Today while at work I was busy looking through the news when I stumbled upon an article that mentioned China's one child policy. This year marks 30 years since the policy was first implemented and according to officials, the policy will not be dropped. Looking back on the history of this policy, Mao Zedong proclaimed in 1949 that "Of all the things in the world, people are the most precious" and thus the communist government condemned birth control and banned imports of contraceptives. This lead to a rapid population growth. However, China's population dropped by half from 1970-1976 due tot he Cultural Revolution and a massive famine. In 1979 the policy was finally established where couples are required to have only one child.
What I gather from this article is that countries around the world and even within within China are worried that the population is now aging very quickly. This law has prevented around 400 million births since 1979 but what were the measures taken to make sure people would obey this law? There have been reports of forced abortions or sterilizations, and couples found with more than one child, without a government permit, are fined thousands of dollars.
It is very sad to learn that boys are culturally preferred and this has led to female infanticide. As a result of this there is a gender imbalance going on. There aren't enough young people working in factories, which is a problem that can only get worse.
Link to site:http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/27/china.one.child.policy/index.html?hpt=T2
