This detailed case study on China's One Child Policy, part of the Geography A-Level's population topic, examines the policy's implementation, effects, and long-term consequences. It covers the social, economic, and demographic impacts, providing clear examples and critical analysis of its outcomes....
Background
The Chinese One Child Policy
The Late, Long and Few Policy
In 1949 when China was a low income country, the Chinese
To combat the rapidly growing population in 1970 they introduced
Communist party came to power and they promoted a high birth
the ‘Late, Long and Few Policy’. This is where people where
rate. To increase the population to have more people producing
encouraged to have children later in life and to leave longer gaps in
food as well as to build a stronger army. Due to this from 1950 to
between each child as well as to have fewer children in total. This
1970 the Chinese population rose from 550 million to 830 million,
policy was quite successful with fertility rates dropping from 5.7 in
however the country's resources were struggling to cope with this
1970 to 2.9 in 1979. However the population was still growing and it
massive increase in population. In 1961 there was a famine where
hit 1 billion people in 1979. If the fertility rate did not decline any
millions are thought to have died and by 1970 many people still
further then the government predicted that the population would
lived without running water and electricity.
reach 2 billion people within the next 50 years. At this point it is
very unlikely that the country would have enough resources for this
The History of the One Child Policy many people.
The one child policy was first introduced in 1979 as the Chinese
government realised that they could not support the exponentially growing To support the one Child Policy the government introduced:
population. Depending on where you lived would depend on how strictly it • Laws to prevent people marrying before a certain age
was enforced, for example much more densely populated provinces usually • Free contraception and family planning advice.
were a lot stricter at enforcing the policy. The policy was planned to last for • A system that meant couples had to get a permission slip
100 years. Firstly, the policy gave benefits to only having one child such as before trying to have a child. If couples failed to do this then
longer maternity leave, better housing, free healthcare and free education. they would not be able to register the child and therefore
However if a couple had a second child then these benefits would stop. didn’t receive any benefits.
• Tell-tales in factories who reported to the authorities on their
fellow workers if they became pregnant.
• The granny-police to spy on couples in the areas where they
Gender Difference lived.
The policy was very unpopular in rural areas where • Very late abortions to terminate second pregnancies
children were needed to work on the farm and to • Free sterilisation for couples who already had one child.
look after their parents once they were older. His
led to infanticide where baby girls were allowed to Future Problems
die so that the family could try for a boy, as boys o Due to such development in health and medical care th
have higher levels of testosterone and are dropped to only 8 per 1000 people annually. However, a
therefore usually stronger. Even in the cities becomes older a single child may have to support two p
How effective was the policy? possibly four grandparents. ‘4-2-1 problem’
female embryos were often aborted so that a
The policy was effective at reducing the birth rate which o Single children are more likely to be spoilt and indulged
couple could try for a boy.
went from 2.9 in 1979 to 1.8 in 2009. The policy is thought to
siblings and therefore they might struggle to work with
have prevented 400 million births and the Chinese
grow up. ‘Little emperor’
population is undoubtably lower than it otherwise would o Due to the preference of having a boy instead of a girl t
have been. Therefore fewer resources have been used and
million more young men than women. This is known as
people could thus have a higher standard if living and quality
problem and could lead to loneliness and other social p
of living than would have been achieved with a bigger
population.
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