Week 4 Activity Post

In 1979, The Chinese State Council adopted a policy that allowed for every married couple to only have one child.  They did this in order to bring the population growth rate to a more manageable level (Potts 2006).  Between 1963 and 1973, China saw a population growth rate of at least 2% per year (Potts 2006).  Deng Xiao-ping felt that without the policy that the economy in China would not be able to support an acceptable standard of living and as of 2006, China’s economy had seen a 7-8% per year growth in their economy over that previous decade (Potts 2006).  The feeling is that the policy may (or may not have) helped to lift around 150 million people out of poverty (Potts 2006).  There is also a strong consensus that the betterment of the economic standing could have been due to a declining fertility rate that likely would have happened without the extreme policy implemented (Wang et al. 2016).

The policy officially ended on January 1, 2016.  The restrictions now allow for each family to only have two children.  They no longer are required to apply for permission from the government to have a child.  They are now required to report the birth after the fact (Wang et al. 2016).  The forced family planning included millions of sterilizations and abortions.  In 1983 there were about 21 million births, about 14 million abortions ad about 20 million sterilizations performed.  The sterilizations were performed more on females than males.  Additionally, it is reported that almost 18 million IUD insertions were performed (Wang et al. 2016). 

The long-term fallout from the one-child policy may prove to be something China can not overcome.  They are facing major issues of an increasing ageing population and not enough young people to support it (Britannica 2019).  They have a major imbalance in the ratio of men to women.  It is estimated there are at least 30 million more men than women living in China currently (Wang et al. 2016).  In an about face, the government is now offering incentives to couples to get pregnant (Kuo 2019).

I intend to focus my final project on China.  I want to further examine the conditions for women during the one-child policy and how that is affecting women today.  For over a generation, women were, at best, forced to ask for approval to get pregnant and, at worst, forced in to having an abortion or being sterilized or having an IUD inserted.  There are cultural implications to be explored that came about as a result of this policy.  In a country where traditional cultural expectations include a strong family and kinship lines – there are major repercussions from this policy that exist today.  I want to explore the reality of aborting females during the one-child policy, the underlying undermining of being a female in Chinese society has long term effects.  How are women dealing with all of these reproductive regulations that have been forced upon them for over a generation?  And to now be faced with the government telling them they need to have more children for the sake of the country – I am wondering if that is leaving women feeling overwhelmed. 

Potts, Malcolm. “China’s One Child Policy.” BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). August 19, 2006. Accessed July 26, 2019. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1550444/.

Wang, Feng, Baochang Gu, and Yong Cai. “The End of China’s One-child Policy.” Brookings. July 28, 2016. Accessed July 26, 2019. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-end-of-chinas-one-child-policy/.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. “The Effects of China’s One-Child Policy.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Accessed July 26, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/story/the-effects-of-chinas-one-child-policy.

Kuo, Lily. “Can China Recover from Its Disastrous One-child Policy?” The Guardian. March 02, 2019. Accessed July 26, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/02/china-population-control-two-child-policy.

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