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China‘S One Child Policy

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Submitted By sophyzhang
Words 640
Pages 3
Sophy Huang
DSOC Essay 5 Revision
9 April 2012
It’s time to change a manufacturing model
In the last two decades, China’s economy has grown rapidly, becoming the world’s second largest economy after the U.S. China has gained this achievement by becoming the factory of the world and exporting cheap products to oversea markets. However, recently China has been losing its advantages in the export sector, which its economy is heavily reliant on. New data shows a visible slowdown in manufacturing in China and it’s time for China to reform its manufacturing model to resist this slowdown.
Several factors caused this slowdown. First, China’s biggest advantage in the export sector, the cheap, seemingly unlimited supply of labor is gradually diminishing. The number of available workers is decreasing and the wages for these workers are increasing every year. Labor costs have begun to rise in China.
The time for unlimited cheap labor is limited. As Michelle Loyalka (2012) points out in her article Chinese Labor, Cheap No More; most big cities are lacking an adequate work forces. The sharp falloff in the amount of labor is mainly due to the One-Child Policy. China started its One-Child Policy in 1978 and has prevented 300 million births from its implementation to 2000. This also means the One-Child Policy has reduced 300 million potential workers. Since the government today is still persistent on this policy, the sheer number of workers will continuously decrease. So, the advantage of having a large amount of available workers is disappearing, and won’t quickly return.
Besides the shortage in the number of available workers, workers’ wages increase every year, sometimes even twice a year. Loyalka (2012) finds out that today’s migrant workers are aware of the basic welfare for workers. They are choosy compared to the previous generation and can not endure hardship as their

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