China's One-Child Policy: Was It A Good Idea

China’s One-Child Policy: Was It a Good Idea? A devastating food famine beginning in 1959 resulted in the death of 30 million Chinese citizens. Introduced in 1980 by the Communist Party, and lasting until 2015, China’s one child policy was an attempt to not only avoid food shortages, but to patch up the country’s past mistakes involving overpopulation and birth control. The one child policy acted as a human social experiment, and limited the majority of Chinese couples to have only one child each. Since this policy affected millions of Chinese citizens, positive and negative outcomes followed soon after implementation. An ongoing question many still ask is, “Was China’s One-Child Policy a Good Idea?” China’s temporary one child policy was
This, however, proved not to be the case, as the one child policy barely affected the decline of the country’s fertility rate. “Even before its inception, the one child policy was questioned for its necessity and its enormous social costs. . .China’s one child policy may have hastened a fertility decline that was already well in progress, but it is not the main force accounting for China’s low fertility rate today. . .Most of China’s fertility decline occurred prior to the one child policy” (Document B). In this quote, authors Feng Wang and Cai Yong explain how the fertility rate had already been remarkably reduced prior to the policy being enforced. Fertility rates weren’t the only issue after the one-child policy was introduced, though. “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” (Document B). This excerpt relays the central message critics around the world were trying to convey when the idea of implementing a one child policy initially came up, and how they foresaw the potential consequences that would arise after the policy was put into
Without siblings, only-children are susceptible to a variety of social and behavioral problems, including being over-privileged, selfish, and lonely. The one child policy resulted in mass sex discrimination, with males being favored over females, leading to a gender imbalance when female infanticide was practiced. Finally, the one child policy barely affected China’s fertility rate, and instead resulted in physical abuse and violence. These pivotal issues collectively prove just how much the one child policy damaged China’s entire population