Premium Essay

China's One Child Policy

Submitted By
Words 2280
Pages 10
The Information Office of China’s State Council, launched its own criticism of the U.S. as “the world judge of human rights” (“China Hits Back”), and denounced the apparent distor-tions of the PRC’s human rights record. For example, the report condemned the United States for the following: Firearms-related crimes threatening the well-being of Americans; elections that do not fully reflect the real will of its citizens. Using for example, the 2012 presidential race, which had a voter turnout of only 57.5 percent; finally, criticizing the income gap of the United States as the greatest in the developed world (“China Hits Back”).
Japanese Comfort Women
Although further back in history, Ambassador Cong also criticized the government of Ja-pan for …show more content…
Although not readily apparent to outsiders, recent popula-tion policies have benefited many Chinese people; lives that would have died from being too poor to support themselves. Beijing officials estimate that 400 million births have been prevented due to population policies (Sullivan); if the One Child policy did not exist, China’s population would have been about 1.7 billion people. Would China be the second largest economy in the world (using U.S. …show more content…
How-ever, is it ethical/moral “to sit by and watch people starve, fall ill, and lose their homes” (“China's One-Child Policy - Ethics Alerts”). Despite the international criticism, China’s One Child policy aided in improving over-all living conditions its citizens. An argument can be made that minus this policy, China’s ability to support itself would have been greatly decreased as well as an in-crease in disease, starvation and poverty (“China's One-Child Policy - Ethics Alerts”), in short a complete degradation of over-all living standards. Human rights would have been violated to a greater degree if Chinese officials were to do nothing and allow a problem that is harming their people to a greater degree every year in terms of living standards and the over-all quality of life (“China's One-Child Policy - Ethics Alerts”) not only locally but, internationally.
China’s Claim against Violations of Human Rights
A counter-claim to the accusations of human rights abuses concerning the population pol-icies in effect at the time, come from the Chinese population themselves. Project Censored asserts that the majority of Chinese, 76% agree with the One Child policy (“China's One-Child Policy - Ethics Alerts”). The people in general are content with their standard of living and do not wish to have

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

China's One-Child Policy

...were born this year came from Asia alone. This is an issue because over population can lead to hasty consumption of resources. China who has one of the largest population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, has taken a stance against over population. By introducing China’s One-Child Policy (Family Planning Policy) in 1979, China hopes to decrease its country’s annual population growth. China has implemented the policy by many different ways; propaganda, taxation, and multiple forms of birth control. Though China’s intentions are to give its citizens better living conditions by enforcing its policy, many controversial topics about human rights have risen about the affects of the One-Child Policy. Also other issues that China has to deal with are the major demographic events that will occur. For example the significant and growing gender imbalance. With many negative side effects with China’s One-Child Policy, one thing is certain, China’s policy is working. According to an article from the Joint Force Quarterly called “Graying Panda Shrinking Dragon” written by Matt Isler, China’s One-Child Policy has successfully slowed its population growth and has curtailed over 250 million births sense its inception (pg 2). China’s One-Child Policy has been doing its purpose but at the cost of its own citizens’ human rights. One of China’s largest concerns today is the problem of over population. China believes that for its nation to be prosperous and the people to be happy family...

Words: 3114 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

China's One-Child Policy

...The one-child policy is the China’s population control policy introduced in 1979, which allows all families to have only one child. This policy heavily relies on the Malthus’ policy recommendation originated from the Malthusian model discussed in the lecture, which argues that the rate of population growth would always outweigh the income growth. By implementing the policy, one of China’s expectations would be an increase in income per capita by lowering the population growth rate. While there are ongoing debates on whether the population growth is beneficial or problematic to a country, China’s one-child policy reveals both positive and negative effects on a country’s economic status. Under the one-child policy, Chinese families become easier to afford their basic needs which allow them to invest on their children and to increase their savings. The introduction of one-child policy alleviates the issues associated with the large families who suffer from poverty due to the high number of children to feed; as a result, more Chinese families can afford to...

Words: 522 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

China‘S One Child Policy

...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...

Words: 640 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

China's One Child Policy

...China’s One Child Policy; Impacts on the Society, the Economy, and the People. By David Goheen Due: December 14, 2007 Executive Summary During the years before the implementation of the One Child Policy, the leaders of China were involved in wars, a great leap forward, and an industrial revolution. In the last twenty five years China’s One Child Policy has affected the country in every way one can imagine. This paper will attempt to explore the major ways the policy has affected the people of China socially, and how the economy has reacted with the change. A brief history on the traditional views of Chinese families, before the policy’s implementation, is outlined ahead of the policy’s background. This is to illustrate where the people of China are coming from, socially and culturally. I hope to convey that this policy has forcefully stolen the Chinese citizens’ basic human right to reproduce and has hurt them physically and emotionally. However, statistically and economically the policy has been a success up to this point. The early psychological status of China’s children with no siblings is looked at to try to understand their mental capabilities of dealing with the pressure of having to be successful. Major flaws that were overlooked could spell disaster for this aging population in the future. The policy has created prosperity for the country, but has also left its citizens suffering. China is now looked at as having a low birth rate, a low death...

Words: 4053 - Pages: 17

Premium Essay

China's One Child Policy Essay

...Success and Failures of the One-Child Policy Question: What were the success and failures of the One-Child Policy? Today, the world population is about seven billion compared to China’s tremendous population of about one billion. Even before, China always had an enormous amount of inhabitants compared to other countries, which is ultimately not good for China and the world due to lack of resources. The problem began to arise in 1949, after the civil war, communist and ruler of China Mao Zedong called for couples to have more children even though the country was already the largest growing in population size. Mao wanted his country to be economically caught up with countries like the United States and thought that more people meant more workers....

Words: 948 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Effect of China's One Child Policy

...Effect of China's one child policy The one-child policy is the one-child limitation in the population control policy of the People's Republic of China.The Chinese government refers to it under the official translation of family planning policy.It officially restricts married,urban couples to having only one child.The one-child policy is reward in China because it alleviates social,economic,and environmental problems.But,it also affects Chinese female population,the healthy growth of children and the parents' normal life. The one-child policy affects the female population.In China,it is commonly accepted that sons are preferred as they provide the primary financial support for their parents in their retirement."Bring up sons to support parents in their old age"says a Chinese proverb,even if parents face heavy fines,they will give birth to a boy.As a result,it will lead to the decline of female population. The above is from the point of view of parents,but from the children's point of view we can see that the one-child policy implies that the only child must afford all the family without from brothers' or sisters' help when he grows up.They will have to take care of their parents and grandparents alone in the future. Due to the one-child policy,parents only have one child.It will result in parents' doting on their child.Since each family has only one child,parents can provide everything that the child want.So they can depend on their parents do anything,at the...

Words: 335 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

China's One Child Policy Essay

...China’s one child policy effects the families of China more than any of us in the United States could ever imagine. The policy limits the number of children that each couple may have. Many believe this to be unfair, and against their rights. China put this policy into effect in order to control its drastically increasing population. The policy has been enforced for more than three decades now, and has only recently under gone a few changes. The recent changes do now allow a couple to have two children, if at least one of the parents are an only child. Even though this opened a new door for many families, others are still in the same boat as before. This one child policy has effected China as a whole in so many different ways. One of these ways being it dropped China’s birth rate by 3.13 percent in the past three decades. This means the policy prevented roughly two hundred and fifty to three hundred million births. The policy has also caused china to have one of the most unbalanced sex ratios in the world, for males now greatly out number females. Another major effect that the policy had on China is a country is the over populated orphanages. This Chinese...

Words: 498 - Pages: 2

Free Essay

China's One Child Policy Should Be Applied in the Phiippines

...History of One-Child Policy The demands of China's family planners escalated as the eighties unfolded. The one-child policy, first adumbrated by Deng Xiaoping in a 1979 speech, was in place nationwide by 1981. The “technical policy on family planning” followed two years later. Still in force today, the technical policy requires IUDs for women of childbearing age with one child, sterilization for couples with two children (usually performed on the woman), and abortions for women pregnant without authorization. By the mid-eighties, according to Chinese government statistics, birth control surgeries — abortions, sterilizations, and IUD insertions — were averaging more than thirty million a year. Many, if not most, of these procedures were performed on women who submitted only under duress. The principal modification of the one-child policy occurred in the mid-eighties when, in response to rising levels of female infanticide, the government relaxed the policy in the countryside for couples whose first child was a girl. In many parts of China this has devolved into a de facto two-child policy, as rural officials found the selective enforcement of a mixed policy — one child for couples whose first child was a boy, two children for couples whose first child was a girl — difficult to manage. Current Situation Twenty-two years after my initial field research in China, where do we stand? Today, the Chinese family planning program continues to be carried out against the popular...

Words: 826 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

China's One Child Policy Dbq Analysis

...One-Child policy “It’s population was the largest in the world and growing. How would China feed and clothe all of its people?” In 1949 Mao Zedong became the leader of the communist party in China after winning the civil war that ravaged through china for more than 20 years. During this time in China it was a poor country that had disease and went through twenty years of war. The population was growing too fast so the government's solution was to create the one-child policy, meaning Chinese couples are only allowed to have one child. The reason being for the one child policy was because China began to face food shortages due to overpopulation and furnaces replacing farms. The one-child policy greatly impacted China. The one child policy was the best thing created for china. In document A it shows China´s population was growing rapidly within one year. Once the child policy was created it made things easier for this country. According to document B, fertility rates dropped in China,which helped avert 400 million births.”China had already achieved a remarkable fertility reduction, halving the number of children per woman from 5.8 in 1970 to 2.7 in 1979”. Having “China cut its fertility rate in half...

Words: 567 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Evaluate Attempts to Manage Population Change Using China's One Child Policy

...this famine 20 million people died. As a result China’s Communist government under the power of Chairman Mao introduced a number of management policies, including the ‘later, longer, fewer’ program and the more extreme ‘one child policy’. In the early 1970’s a policy known as the ‘later, longer, fewer’ program was introduced. It was the first real attempt to control population growth in China. The authorized age of marriage was raised to 25 for men and 23 for women, whilst couples were encouraged to wait later to begin their families, allow for longer spacing in between children and have fewer children overall. Contraceptive advice became freely available in an attempt to elongate the time before the first child was born. The policy was partially successful. It began to reduce fertility rates, although not fast enough to really slow down population growth due to the demographic momentum that had already developed. The One Child Policy was launched in 1979 when the total population reached 1 billion. The initial goal was to stabilise China’s population at 1.2 billion, but due to the slow effects of the ‘later, longer, fewer’ program and the two child family, had to be revised to keep the population under 1.4 billion until 2010. There were a number of regulations to the policy, the authorized age of marriage for men was 25, and for women, 23. Whereas students and apprentices were not allowed to marry. Enforcers of the policy – primarily in urban areas would monitor the...

Words: 726 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

China's One-Child Policy

...Prior to becoming the number one Superpower of the world, China were encouraged to “create manpower”(Clarke) and in consequence lost more than 15 million citizens according to government statistics(Fitzpatrick), during the Great Famine of 1958-1961. Following these man-made disasters and horrible weather conditions, the Chinese population doubled in order to support the demand of an ever changing industry, from farming to steel. Families were encouraged to have children in order to support the demand of China’s fast growing population and to take over the farm once the parents too old to work. In 1979, China put in a One Child-Per-Family Policy (applied only to Han ethnic majority), which meant that couples were restricted to one offspring or heavy fines for any other births following. Many rural families could not afford the large amount, leading to forced abortions, sterilization and thirteen million orphans. Earlier this year, The Chinese Communist ruling Party changed the policy, to now allow families to have two offspring’s and also gave legal status to any baby that violated the policy (orphans). China is now the world “Superpower”, but at what costs? The 1949 propaganda slogan “The solution is production” (Fitzpatrick) was put in place by the Communist ruling party and this lead to the banning of birth control and banning imports of contraceptives. These turn of events will shape for what was known as the 1958-1961 Great Famine, where many perished only because the Mao...

Words: 918 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

One Child Policy Interview

...fast. So the governor of China instituted the One-Child policy to restrict the growing population. This policy was introduced in 1979 and initially applied to first-born children in the year of 1979. After more than 30 years carry out, the main goal of this policy was achieved. Under the influence, the growth rate declines apparently. In the 1970s, China’s growth rate was 3 percent; in the mid-1980’s, it was 1.2%; and today, China’s growth rate is 0.7 %”( Jackson & Eleen, 2001). On the other hand, this policy also causes several adverse consequences, including high rate of old-age, increased abortion rate, unexpected change of sex ration. There is no doubt this policy’s affection which is obvious. Even though the Chinese government within the pressure of human rights improvement has relaxed the policy and makes this policy more humanistic but some of people still consider the one child policy impact China in a more negative way. Therefore, I will introduce how does one child policy impact towards Chinese society in the below. On the current situation, even the Chinese government makes lots of beneficial changes, this policy isn’t prefect yet. The opposite voice never stops. Some people on the Internet even states that this policy is inhumane and absurd, due to this policy restrict the human right. On the other hand, many people on the Internet refer that this policy is necessary and understandable. They consider one child policy is an effective...

Words: 1807 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

China's Birth Control Policy

...Control Policy Recently years, China’s government has recognized some disadvantages that the One-child Policy resulted, so the government decided to implement a new policy. The one-child Birth Control Policy was established to limit communist China’s population growth. There are both some advantages and disadvantages between China’s old birth control policy and China’s new birth control policy. But generally, it is obvious that the new China birth control policy is adjusted more to modern society than the old China’s birth control policy. The old policy caused some social problems. It restricted economic development. And the new policy could solve some social problems which the One-child Birth Control Policy caused. The One-child Birth Control Policy caused some social problems like sex ratio imbalance and abortion. Both the new policy and the old policy have great effects on population. The One-child Birth Control Policy stipulates people that one parent can only have one child. After the Second World War, China had a population explosion which caused social problems such like food shortage and famine. To resolve this situation, China’s government decided to establish a policy to limit the population growth which is China’s birth control policy. China successfully controlled its population growth after they stipulate that policy. In 2013, the China’s government decided to implement a new birth control policy. This policy allowed couples to have a second child if one...

Words: 715 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

China One Child Policy

...China's population The most surprising demographic crisis A new census raises questions about the future of China’s one-child policy May 5th 2011 | BEIJING | The Economist * * DOES China have enough people? The question might seem absurd. The country has long been famous both for having the world’s largest population and for having taken draconian measures to restrain its growth. Though many people, Chinese and outsiders alike, have looked aghast at the brutal and coercive excesses of the one-child policy, there has also often been a grudging acknowledgment that China needed to do something to keep its vast numbers in check. But new census figures bolster claims made in the past few years that China is suffering from a demographic problem of a different sort: too low a birth rate. The latest numbers, released on April 28th and based on the nationwide census conducted last year, show a total population for mainland China of 1.34 billion. They also reveal a steep decline in the average annual population growth rate, down to 0.57% in 2000-10, half the rate of 1.07% in the previous decade. The data imply that the total fertility rate, which is the number of children a woman of child-bearing age can expect to have, on average, during her lifetime, may now be just 1.4, far below the “replacement rate” of 2.1, which eventually leads to the population stabilising. Slower growth is matched by a dramatic ageing of the population. People above the age of 60 now represent...

Words: 1170 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

One-Child Policy in China

...Fancheng Wang Professor Steven Cassedy MMW 22 A10 March 16, 2012 One-child Policy in China China’s one-child policy, one of the most controversial policies, has been intensely changing China’s social structure since 1979. This policy worked as a milestone on controlling the mass amount of population and had a profound impact on all aspects of Chinese’s life. Apparently, it decelerates the growth rate of population; otherwise, there could be 23 million newborns in China annually (Shanor 53). To some extent, this policy relieves a comparative land shortage under the mass population in the countryside (Davin 65). In addition, it raises the average level of education and health care in the city because parents are likely to put more effort into taking care of the only child in the household (Kane 109). Despite its marvelous success in both the city and countryside, some scholars are concerned with the side effects tied to this policy, such as “little emperors”, labor force shortage and an aging society, which will only escalate in the future (Shanor 54). Although this policy impact on people's lives are good or bad cannot draw a conclusion, but through some social problems, it is not hard to foresee the future of this policy having negative influence on the only-child’s different stages of age. Since the first generation of children under this policy have already reached their thirties and have become part of the mainstream society, these side effects have gradually impacted...

Words: 3548 - Pages: 15