Should China carry out a population

control policy?

Yunwei Zheng

GRS

Steve Jansen

07/24/2017
I. Introduction

There is so much discussion about the Chinese population control policy, some clear

evidence to why population control policy should be taken in China can be shown in the

research.

II. Background of Chinese population policy

A. Origin of The Family Planning

B. The Family Planning is a basic policy

III. Benefits and disadvantages

A. Benefits of population policy

1. Job Opportunities

2. Life Quality

B. Disadvantages

1. Disadvantages of The Family Planning

2. Bad influence to China

IV. Population control policy in the world

A. Other countries population control policy

B. Comparing China and other countries

V. Conclusion
Yunwei Zheng

GRS

Steve Jansen

07/24/2017

There is so much discussion in the world since China carried out its population policy.

Some opinions are negative, like an injustice is taking place or it is unfair and even China has no

right to do this. Some opinions are positive, such as more people will cause many problems in

the world or people would rather not have babies than watching them starve to death. However,

some people have wrong ideas about One-Child-Policy, because they do not know the population

control policy in China clearly. For example, some people think that One-Child-Policy is that

every Chinese couple only can have one child, actually, that is not right. In fact,

One-Child-Policy is a name created by foreign governments. The population control policy in

China is called the Family Planning. It not only allows people to have more children, it also has

many different policies to control population. As a Chinese citizen, I agree with this policy and

there is some clear evidence and data that will be presented in this research to support it.

In the early 1970s, China started to carry out the Family Planning. China had such a large

population at that time and there was no way to provide enough food and other resources for all

the people. People just died because of starvation. As a result, the Chinese government wanted to

design a policy to control the population. Finally, the Family Planning was carried out in cities

and rural areas. The formal interpretation on China's determination to start the Family Planning
 Zheng 2

was fast spread by the Chinese media ( White ). Mainly this policy needs the young couple to

have one baby, but if the first baby is a girl, the family can have another one. Obviously, it is a

huge challenge for every Chinese citizen, because the traditional Chinese thought is more babies

equal better elderly life. However, the government strongly insists on carrying out this policy and

explain why people need it. Finally, people understand it and most people are willing to keep the

rule. "In this policy, the birth rate of the population declined strongly, from 5.8% to 2.24% in

1970-1980, and this policy has prevented 400 million births since 1979, reducing tremendous

stress on economic development and food supply." (BBC.com).

This Family Planning is one of the basic national policies of China. It was reasonable and

necessary in that period. The Chinese government noticed that overpopulation would be

unfavorable to economic and social development. The Family Planning must keep going for

sustained economic growth and sustainable development, also it needs to satisfy the material and

cultural demands of people, guarantee the current generation and their posterity to live a better

life. Comprehensive promotion of family planning was the correct policy decision which has

been proven by facts. Chinese people benefit so much from the Family Planning, such as life

quality, medical conditions, and job opportunity.

One of the benefits of a population control policy is more job opportunities for people.

There are almost 8 million people who graduated from a university in 2017(WEFORUM.ORG).

Try to imagine this picture that this number doubled by some reasons, so there will be 16 million

people graduating from a university and eager to find a job. It is difficult to find a job for

graduates people nowadays. It is certain that doubling this number will be a disaster for all of this
 Zheng 3

group. In China, graduates is just a part of the whole group that needs to find jobs. People not

being able to find a job is so important to society. There are always many discussions in society

about if people who graduate from a university find a job, and people said that it is too hard to

find a job all the time. In fact, it is not difficult to find a job, it is difficult to find the desired job.

For example, a person whose major is engineering and who wants to be an engineer may only get

a job as a marketing man. This job, of course, is not the desired job for him, he can live for this

job, but he does not enjoy it. However, if there is not the Family Planning, the fact will be

changing, people really hard to find a job. Moreover, except people who graduate from

university, everyone who lives in China will be different to get a job. Although The Family

Policy prevents a lot of new population, the number of Chinese population is still huge.

Everyone needs to get a job with all strength now. Obviously, it is a disaster that there will be

400 million more people.Consequently, a large number of people benefit from the Family

Planning and it is one of the main reasons that this policy is not perfect but people who are

Chinese agree with it.

Furthermore, people's life quality gets better because of this population control policy.

From my mom and other older people who I know, I heard that most Chinese families had 5 kids

at least, likewise, some families even had more than 10 kids in 1980s. In that time, people ate

meat a few times in one year, and most times they ate food mainly made by the flour matched

with a little bit of vegetables. Moreover, kids can get new clothes at the end of the year, even

though, some kids experience a worse life quality. However, this situation changed since the

Family Planning was carried out by the Chinese government. I am the only child in my family
 Zheng 4

and my friends are in one child families too. Most of us do not worry about food, clothes, and

education since birth. It is really a difference between these two generations. I heard a lot stories

from my parents and I barely imagine the picture that my parents told. I can eat anything I want,

I can get new clothes every day if I want to. I remember my mom told me that one day, if you

have 6 brothers or sisters, you can not enjoy the life that you have now. It is shame to admit that,

but I do not have a life like my parents, even if I do not have 6 brothers or sisters. Actually, I

asked this question to my friends. Most of them can bear one more or two kids in their family,

and not be too much. Likewise, I asked a question about you wanting more babies or not to some

Chinese parents. Their answers are no. The reason is simple, they say not only their kids can

enjoy the better life quality because of the population control policy, but also they will too. It

seems like complex things to say, more kids or better life quality which is right. However, most

Chinese like this policy, so it is suitable for China.

The controversy of the Family Planning has never stopped since it was carried out. There

are two mainly opposed opinions: aging of the population in a fast way and gender imbalance.

First, One-Child-Policy caused aging of the population so quick and China will lack labor.

Moreover, most young couples in China need to support 4 old people because kids have the

responsibility to support their parents. Therefore, it is a big disadvantage for One-Child-Policy.

Indeed, it causes some stress for young couple. Nowadays, old people worry about this problem

more than their children, because they do not want to be a burden on their children. It is an

obvious disadvantage of One-Child-Policy and it will be worse as the time passes. Second,

almost 30 million young people will not find a wife because of this policy. "The gender
 Zheng 5

imbalance is going to be a very major problem," warned Steve Tsang, a professor of

contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham (The Guardian.com). Chinese

people, especially older people have very traditional thinking that if you only can have one baby,

it better be a boy. Therefore, it causes this problem. Even if more and more people think a boy or

a girl, both good, this problem is already there.

Aging of the population and the material gender imbalance are two main disadvantages

of One-Child-Policy caused a lot of bad consequences for China’s society. Many people who are

Chinese or not worry about them. The good thing is the Chinese government and people noticed

that and did something to solve them. The aging of the population problem is noticed by the

government a long time. For solving it, the Chinese government changes the

One-Family-Planning in a very big way. People can get two or three kids if they want to since

2016. Although it can not solve this problem directly, it can change this problem from roots. It is

fair to say Chinese has a huge population and technology is so advanced nowadays. Therefore,

lack of labor problem will not cause a severe situation to China. On the other hand, though

young people in China need to raise their parents, it does not a serious social problem yet, there

are many ways to ensure old people's elderly life, such as social insurance and old-age pension.

In fact, gender imbalance caused some more grievous trouble to Chinese people. Because of

gender imbalance, many young people worry about their marriage and willing to get some unfair

condition to get married to a girl. As a result, the cost of a marriage in China is higher than

before like 10 times. Most girl's parents will require the young man to buy an apartment and a

car for the girl before they say yes to their children's marriage. It causes a lot of stress to the
 Zheng 6

young man and their family. Therefore, more and more young Chinese men get married with

some other country' girls, like India, Vietnam, Thailand, etc. As a result, it does not cause a

serious social problem yet.

Here is a thing that will surprise you, there are many countries with a population control

policy in the world besides China. There is some population policy in Russia, India, Romania,

Uzbekistan, South Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Singapore, United States ( Babble.com). Some

countries want to improve their population, like Russia, Romania, South Korea, Singapore. In

Russia, the government facing a situation that it needs high birth rates to ensure economy

improve sustainably. Too many elderly people cause a stress on economy and society. A Day of

Conception on September 12, 2007, by Russia, anyone can win a car or fridge if they have a

baby on June 12 (Babble.com).In Romania, it had a population problem zero population growth.

In order to change this situation, the government prohibits any abortions and defined people who

use a condom as a criminal. Furthermore, people who married or not did have a baby after 25

years old needed to subject to extra 10-20% tax on income. In addition, the authority gave family

alimony to people who had children, also people could get cash from the government if they had

third kids or more. On the other hand, some countries have so much population to their own

place, overpopulation brings a lot of problems to society, so they want to control the population,

like China, India, Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan. India has a big problem with overpopulation.

Although there is a nice proportion that young population is higher than other in whole part, it

has an advantage of the economy. However, it is awful for resources. One of the policies that

India’s government tries to use is paying people for waiting to get babies. Likewise, some states
 Zheng 7

made a law that people will lose the identity of public officials who have more than two kids.

Therefore, there is some policy to control the population. Sadly, it is difficult to restrain its

population effectively. Pakistan had the same issue like India, a high birth rate. Most women

have 4 children at least. Overpopulation makes Pakistan gets some problem, like high

unemployment, many militant activities. Even though the Pakistan government suggests that 2

years of breastfeeding and want people to have another baby after 3 years. However, there is a

lot of traditional thinking against with this policy. There are not so many effective ways to

control the population.

China population control policy, the Family Policy, has some same things and other

different things compared with other country’s population control policy. The most important

thing for population control policy is that it is needed by its country. There is some same

situation for a country to need to control population, such as high unemployment rate, hunger,

economy. Therefore, there is always population control policy in the world, especially in

developing country. There are some different parts between China and other countries. First of

all, the Family Planning is a little bit different to other population policy in the world. In fact, it

successfully prevented 400 million new population which is the biggest number that a policy can

control the population. Second, in China population control policy, there are no rules to harm

women or children. Many people think that if Chinese couple have more than 1 baby, another

baby will be killed. It is wrong, the government would never do that and absolutely forbids this

behavior.
 Zheng 8

In conclusion, the China population control policy or the Family Policy has brought a lot

of benefits to the whole country and Chinese people. Although there are some different opinions

about it, I as a Chinese who really benefit from this policy, agree with this policy. This policy

greatly alleviated the employment crisis in China and improve so much in life quality. Moreover,

The Family Policy played an essential role in reform and opening. Nowadays, China is the

second economy in the world and most Chinese people get a good live environment because of

this policy. This policy caused some disadvantages to China. However, in contrast to its benefits,

these disadvantages are acceptable.

 Works Cited

Caspani, Maria, “Is population growth really a bad thing?” Thomson Reuters Foundation, Wednesday, 23

April 2014. NEWS.TRUST.ORG.

Clowes, Brian, “Exposing the Global Population Control Agenda” Human Life International, January

2017. HLI.ORG.

Kuschmider, Rebekah, “10 ASTOUNDING POPULATION LAWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD”

2013, BABBLE.COM.

Parkinson, Justin, “Five numbers that sum up China's one-child policy” BBC NEWS, 29 October 2015.

BBC.COM.

Phillips, Tom, “China ends one-child policy after 35 years” The Guardian, Thursday 29 October 2015.

THEGUARDIAN.COM.

Stapleton, Katherine, “China now produces twice as many graduates a year as the US” World Economic

Forum, 13 April 2017. WEFORUM.ORG.

White, Tyrene, “ The Collectivization of Childbearing” China’s Longest Campaign, 2006, pp.1-18.

Zubrin, Robert, "The Population Control Holocaust" The New Atlantis, Number 35, Spring 2012, pp.

33-54. THENEWATLANTIS.COM.