China's One Child Policy

China's One Child Policy

1. Why the policy was introduced..

   • Created as a humanitarian response to China's over-population problem
   • There were (2009) 1,330,000,000 people living in China and they all need water, food, housing, education, jobs, advancement opportunity, and a myraiad of other requirements.
   • Any large increase to the existing population would prevent economic and social stability for China's people.

2. Negative Impacts

   • There is a bigger men to women ratio in China
     • Means there are less wives
       • Less children (not a positive) because people are killing their daughters
   • There are boys being kidnapped off the streets
   • A lot of girls are being put up for adoption
   • If you are an only child you are allowed to have two children (unfair and not helping the population much)
     • Because that's the same as the parent having two children in the 1st place and one giving birth.

3. Positive Impacts

   • Families who only have 1 child get a 'one child glory certificate' which entitles them to an annual bonus on their salary up until the child is 14.
   • It's good for population management.
   • It's decreased the population by over a half
   • Families who stick to the policy will get HUGE bonuses

4. Features

   • Only applies to registered urban families Rural families and protected minorities may have more than 1 child.
   • Couples may have 1 child every 10 years.
     • Couples having more that 1 child within a 10 year period are subject to social disincentives
   • Multiple births (twins, triplets etc) are exempt from the policy
   • Parents whose 1st child is physically handicapped, mentally handicapped or dies may have a 2nd child
   • Waivers of the policy are selectively granted for hardship causes
     • Such As: Adoption of deceased relative's orphan
   • A limited number of municipalities will switch to a 2 child policy within the next few years.
     • Shanghai is the most prominicent locale making this change

5. Timeline of how policies have changed

   • 1949: Mao wanted a big population and so banned contraceptives and birth control
     • 1958-61: Mao attempted to use China's ever growing population to develop China's economy but the results were a disaster and between 18-33 million people died of famine.
       • 1961-1966: Deng Xiaping & Liu Shaoqisideline Mao and bring back sanity to China by easing state controls and importing grain from abroad to break the famine. Population growth takes off again.
         • 1966-1976: Mao is back in power and attempts to destroy/weaken the traditional & cultural fundamentals of Chinese society. The result is chaos and an almost destruction of the Chinese economy &education system. attempts to control the population fail & the population continues to grow out of control.
           • 1976 -: Mao is gone. Zhaoping has the job of resurrecting the economy & improving the standard of living. In 1978 the 1 Child Policy was introduced & it was applied to all 1st born children of 1979.