China's One-Child Policy
Introduction
In 1979, the Chinese government implemented a policy known today as the one-child policy. The policy has, at times, been praised as an effective tool for ensuring that China will be able to continue to support its large population. The policy was adopted to ensure that China, a country that has historically been prone to severe flooding and famine, would be able to feed its people. The rapid population growth that occurred after the Communist Party came to power had put a strain on the government's efforts to help its people. In an attempt to combat the widespread poverty and improve the overall quality of life, the one-child policy was gradually adopted. The one-child policy was designed in 1980 as a temporary measure to put a brake on China’s population growth and to facilitate economic growth under a planned economy that faced severe shortages of capital, natural resources, and consumer goods. “If I have one child, it will be raised better. It will have more opportunities. My career is the most important thing. I really want to excel at it.”
- Lu Zhufeng, a 20 year-old medical student The Policy
The one child policy, although not formally written into law, consists of three main points that advocate: - delayed marriage and delayed child bearing - fewer and healthier births - one child per couple However, the one-child policy does not mean that all families have only one child. The policy is very difficult to enforce, especially in rural areas, where enforcement officials are more prone to corruption, and families need to be large to support the parents in their old age. In addition, families sometimes attempt to circumvent the law by sending pregnant women to stay with relatives. The resulting child will be unregistered, making it difficult for the child to be educated and advance in life, yet still able to support the family. Besides these de facto exceptions to the policy, there are some formal exceptions. First, ethnic minorities are formally excluded from the policy. Second, if both parents are only-children, they are allowed to have more than one child, provided the siblings are spaced more than four years apart. Third, families who have children with mental or physical disabilities are sometimes allowed to have a second child. Problems & Reform
The one-child policy produced consequences beyond the goal of reducing population growth. 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. When most families were restricted to one child, having a girl became highly undesirable, resulting in a rise in abortions of female fetuses (made possible after ultrasound sex determination became available), increases in the number of female children who were placed in orphanages or were abandoned, and even infanticide of baby girls. (An offshoot of the preference for male children was that tens of thousands of Chinese girls were adopted by families in the United States and other countries.) Over time, the gap widened between the number of males and females and, as those children came of age, it led to a situation in which there were fewer females available for marriage. Another consequence of the policy was a growing proportion of elderly people, the result of the concurrent drop in children born and rise in longevity since 1980. That became a concern, as the great majority of senior citizens in China relied on their children for support after they retired, and there were fewer children to support them. A third consequence was instances in which the births of subsequent children after the first went unreported or were hidden from authorities. Those children, most of whom were undocumented, faced hardships in obtaining education and employment. Although the number of such children is not known, estimates have ranged from the hundreds of thousands to several million. Sporadic efforts were made to modify the one-child policy. In addition to earlier exceptions such as for minority peoples or for those whose firstborn was handicapped, those measures included allowing rural families in some areas to have two or even three children and permitting parents whose firstborn was a girl or who both were only children to have a second child. The one-child policy was enforced for most Chinese into the 21st century, but in late 2015 Chinese officials announced that the program was ending. Beginning in early 2016, all families would be allowed to have two children. |
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A Change in Policy
Starting on January 1, 2016, all Chinese couples were allowed to have two children. This marked the end of China’s one-child policy, which restricted the majority of Chinese families to only one child for the last 35 years. The process of ending the one-child policy occurred in three steps. It began in March 2013, when China created a new National Health and Family Planning Commission. Eight months later, in November 2013, China announced a partial policy relaxation that allowed couples to have two children if one parent is an only child. An even more significant change that was announced as part of the third step is that couples are no longer required to seek approval from the government to have a child, whether the first or second, but only to register the birth afterward.
Surprisingly, among the estimated more than 11 million couples who were eligible to have a second child under the new rule, only 1.69 million had applied as of August 2015, accounting for 15.4 percent of such couples. The third and final step took place in October 2015 to allow all couples to have two children in 2016.
Starting on January 1, 2016, all Chinese couples were allowed to have two children. This marked the end of China’s one-child policy, which restricted the majority of Chinese families to only one child for the last 35 years. The process of ending the one-child policy occurred in three steps. It began in March 2013, when China created a new National Health and Family Planning Commission. Eight months later, in November 2013, China announced a partial policy relaxation that allowed couples to have two children if one parent is an only child. An even more significant change that was announced as part of the third step is that couples are no longer required to seek approval from the government to have a child, whether the first or second, but only to register the birth afterward.
Surprisingly, among the estimated more than 11 million couples who were eligible to have a second child under the new rule, only 1.69 million had applied as of August 2015, accounting for 15.4 percent of such couples. The third and final step took place in October 2015 to allow all couples to have two children in 2016.