China’s One-Child Policy was formally instituted 30 years ago on September 25, 1980, in an "open letter" by the Chinese Communist Party. Up until that date, the government campaigned locally and nationally for voluntary birth control and discouraged excess reproduction. The policy was initiated as a response to China’s growing population during the 1970's—with birthrates of over 4 children per family—and relative lack of food, employment and education. This resource shortage stems partially from Mao’s failed economic-planning of the Great Leap Forward, which resulted in 30 million deaths due to starvation during famine. By 1980, however, the birthrate had dropped below 3 children per family.
The One-Child Policy restricts families to 1 child each, with few exceptions, and the consequences for having a child without a birth permit vary by province. The policy was originally termed a temporary "last resort" that would last 20-30 years in order to relieve the lack of resources to the Chinese population. To ensure effective enforcement of the One-Child Policy, government officials who carry out the birth control policies are rewarded. Despite a slight relaxation of enforcement in 1984, with exemptions varying dramatically from province to province, the policy continues to forcefully prevent births in China.
To this day, the Chinese government boasts that the One-Child Policy has prevented 400 million births. The consequence has been an emerging demographic crisis, a topic that is being discussed more widely among Chinese scholars. Many have argued against the policy’s brutal enforcement and criticized the policy’s flawed mathematics, not to mention the labor shortage and sex-ratio imbalance that have begun surfacing since its implementation. The policy, coupled with China’s traditional preference for males, has experts predicting that by 2020, China will be home to 40 million more men than women under the age of 20. That number is equivalent to the total population of men under 20 in the U.S.
To this day little has changed with regard to the One-Child Policy, and there is little inclination from the Chinese government to end it. Zhang
Weiqing, then Minister of the State Population and Family Planning Commission, denied rumors in 2008 that the policy will become less stringent to allow for a second child. Following the 30th Anniversary of the One-Child Policy on September 25, 2010, the head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, Li Bin,
announced that China would continue the policy for several more decades, despite the fact that the original policy was intended to last no more than 30 years.
Read more: http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/about/history-one-child-policy#ixzz1wla9HKc8
