China's One Child Policy Essay Example

China is the world's most populous nation and its population has, on average, increased by over 25 people every minute, every day for the past 40 years. (Richards 5) For a developing country such as China, with 22 percent of the world's population and only 7 percent of the world's arable land, rapid and persistent population growth can contribute significantly to the nation's poverty levels and restrain its potential for economic growth. (Gu 42) China's one-child family policy was first announced in 1979. In a 1979 speech, Deng Xiaoping drew the first outlines of a policy to limit population growth, "Use whatever means you must to control China's population. Just do it." (Mosher 50) Basically the aim of China's one-child family policy was to help slow population growth to 1.2 billion by the year 2000. It was hoped that third and higher order births could be eliminated and that about 30% of couples might agree to not have a second child. (Choi) Since no law exists governing the number of children a couple can have, a series of incentives and disincentives have been designed in order to attempt to give the policy some chance of success. These incentives and disincentives varied from region to region, families with one child would get preferential treatment to include paid pregnancy leave for up to three years, a 5-10% salary bonus, free health care and education, and higher pensions upon retirement. Families with more than one child were excluded from these benefits and were subject to financial penalties, including reimbursement for financial incentives that may have been paid to the family by the government earlier. Contraceptive and abortion services were extended into the rural areas, and there was the extensive promotion of later marriage, longer intervals between births, and fewer children to result in smaller families. In some of the largest and more advanced cities, such as Shanghai, sizeable proportions of couples had already chosen to have only one