china one child policy

The first 200 words of this essay...

A policy that was enforced in China was the one child policy. The Chinese government decided in the 1970s to control population growth. In 1979, the Chinese government embarked on a program, at the time China was home to a quarter of the world's people, who were occupying just 7 percent of world's arable land. Two thirds of the population were under the age of 30 years, and the baby boomers of the 1950s and 1960s were entering their reproductive years.

The government thought the country couldn't cope with the strain that the population growth was putting on society, so it introduced the one child policy to deal with it.

This law only lets couples in cities have one child, unless they are from a minority group, or are both only children themselves. If they live in the countryside, they are allowed another after a long break.

The problem with this policy was parents want sons over daughters, because men can earn more than women in China. Sons also don't leave the family when they get married, and usually look after their parents when they get old. Because of this, some families chose to