Deng Xiaoping's One-Child Policy During The Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution has changed the thought processes of many in order to handle growing populations around the world. Thomas Malthus, was an economist, who came up with a theory that populations in different countries would continue to grow and he believed that in order to provide for these growing populations technology, as well as environmental factors would need to change. According to Malthus, populations will grow substantially faster than the resources being produced. When Malthus was alive populations had risen from 600 million to about 900 million supporting his point that it would be difficult for populations to live off of resources. Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician during the more modern period, who had another approach
to managing population growth. He executed his theory in the 1970’s when China’s population was at one billion. A comparison of the Malthusian Theory and the actions of Deng Xiaoping will show the different approaches to controlling population growth when considering who makes the changes, what the changes are, and who benefited from those changes.
For so long, many civilizations questioned how to deal with population growth. During the modern days, China has been an example of an overflowing population. Up until the 1960’s the governments of China encouraged families to have as many children as possible. Shortly after that time period, the politician named Deng Xiaoping, realized the government couldn’t produce enough resources for the rapidly growing population. He implemented a change was needed, that change was the “one-child policy”. This policy stated that families could only have one child and if the first child was a girl, families could try having another one, usually aiming for a boy. If and only if a family had a man that was disabled or unable to work (Pletcher, “One-Child Policy”). Many countries questioned his approach to the situation. In 2002, the Bush Administration stated “The Chinese Government, in our view, may be beginning to understand that its coercive birth planning regime has had extremely negative social, economic, and human rights consequences for the nation”(Lerner, One-child policy in China). During this time, the U.S. was an example of a country who believed that the approach China was taking toward this issue was unsound. The Bush Administration specifically believed that there were other ways in which population growth could be fixed. During the Industrial Revolution, no one was able to take action like Xiaoping did in the 1970’s. Many educated people during that time period believed that Malthus’ theory may be correct because populations were continuing to grow, without economic support (Darity, “Limits of Growth”). The reason populations were able to continually grow along with the economy was because the British, in the 1950’s, were more interdependent and advanced their technology so that they were able to thrive.
The solution that Xiaoping had to the controversy of population was to create the one-child policy.
This policy was implemented more effectively in Urban environments. These types of communities consisted of smaller nuclear families that were willing to follow this policy. Unlike those who lived in rural areas, living in agrarian societies and disagreeing with Xiaoping’s policy. Overtime, the policy of only having one-child was more lenient in the countryside, but was a very strict policy in the cities of China. The policy itself was meant for families to only have one child, usually many families wanted a boy because during this time it was known that men do more work. “Methods of enforcement included making various contraceptive methods widely available, offering financial incentives and preferential employment opportunities for those who complied”(Pletcher, One-Child policy). During 1750, there had been agricultural practices similar to The Middle Ages. Many farmers could only use simple tools like wooden plows, hoes and scythes. With these simple tools agriculture ideas producing for higher populations of people would be difficult. China in the time period of the One-child policy had the factories and technology to produce for large populations, but populations were growing to greater numbers than they had ever expected. The number of people in China rose to about 1.4 billion (Bloomberg News). It was different during the Industrial Revolution because although Malthus’
theory was correct, no changes needed to be made at the time. At that time, their were people that worked for countless hours in the field so that every mouth could be fed. They didn’t feel that they needed to make a specific change because the men in homes would work all day and sometimes not be able to put a meal on the table. That justs how certain communities functioned in Europe (Somerville, The Longford Letter).
When Xiaoping first made the one-child policy, different types of people were upset with it, but some felt they were willing to try this solution.
The rural areas were specific examples of places that were willing to try this. Before the policy was even implemented, families in urban environments had smaller families, so adapting to this policy would be very straightforward for them. Whereas, families in the more rural places had families that were much larger because they would have the land to care for larger amounts of families. The Chinese government understood that the economic success they had would lead to greater populations in the smaller areas of the city. This is the main reason why the one-child policy was enforced greatly in urban areas (Man). Another conflict that resulted from this policy was the male to female ratio “Most notably, the country’s overall sex ratio became skewed toward males—roughly between 3 and 4 percent more males than females. Traditionally, male children (especially firstborn) have been preferred—particularly in rural areas—as sons inherit the family name and property and are responsible for the care of elderly parents”(Pletcher, One-child policy). The one-child policy generated many issues for families living in China. Other than just the populations containing more males than females, many families that had female offspring were required to put them into orphanages or simply abandon them. Another very harsh consequence of this policy were
the offspring that had to be undocumented because families were more concerned for their safety if the government were to find out. Unfortunately, many of those children that were undocumented had a difficult time pursuing an education and even employment in the workplace (Pletcher, One-child policy).
Deng Xiaoping’s policy was meant to save China from the difficult situations of population growth. Under no circumstances did he grasp the fact that he would negatively impact many of the families living in China. The communities that benefited and suffered from the one-child policy were slightly different than those that gained from Malthus’ theory. Thomas Malthus attempted to help those that were in poverty during the Industrial Revolution

Understanding population growth transform overtime has been a very difficult concept for countries in the modern day to grasp. The solution chosen by China was undeniable wrong, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that Malthus was right about everything he had said. Populations are continuing to grow as technology in our world gets more and more creative while also being advantageous. Deng Xiaoping was a man who understood that there needed to be changes in order for countries to utilize the solutions to population growth. It is just a matter of time before leaders of other countries begin to realize that populations will continue to grow larger and will be in need or more resources.