China s One Child Policy

1. China�s One Child Policy By Mr. Eisenman

2. Current Population World Population: 6,602,224,175 (July 2007) China: 1,321,851,888 (July 2007) 20% of world�s population (although many ethnic Chinese live abroad).

3. China�s Ethnic Groups 92% of the population belong to the Han Ethnic group. The other 8% belong to the other 56 officially recognized ethnic groups.

4. Population Density Population density is highest in the eastern 1/3 of China. This is where the Han Chinese are most numerous and where the climate is most conducive to farming. Paradoxically, industrial development is occurring rapidly in this area which is leading to depletion of farming land in which to feed the large population Therefore, as China develops economically, it will lose its best agricultural lands which are necessary for feeding its large population.

5. Revolutionary Duty To Have Children In 1949, China�s population was 550 million. Mao Zedong, China's leader and Chairman of the Communist Party, encouraged the Chinese people to have children since they would serve as the ideological backbone of a Communist society. As a result, by 1976 the population swelled to 900 million. By 1979, China accounted for 25% of the world�s population living on 7% of the world�s arable land. 2/3 of the population was under 30 and was just entering their reproductive years

6. One Child Policy Adopted In 1979, China adopted the One Child Policy. The policy requires families in most cases to have only one child. It was justified as the only possible solution to China�s economic future. Population growth required a significant amount of economic growth just to maintain the current underdeveloped standards. Starvation, famine, and poverty would remain constants in Chinese life. Significant economic growth would only be possible if the population was kept under control Without economic growth, the political structure wouldn�t be sustainable.

9. The Policy Urban couples (30%): Only allowed one child, unless the first child is disabled, both parents work in a high risk occupation, or they are both only children. Rural couples: Allowed a second child after 5 years, if the first child is a girl Minorities: Allowed 2 and in some cases 3 children

10. Methods of Enforcement The State Family Planning Bureau sets the overall targets and policy direction. A bureaucracy extends to the local nieghborhood level Intensive education, advertisement and oversight Works well in the cities where it is mostly followed Policy is carried out through rewards and punishments, such as economic benefits, fines, loss of job If break law, violators pay more taxes or have to pay for schools which is can be expensive (27% of rural income) 90% of married women use long term contraception such as intrauterine devices and sterilizations There have been reports of abuses by local officials, such as forced sterilizations and abortions.

11. China�s Economic Growth

12. Comparison of US and China

13. Gender Imbalance: History Traditionally, Chinese parents have preferred sons � because they support them in their old age and carry on the family name "People think sons will look after them when they get old. But once girls get married, they belong to someone else. They're not part of your family any more." Zhang Weiqing, minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission : �[Gender imbalance] is a reality of country life in China. We have a 2,000-year feudal history that considered men superior to women, that gave boys the right to carry on the family name and allowed men to be emperors while women could not." In the last 25 years, the male:female ratio has steadily increased, which by 2001 was 1.17.

14. Gender Imbalance: Effects Effects of imbalance Mental health problems and socially disruptive behavior among men Some men unable to marry and have a family. By 2020, there will be 40 million single men. The large numbers of unmarried men may cause society to become more violent as they join the military and look for ways to utilize their energy. The scarcity of females has resulted in kidnapping and trafficking of women for marriage The scarcity of females has increased numbers of commercial sex workers, with a potential resultant rise in human immunodeficiency virus infection and other sexually transmitted diseases.

15. Gender Imbalance: Reforms The government has tried to combat this problem by the following: It has made it illegal to use ultra-sound to determine the gender of a fetus. Education: It tries to promote the status of women Old-age pensions for people who have two girls Payment of education costs for girls

16. Impact on Women: Urban v. Rural Urban- The status of women in cities has improved as a result of the One Child Policy because women are not seen as emotionally closer to their parents and more willing to provide personal care in old age. In the competition to produce the perfect "quality" child, city girls are now given all the benefits, from good educations and health care, and all the extras, from piano lessons to private tutors in English, that once would have been the prerogative of boys. To their parents, who have wage jobs, secure incomes and pensions, boys are no longer needed to provide labor, income and old-age support Rural- Life has not changed.

17. Adoption Even though strong social pressures may result in the abandonment of girls at birth, most children are wanted while in their mother�s womb. Birth parents are most likely hoping that circumstances will allow them to keep and raise their child to adulthood. Therefore, birth mothers take good care of themselves and their unborn children in hopes that they will have a life-long relationship. About 95% of children adopted from China are female. Some may live in an orphanage, while others may live for long periods of time with foster parents who treat the child as one of the family Adoption is prohibitively expensive for ordinary Chinese citizens The vast majority of children in Chinese orphanages never have the chance to join a �forever family� Since 1999, China has been the international destination from which the highest number of U.S. parents have adopted their children. In the last 20 years, over 60,000 Chinese children have been adopted by American parents.

18. Success or Failure? Chinese authorities claim it reduced China�s population by 250-300 million in the last 20 years, enabling the current population to receive the benefits of economic growth. Fertility rates (the number of births per woman) dropped from 2.9 in 1979 to 1.7 in 2004. Gender imbalance Human rights violation? Forced abortions, minority rights, privacy.

19. Future A new generation of indulged children have been born, so called �little emperors and empresses�. How will this generation of Chinese influence the world when it grows up? Global warming, global economics and international politics (see � Engineering More Sons Than Daughters: Will it tip the scales toward war?� by Felicia Lee, NY Times, 7/3/04) Will China loosen up the One Child Policy? Under the current policy, the population is projected to be 1.45 billion by 2020 at which point the population would begin declining.