The famous "one child policy" is one of the causes of overpopulation in China. One child policy not only did not solve the problem of overpopulation, but also cause other problems such as ageing population.

CIS IB Geography — China’s One Child Policy

Vivian Wong 12HF

“They say that the birth of a new child should be the decision of the individuals involved, not the government.” Do you agree with this view?

Being the most populous country in the world, China has a the total population of 1.2 billion, which makes up one-fifth of the world’s total population. China is overpopulated due to insufficient resources to support such a big population size. The famous “one child policy” is one of the causes of overpopulation in China. One child policy not only did not solve the problem of overpopulation, but also cause other problems such as ageing population.

China has been communist since 1949 and the Chinese communist regime was not concerned about the population limitation during that period of time. They maximize the population for military and strategic strength. This is shown in figure 1. The birth rate remains high during early 1950s. However, at the same time, there were politically generated agricultural production problems. This resulted in famine. Resources were not enough to support the sudden increasing population, which leads to overpopulation. As shown in figure 1, the death rate is continuously increasing during late 1950s and early 1960s. This is due to the failure of Great Leap Forward, which is a policy of speed up the country’s industrialization and rural modernization. During that period of time, farmers were forced to remove from agricultural communes and ordered to work in primitive village industries. This lead to lack of labour working on the farm which caused shortage of food and resulted in famine. After the Great Leap Forward, the birth rate increased a lot due to the need of more labour working on farm to earn more money and food to the family. Overpopulation occurred again. Therefore during the late 1970s, One Child Policy was introduced with the intention to solve the problem of overpopulation. Under the “One Child Policy”, couples that had more than one child were subject to economic penalties. Women pregnant for the second or subsequent time were often coerced into having abortions.

The policy was only effective in urban areas but not in rural areas. In the urban areas, the policy was more strictly enforced and people were more easily accepted than people in the rural areas. People in rural areas believed that having more children can help them earn more money to improve their living standard and can take care of them in the future. One Child Policy was hard to be enforced both in urban and rural areas. This explains why the total population in China remains high as shown in figure 1 after the establishment of One Child ...

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The establishment of One Child Policy did reduce the birth rate but it brought in the problem of ageing population. Since each family was only allowed to have one child, the proportion of young people in the population will decrease. This is shown in figure 2(on the next page). In population pyramid of 1970, it had a wide base but a narrow top. This was the period of “baby boom”. The population pyramids from 1970 to 2015 show a rise level of the baby boom population. As it grows up, the baby boom population moves up the pyramid. This leads to ageing population and an increase in dependency ratio. The single child will need to take the responsibility for up to two parents and four grandparents, which is known as the 4-2-1 pattern.

Due to the reduction in size of each family, parents will pay more attention to their one and only child. In another words, they will spoil them, which leads to the social problem of “little emperors”. Overprotecting the child will lead to lack of social skills of the child. They may not be as capable as their parents. Meanwhile, they will be the future generation that takes care of their parents and grandparents.

The One Child Policy ignored the existence of human rights. Since each family was only allowed to have one child, whenever the parents found out their baby was a girl, they would consider having abortion due to their traditional beliefs. They believed that having a boy will be better than giving birth to a girl because boys can help them earn more money to improve their living standards. Also, if the daughter got married, she would leave the family and result in no one taking care of the parents. Therefore, most families preferred giving birth to boys than girls. This is total against human rights.

In conclusion, One Child Policy failed to solve the problem of overpopulation in China. The total population is still continuously increasing after the establishment of One Child Policy. The policy leads to ageing population, social issues like “little emperors” and it is against human rights as well. Therefore, One Child Policy should not be established because the birth of a new child is the decision of the individuals but not the government.

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