Chinese population policy 1949-2004

The Chinese government introduced basic family planning in 1970. This encouraged families to have children later in marriage, later and fewer births more widely spread. It encouraged people to have fewer children by a system of financial rewards and penalties. As a result China’s population increase rate dropped  from 2.1% in 1973 to 1.17% in 1980 however this was not enough and the Chinese government realized that they would have to implement a more effective controlling mechanism.

1980-One child policy

This harsh but effective policy has kept population growth rate to 1.2% a year. It was enforced by a number of benefits and penalties.

Benefits

If a child was from a one child family he would

• receive £20 a year  for the rest of his or life.
• receive a free education
• have priority to a university place
• Priority to jobs
• Receive regular medical check ups
• The parent could have an extra 3 months maternity leave

     Penalties

                          It a family had more that one child then there were many penalties                                                  

• The family receives no benefits
• The parents could be socially rejected from society
• The parents could have 5% of their salary reduced.
• The family could be fined

Birth control measures are distributed to couples and propaganda was used to make people feel like it was their duty to have one child. One of the main reasons for the success of the one child policy was the way it was implemented.

At work

Many factories kept a good eye on their workers and made sure that they only had one child. Anyone that wanted a child had to ask for permission and had to be over 24 years old. Certain people were assigned the job of spying on their fellow colleges and reporting back if anyone was pregnant or wished to have a second child. Workers were made to sign the ‘Glory certificate’ which meant they had to promise to only have one child. this made it morally wrong to have a second child and bad for the country. Factories with every member of the workforce with one child were given ‘model factory’ status. This encouraged managers to observe this rule harshly.

At home

The ‘granny police’ was a force of people employed to spy on their neighbours and to report if anyone was pregnant or wished to have a second child. They also encouraged them to have abortions if they were already pregnant with a second child.

Successes and failures of the one child policy

Although harsh the one child policy has reduced growth especially in urban areas where 83% of families have only one child. however in the countryside the policy has been less successful and only 62% of families have one child. This is because it is much harder to enforce  the rule in rural area and the government has turned a blind eye as workers are needed for agriculture to produce food. The government also allowed families in rural areas to have 2 children if the first was a girl.

The one child policy has raised several issues

• There has been a large increase of infanticide especially of baby girls because Chinese tradition values boys higher. This has led to a huge imbalance of the sexes.
• Many people were forced to be sterilized and have abortions.
• The amount of elderly dependants has increased while the amount of youthful dependants has decreased putting more strain on the next generation as they must cater for this.
• Due to the age imbalance China will not have enough workers for the future.

The Future

Although the one child policy is not strictly observed any longer it is China’s target to reduce it’s population to 800 million by 2099 and in 200 years time 300 million. Although China has achieved it’s targets for reducing it’s population increase it is important that they address the problems of having a large proportion of their population as elderly dependants much like the problems faced by many MEDCs. With increasing medical care and better quality of life people are living longer not just in China but on a global scale and when the problem of reducing population increase is over this new problem will arise.