China's One Child Policy Dbq

“The one-child policy, critics warned, would forcefully alter kin relations for Chinese families….To enforce a policy that is so extreme and unpopular for families who relied on children for labor and old age support, physical abuses and violence would be inevitable (Doc.B). ” In 1949 China became under Communist control, at this time China was a rather poor country, having the largest population in the world and growing. Their solution to lower fertility rates, the number of live births per 1000 women, was a government program called known as the one-child policy. It would limit Chinese couples, specifically Han Chinese, and ethnicity making up 90 percent of the population, to only one child. The one-child policy was a bad idea for China

During that 9 year period, couples began marrying late, waiting longer before having children and then only having dew kids, due to the Mao Zedong's endorsed slogan, Late, Long and Few, introduced in the 1960s. ‘In countries without a forceful and costly policy as China’s, birth rates had declined with similar trajectories and magnitude, (Doc. B).” Brazil and South Korea show fertility rates at 4.2 (Brazil) and 2.9 (South Korea) in 1979 decreased to 1.9 and 1.2 in 2008 compared to China, under the policy, with a rate of 2.7 in 1979 reduced to 1.7 in 2008. The evidence supports the claim that the one-child policy was a bad policy because fertility rates would have dropped naturally just like it did in Brazil and South Korea. Even if rates didn’t drop the country would be stable at 2.7 because of the effect Mao’s slogan had on

Depending on where they live, couples can be fined thousands of dollars for having an [extra] child without a permit, and reports of forced abortions or sterilization are common...The law offers longer maternity leave and other benefits to couples delaying childbirth, (Doc.E)." The policy rewards those who participate and limit those who don't occasionally using force, sterilization, and abortion, to ensure that the policy is carried out. "Xiao, 22, says she was blessed with all the attention and resources showered at her from childhood[but] she wished she had a brother or sister to share attention. SHe has a mostly lonely childhood[and] used to cut [her] wrist after being yelled at. 'The one-child policy should partly be blamed for some social issues of youth today, she adds, ' (Doc.F)." This evidence supports the claim that the one-child policy was a bad policy because the lives of the citizens were not taken into consideration on how they would be affected. They can't help what their ethnicity is and because of who they are they had to undergo this policy. A final reason that the one-child policy was a bad idea is the fact that the country now faces problems, as a result of the policy. The graph is shown in Doc. A show an estimate of China's population of years