China's One Child Policy - History and Background

There is more about China's one child policy than meets the eye. In my first blog post, I gave a rough background to the policy - here I will investigate more about how it came about. The two main figureheads of China are Confucius and Mao Zedong. They have contrasting views and were in conflict.

With Confucius, China is a patriachal society, and its people are obsessed with having sons, coming out with the following sayings:

'A good wife bears sons'
'A bad son is better than a daughter. A man with only daughters is considered a laughing stock'

Confucius also advocated filial piety.  

With Mao Zedong, who was a freedom fighter in the war against a KMT and the Japanese in the 1930s an1940s, he advocated that all were equal, he was very popular with women who were low in society as a result - and peasants. He became leader of the Communist Party in 1949, and governed over China until his death in 1976. He was a dictator in his time and his policies became harsher and harsher.

Mao had the following things happen in his time:

• He encouraged China to take contraception seriously.
• Population doubled between 1949 and 1970
• If each couple had 3 children, the population would double again by 2020.
• Most couples were having 5 or 6 children at this time.

Pre One-Child Family Policy - What policies were brought in before the one child policy?

• In the 1970's Mao introduced the two family policy, in order to ease down to the one child policy, and make the change less strenous
•  By 1980 census, the government realised that due to the high birth rate of 1950s and 1960s and low infant mortality rate, the problem was worse than first considered. A one child family policy would be needed.

One Child Family Policy - An Overview

• Example from Yunnan province - the govt. left the policy details to local level
• Strictly controlled through the 'danwei'
• Different rules for urban and rural areas
• Generous rewards such as extra 15 days added to maternity leave, receipt of health care money until 14th birthday of child, bonuses and easier to get kindergarten places, work duties and retirement funds.
• Harsh punishments such as wage and position demotions, levy of 30-40% on parent salaries for 7 years, no promotion or special treatment for 7 years, unpaid maternity leave, in the case of the third child, sterilisation of both parents.

They aimed to slow the birth rate and invert the population pyramid. There were some consequences. Infanticide, high adoption rate of girls, little emperor syndrome and a fear of national disasters topped this list.

Overall I think the one child policy has benefited China in some ways, and not so in others. The policy has now been relaxed in some ways - due to economic success it is now almost non-existant in cities but is still strictly enforced in the countryside. Couples are now less tied to the 'danwei', can think on their feet, more mobile, willing to do everything themselves and therefore evade fines. People are now more individual in China. They don't have to necessarily carry on with the policy, people have learnt their lesson and the attitude of the chinese is now different.

Ageing Population

There are various problems with an ageing population, various things that are caused by it:

• Resource crowding out
• Financial crowding out
• Increase the national debt and annual interest payments
• A large increase in tax may be inevitable

There are things that can be done though.

People could be made to work longer, for example increasing the retirement age. This will help to combat the crowding out of resources, as more things will be being produced to cope with the demands of a high population. This refers to Ester Bultrup's theory which states that it will be human nature to adapt to change in our society.

If the government increase income tax, they will increase revenue to pay for the higher pension bill. However, higher income tax may lead to lower work incentives. It may discourage people from living in a certain country. Because income tax is low in the UK, a higher rate may not reduce incentives that much; however, there is a high opportunity cost of taxing for pensions. Pension spending does not increase productivity in the economy, and could add to the debt problem in the UK.

Pension costs could be decreased, maybe by only giving out pensions to those who had low incomes or do not have that much money. This would decrease pension costs as a result.

Reduce child deaths and end overpopulation

An article by Bill Gates in The Times

The article argues that money devoted to 'development' is anything but a waste. The impact of development spending has been incredible.

Millions of poor children in LEDC's are dying of diseases that are so easy to prevent, one example of this is a rotavirus which kills half a million kids each year. This knowledge is what triggered Bill and Melinda gates to start their foundation, the 'Bill & Melinda Gates foundation'. They believed that a child is just as precious and important to a family in Kenya or India as to a well-off family in London, for example.

Overpopulation is one of the main problems, the more people there are living in a place, the harder it is to provide enough food, educate children and sustain the environment, especially where resources are scarce. The population growth rate is simply unsustainable. Suprisingly, preventing child deaths has a reverse affect on population growth, it slows it down, as opposed to speeding it up (which you would expect to happen). Mothers in LEDC's only really want a maximum of two or three children, in most cases. The problem is is that they expect their children to not survive, so they have more to counter this problem. If she is certain about the health of her children, she can then invest money into their needs, such as health, education and livelihood.

Vaccinations are also a key tool in helping to improve the quality of life for people in some of the poorest regions of the world. Often diseases present in India such as measles and tenatus are easily avoidable with effect, inexpensive vaccines. An investment by the UK and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation in an organisation called Gavi (the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) helped to reduce child deaths from measles by 75% between 2000 and 2008. To put it simply, vaccines saves hundreds upon thousands of lives each year. It was the use of vaccines that also helped to eradicate polio, effectively wiping a disease off the planet.

In hindsight, I believe that this is one of the best investments we can make, and agree with the claim made by Bill Gates at the end of the article - 'The UK's spending on development for the world's poorest people is the best investment that you can make for improving lives. Bar none'. At the end of the day we only live once, and improving the quality of life for people all over the planet so they can enjoy life to the full, is in my opinion one of the most important things in the world, if not the most important thing in the world.

Ben Hustwayte 12G2

One Child Policy

China has proclaimed that it will continue its one child policy, which limits couples to having one child, through the 2006-2010 five year planning period. China's one child policy was established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to limit communist China's population growth. Although designated a "temporary measure," it continues a quarter-century after its establishment. The policy limits couples to one child. Fines, pressures to abort a pregnancy, and even forced sterilization accompanied second or subsequent pregnancies.
It is not an all-encompassing rule because it has always been restricted to ethnic Han Chinese living in urban areas. Citizens living in rural areas and minorities living in China are not subject to the law. However, the rule has been estimated to have reduced population growth in the country of 1.3 billion by as much as 300 million people over its first twenty years.
This rule has caused a disdain for female infants; abortion, neglect, abandonment, and even infanticide have been known to occur to female infants. The result of such Draconian family planning has resulted in the disparate ratio of 114 males for every 100 females among babies from birth through children four years of age. Normally, 105 males are naturally born for every 100 females.