What & When?
- In 1979: China is home to a quarter of the whole world’s population
- Therefore Deng Xiaoping introduced the one child policy
- Aiming to reduce the fertility rate -> reduce population growth
- There are exceptions:
- Families living in rural areas
- Children born overseas
- Ethnic minorities
- Disabled children
- Parents who work in high-risk occupations
- There are rewards for having one child
- And penalties for having more than one
- 75% of Chinese support the One Child Policy
- If it’s a girl, allowed to have a second one
Where?
- China is in eastern Asia
- China is bordered with Burma, Mongolia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia
Why?
- One Child Policy – set up to decrease China’s population
- China’s population was far too high – a quarter of the world’s population (1979)
- To prevent people having more than one child – up to $67,444
- If the One Child Policy wouldn’t exist: overcrowding, running out of resources
- From 1979-2010: 400 million births have been prevented
- Reached their target population by 2000: 1.2 billion
How?
- By Propaganda messages (e.g. posters), people were encouraged to have only one child
- On posters: happy looking people, often with a baby girl; because of the gender imbalance
- Government imposed rewards for having one child
- Posters show only the good aspects of the One Child Policy
- Government imposed penalties for having more than one
- They prefer boys so when girl born, they’re allowed to have another baby
- There are exceptions to the law
Advantages of the OCP
- People get rewards for having one child only;
- Higher wages
- Interest-free loans
- Retirement funds
- Priority housing and school enrolment
- There are exceptions to the law;
- Families living in rural areas
- Children born overseas
- Ethnic minorities
- Disabled children
- Parents who work in high-risk occupations
- Rich people don’t need to worry about having more than one child – they can easily pay the fines
- Economic and environmental advantages due to the implementation of the OCP. It improved the overall economic stability of the nation
- Increase in resources for everyone
- Better health care and living standards
- Reduces unemployment
- 76% Chinese people support the OCP
Disadvantages of the OCP
- Forced abortions and sterilisations
- 25% of Chinese woman have had at least one abortion
- In 2009: each day more than 35000 forced abortions
- Gender imbalance
- 120 male births for every 100 female births -> aborted when gender determined
- Gender imbalance especially in younger population
- First child gets affected
- Feels guilty for parents not be able to have another child
- Ageing population:
- China will have a high dependency ratio
- Therefore elderly population -> not get a lot of support from economically independent people
- Penalties for having more than one child
- Fines up to $12,800
- Pressure to abort pregnancy
- Confiscated belongs
- Getting fired from work
- Human rights violation
- “4,2,1” problem; One child looking after two parents and four grand-parentts
Yes to the OCP