One Child Policy in China

Summary

The Old Days

• One Child Policy comes from a Communist leader in 1978 by the name of Deng Xiaoping.
• The policy is created because China has gone to the point that it not feed itself any longer.
• To enforce the policy, the government requires each family to sign a certificate as well as pledge to only have one child.
• The individuals, who's volunteer to sign the policy will be provided with benefits by the government such as health care and food.
• On the other hand, the people who are unwilling to cooperate will find themselves penalize by higher tax or employer will use this policy to hold back the employee bonus as well.
• To ensure bribery does not take place in the country, the government enlists the elderly people around the neighborhood as spies. Their job is provide everybody information in their neighborhood to the government.
• One child policy affects the rural area of China the most, because majority of farmers need boys to help them so they will get abortion every time they have a girl.
• This policy also affects the male-female ratio. In 2004, according to MSNBC, there are 120 males to every 100 females.

Today

• The One Child Policy does not get enforce as much as before.
• The government also gives out some exceptions to have two children:
• 1st, if the first child is handicap, the family can have a second baby.
• 2nd, rural areas and minorities are able to have two children,
• 3rd, the victims in the Sichuan earthquake.
• The government also provides help to family by opening adoption center across the country for those who cannot take care of their children.

In this article, I will not talk about the criticism of the One Child Policy, which I already extensively cover in the article about family, instead, I will tell you what the history point of view and how it evolves into today. Let's start talking about the old days.

The Old Days

This is quite a bold move, because the man before him known by the name of Mao Zedong has an opposite point of view. Mao believes that the Chinese can show their power through their people.

Mao always supports the idea of big families in China, and often enough he reward families that do so. However, after all the war that the Chinese have, the population starts to get out of control. Soon, China could not feed itself anymore and start to run out of resources such as money, land, and natural resource.

With the same perspective of the one dollar menu at McDonald, the Chinese adopted the One Child Policy in 1978. The Chinese were looking for a way of get out of the problem "Fast," a way for them to "Drive through" the situation, and a "Cheap" effective way solution. I think I over done it a little bit.

However, look on the bright side, I start to get my humor back (hehe). You may ask, "Dat, how did the Chinese start to go about this plan?" Well, to ensure the government has support from its people, it forces everybody to sign to the certificate as well as promise to only have one child.

Whoever volunteers to sign the certificate, he is award with benefit such as food and health care. Whoever fails will be penalized on newspaper, higher tax, force abortion, and sometime employer can deny giving a person a raise just base on this reason alone.

However, this policy affects the poor more than the rich. During that time, whoever has money can determine how many kids he/she want. What the people do is bride the official to give their second or third child a legal birth certificate.

The "070"...

The government tries to counter bribery by using the elderly people. Some elderly will sign up to work for the government by spying on their neighborhood and report everything back to the government.

They are like the "007" of China, but in this case we can call them the "070." Get it, because they were about 70 years old. Ha, I'm so funny. These elderly people will make sure everybody is obeying the law.

Even though, with a record of being a snitch, the elderly have their benefits as well. The elderly are also can consider being a baby sitter for every child in the neighborhood, take care of the sick, and watching out for crime. However, these old people make sure that no one has any privacy.

The law is mainly for the urban area; however, the rural got hurt the most. A s I mention in the article of traditional family, the rural family needs a son to help in the family business (which mainly farming). Majority of the farmers will have abortion if they get a girl. Over time, it messes up the balance of boy to girl ratio.

According to MSNBC, there are 120 boys for every 100 girls in the year 2004. Many male farmers are currently scared that they cannot find a bride for the family.

Today

Currently at this moment (2008-2009), the policy is enforcing less and less. The reason is China is becoming rich as a country as a whole, and there is the shortage of females.

Even though, the policy is still effective, it is not uncommon for family to have two children. The government also makes some exceptions as well. For example,

• Rural family and minority people can have two children in a family, without paying fine.
• If the first child is handicap, a family may have another baby.
• If a family is evolved in the Sichuan earthquake recently can have another child to replace the one they have lost.

The government today also makes it easy for the people as well by setting up some adoption agencies across the country if a family cannot raise the newborn daughter. By now it is very easy to adopt a child in China. If you like to adopt a child this is a very time to do so.

The reason for the government to set it up agencies is to eliminate the danger of abortion. Some families do not have enough money to go into the hospital, so they may settle for some unsafe methods. This method also try to limit the sex trade in china, some people will buy the girl if the families do not have money to raise the child themselves.

I know there is a lot more go into One Child Policy. However, for less confusion, this is just a broad view and a light read for quick basic information.

Chinese New Year is about to come around. Hope, everyone have some wonderfully with your family. From where I am and wherever you are, good night and good luck everybody.

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Resource Link:

MSNBC - http://www.msnbc.com