China One Child Policy Flashcards
What was China’s population growth in the middle of the twentieth century?
55 million every three years.
What was the average number of children born to a Chinese woman in 1963?
7.5
What was the birth rate in the early 1970s?
31 per thousand people
What was the average family size in the early 1970s?
3 per family
Why was the policy needed?
Continuing strong population growth would bring about great hardships; extreme poverty, lack of food and drinking water, over cultivation, famine, unemployment, overcrowding in cities, traffic congestion, not enough services to support everyone, air, land, and water pollution.
What age were people allowed to marry as part of the One Child Policy?
Women – 20, Men - 22
How did the One Child Policy ensure that couples only had one child
Sterilization after the first child or abortion of future pregnancies
What were the incentives for couples to conform to the policy?
- 5-10% salary rise (urban).
- Bigger land allocation (rural).
- Extended maternity leave.
- Paid medical and hospital expenses.
- Priority access to housing, employment and free schooling for the child.
What were the consequences of not conforming to the policy?
- deprived these benefits
- made to pay large fines.
- Family allowances and medical benefits were withdrawn.
- Those who worked in government jobs would be demoted or discharged.
- Pressure to abort second pregnancies even included pay cuts for the couple’s fellow workers so they would make life unbearable.
Who were the ‘Granny Police’?
Older women of the community who were entrusted with the task of keeping everyone in line. They kept a regular check on couples of childbearing age, even accompanying women on contraception appointments to make sure they attended.
What were the exceptions to the rules?
- Membership of a minority ethnic group (can be allowed two or even more children).
- Having a first child with a disability that is likely to result in inability to work pregnancy after adopting a child.
- Risk of ‘losing the family line’ without a second child (the first child being a girl).
- Rural families with ‘real difficulties’ (all children so far being girls).
What were the successes of the One Child Policy?
- Population growth has slowed down sufficiently for people to have enough food and jobs.
- China’s birth rate fell from 31 to 19 in 20 years
- the size of the overall population was estimated to be 230 million less than it would have been without the policy.
What changes were made to the policy in the 1990s and 2000s?
- Young couples who are both only children are allowed two children
- Attitudes towards daughters has improved
Why is the policy unlikely to be relaxed any more?
Because in 2008 China still had 1 million more births than deaths every five weeks and 600 million people-half the population-still live on less than $2 per day.
