum.” China’s women must have an abortion, even if