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Poster of Chinese birth control policy with the slogan "sweet achievement" attached
What is commonly known as the One-child Policy in the West is a term used to describe the birth control (Chinese: 计划生育) policies of mainly urban populations by the government of the People's Republic of China. The policies are controversial, both inside and outside of China.
Overview
The term is based on a popular misconception that the birth control policy (known as "计划生育" in China, literally "planned birth") of the PRC requires all couples in mainland China to have no more than one child. In reality, having one child has been promoted as an ideal, and the limit has been strongly enforced in urban areas, the actual implementation varies from location to location[1]. In most rural areas, families are allowed to have two children, if the first child is female [2]. Second children are subject to birth spacing (usually 3 or 4 years). Additional children result in fines, or more frequently the families are required to pay economic penalties, and can not recieve bonus from the birth control program. Some children who are in one-child family pay less than the children in other families.
Moreover in accordance with PRC's affirmative action policies towards ethnic minorities, all non-Han ethnic groups are subjected to different rules and are usually exempt from being limited to one child only; in addition, some couples simply pay a fine, or "social maintenance fee" to have more children [3]. Thus the overall fertility rate of mainland China is, in fact, closer to two children per family than to one child per family (1.8). Furthermore, the steepest drop in fertility occurred in the 1970s before one child per family was implemented in 1979. This is due to the fact that population policies and campaigns have been ongoing in China since the 1950s. During the 1970s a campaign of 'One is good, two is ok and three is too many' was heavily promoted.
Recently, the policy has changed because the long period of sub-replacement fertility caused population ageing and negative population growth in some areas[4], and improvements in education and the economy have caused more couples to become reluctant to have children. To solve the one-two-four problem (see below), couples from one-child families are allowed to have one additional children in some areas.
Background
During Mao Zedong's period of rule, the People's Republic of China became increasingly diplomatically isolated. Mao believed in the idea of self-sufficiency, and thus created many policies to strengthen China, including the Great Leap Forward, which ended in terrible famine, compounded with natural disasters. The failure of the Great Leap was partly blamed on Mao's idea of "the more people, the stronger we are" (人多力量大), and the rampant overpopulation thereof. Uneducated families were told to have as many children as possible. China's population growth exponentially increased.
Deng Xiaoping took power in 1978, and his new policies focused on strengthening China's economy. China was the world's most populous nation by far, and he saw overpopulation as a roadblock to economic development. In 1979, Deng began the national initiative of "birth planning", encouraging families to have only one child to control the population. The policy is not legally enforced nationally, only "encouraged". The policy is supervised usually at the Township-Level. Every township and town has a "Birth Planning Commission", headed by a Commissioner.
Criticism
One-child policy has been criticised by human rights advocacy groups, especially Western religious advocacy groups. They generally consider that the one-child policy is against human rights of reproduction. Like all birth control policy, the one-child policy has also been criticised by pro-lifers and some evangelic Christians.
Human rights
In the first decade of one-child policy, officials in rural areas have required forced sterilizations and abortions. [citation needed] Inhumane methods for both have been reported. The government reported that it was taking action to remove or re-educate these officials. Such actions are now mostly being replaced by financial fine or other economical punishment.
Gender-based birthrate disparity
The sex at birth (ratio between male and female births) in mainland China is 118:100, which differs substantially from the natural baseline (105:100). Other Asian regions also have higher than average ratios, including Taiwan(109:100), and South Korea (108:100), which do not have a strict family planning policy.[5] In the ethnic minority regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet, the sex ratio at birth is actually below the world average.
The high preponderance of reported male births in some areas of mainland China may be attributed to three main reasons: the result of widespread under-reporting of female births; the illegal (but seldom prosecuted) practice of sex-selective abortion made possible by the widespread availability of ultrasound; and finally, illegal and rarely occuring child abandonment and infanticide.
The disparity in the sex ratio at birth increases dramatically with each higher order of birth. This indicates that families are more desirous to have male offspring. Sons in rural families may be more helpful in farm work. Both rural and urban populations have economic and traditional incentives, including widespread remnants of Confuscionism, to prefer sons over daughters. Sons are preferred as they provide the primary financial support for the parents in their retirement, and a son's parents typically are better cared for than his wife's. In addition, Chinese traditionally view that daughters, on their marriage, become primarily part of the groom's family. A woman used to change her surname to her husband's surname or add her husband's surname before her surname after marriage. For some families, one's daughter-in-law's name instead of a daughter's name would be added in the book of family tree. Daughters traditionally could not inherit either. Therefore, if a family had no son, the fortune of this family would be given to the husband's brothers or other male relatives after the husband's death.
Gender-select abortions
Various explanations have been put forward for the gender-based birthrate disparity with sex-selective abortion gaining the widest acceptance. Even in other Asian countries without population control programs, such as South Korea, India, Vietnam, and Taiwan, the strong social preference for sons combined with the access to modern technologies such as ultrasound have resulted in increased sex birth ratios. Even in the United States, Chinese immigrants were known until mid-90s for gender-select abortion. In the 1980s and early 1990s few demographers believed that there was widespread infanticide in mainland China as modern technologies such as ultrasound was not readily available. This has now changed and, although the government has declared strict penalties against sex-selective abortion, couples with money can often find a private clinic willing to break the law.
Abandoned or orphaned children
The social pressure exerted by the one-child policy has affected the rate at which parents abandon undesirable children, and the state often fails to provide adequate care. Children experience significant mortality rates in high profile state institutions with death to admissions rations as high as 77% (official figures) or 90% (estimated by Human Rights Watch). Failures include inability to track the status and location of children in state care. Institutional deaths are blamed on lack of medical care and medical training for employees. However, Human Rights Watch also suggests some handicapped orphans are singled out for death by starvation and medical neglect.[6]
Infanticide
Some argue that it is common in remote areas for female infants to be killed or abandoned by their parents due to various reasons: the family is not able to support all their children; the parents do not want to be looked down or laughed at by the community (a woman who did not give birth to boy may be considered "not good at" birth); the wife want to prevent the husband from marrying another woman/concubine in the excuse of her inability of giving birth to (enough) sons; etc. In addition, there is no scientific research showing direct link of infanticide and one-child policy. The root cause of infanticide especially for baby girls is more likely to be the traditional preference of boys.
Direct infanticide is rare as it is not acceptable in Chinese culture, and the parent would be charged with murder.
The "One-Two-Four" problem
As the one-child policy approaches the third generation, one adult child supports two parents and four grandparents. This leaves the oldest and most vulnerable generation with increased dependency on retirement funds, state, charity for support. If personal savings, pensions, or state welfare should fail, then the most senior citizens will be left entirely dependant upon their very small family or neighbors for support. In the event that the child is unable or unwilling to care for their parents and grandparents, or if that child fails to survive, the oldest generation may find itself destitute[7].
However, allowances have been implemented in China for a couple consisting of two only children to combat this problem.
Fertility medicines
China Daily recently reported that wealthy couples are turning to fertility medicines to have multiple births in the quote of a doctor in a main pediatric hospital of Nanjing. He reported that dozens of more multiple births were recorded at 2005[8].
"Little emperor" problem
Some parents over-indulge their only child. The media called the indulged children in one-child families as "little emperors". In 1990s, some people worry this will result in a higher tendency toward poor social communication and cooperation skills among the new generation. However, there are no social studies to investigate the ratio of these over-indulged children and to what extent they are indulged. With the first generation of one-child (those born in 80s) being grown up, such worry is reduced.
References
- ↑ See Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific report "Status of Population and Family Planning Programme in China by Province".
- ↑ See China Daily reportFamily Planning Law and China's Birth Control Situation.
- ↑ See Xinhua report New rich challenge family planning policy.
- ↑ See People's Daily report Wuhan sees negative population growth.
- ↑ See Central Intelligence Agency report Sex ratio.
- ↑ See Human Rights Watch report A Policy of Fatal Neglect in China’s State Orphanages and CHINESE ORPHANAGES A Follow-up.
- ↑ See a report by the Disabled People’s Association of Singapore Ageing is now a global issue
- ↑ See China Daily report China: Drug bid to beat child ban.
See also
