Critical Evaluation of 1 Child Policy in China

Critical Evaluation of 1 Child Policy in China

The policy was started in 1979, due to the population dramatically

increasing to an estimated 1 billion people. In China there was a

limited amount of farming land and the country could not cope with

feeding this population. The country is Communist and the ideas of the

party were to show to the World how brilliant the vision of Communism

was. For this, it could not ask other countries for loans or trade,

otherwise it would be showing the signs of weakness. This threatened

the survival and development of China, especially since the "baby

boomers" born in the 1960s reaching child-bearing ages in the late

1970s, the Chinese government has tried to curb the exponential growth

of its population in the fear of economic collapse and the arrival of

famine by enforcing Family Planning programs such as mandatory

sterilization, a one-child per family policy, and force abortion.

The advantages of the 1 child policy are due to its speed of recovery

and the minor costs. Due to the family planning programs, which

include free education and overall support from the government, the

population becomes better educated on basic health and the improvement

of personal hygiene. It also tends to increase parents' willingness

and ability to promote their child's education and training.

The benefits of a successful family planning program are it slows

population growth and thus reduces the demand for natural resources.

It slows down the increase in pressure on arable land and in urban

growth it makes it easier to solve housing or unemployment problems.

On the other hand, there are many disadvantages to this...

... middle of paper ...

...as through looking at graphs

and results the population is still high. The problems were that of

the Communist leaders and how they could not ask for loans or go into

trade as it showed the signs of weakness. There is great support for

providing various safe, efficient, and low cost contraceptive methods

to the national family planning program by most Chinese scientists and

doctors. The actual policy has been tweaked since from it originally

began, such as it is seen in the rural areas it is greatly needed that

more than 1 child is needed, the people are now allowed to have a

daughter first and then a son. If this occurs the benefits are still

there and no additional tax has to be paid. Also, due to this more

girls are being brought up and not killed off, factors such as rape

and kidnapping will decrease in the future.