China's One Child Policy

With a population of 1.2 billion, one of the most serious social and economic problems still facing China is its huge population growth. Every year, China's population grows by 14 million people—three-quarters of Australia's entire population!

Up until the 1970s the Chinese government regarded a growing population as a benefit in bringing about swift economic development. By 1963, the average number of children born to a Chinese woman was 7.5.

In recent decades, China's government has viewed population growth differently. With one-fifth of the world's population, but only 7 per cent of the world's arable land, continuing strong population growth would bring about great hardships, extreme poverty and famine.

The Chinese government decided in the 1970s to control population growth. This has proved a very complex task. The main strategy the government introduced in 1982 was a radical
family planning program to encourage couples to restrict their family size to just one child. This has become known as the 'One Child Policy'.

It is absolutely imperative that we all support the One Child Policy in our country. If we don't, our people will go hungry. Do you think we want our people to be a burden to the rest of the world? It is our duty to have only one child. I thank you if you can understand this. Rongzhao Li, Wuhan, Hubei Province.

Since 1982, detailed annual population plans have been drawn up for all provinces and cities. Birth targets or quotas have been set and controlled and all pregnancies are supposed to be planned and authorised. In February 1995, the government announced a new campaign to reinforce the policy to hold the country's population to 1.3 billion up to the year 2000. Later that same year, the government decided that the population should be held at 1.4 billion by the year 2010.

Because the One Child Policy is implemented and monitored by local and provincial authorities, it has been applied differently across the nation. For example, there has been stricter enforcement of the policy in urban areas than in rural areas.
The policy is attempting a huge shift in the values of most Chinese people. Government campaigns are still achieving only limited success.

Did you know? China has worked consistently on its extensive community health program, raising the average life expectancy from 35 years in 1949 to 71 years
today.

Policy incentives

1. salary bonus (urban)
2. bigger land allocation (rural)
3. extended maternity leave
4. paid medical and hospital expenses
5. priority access to housing, employment and schooling for the child

Disobeying the policy

1. withdrawal of family allowance and medical benefits
2. fines (even against everyone in the village or town)
3. demotion or discharge from a government job
   

Exceptions to the rule

1. membership of a minority ethnic group (can be allowed two or even more children)
2. having a first child with a disability that is likely to result in inability to work
3. pregnancy after adopting a child
4. risk of 'losing the family line' without a second child (the first child being a girl)
5. rural families with 'real difficulties' (all children so far being girls)
   

Did you know? When the People's Republic of China was
established in 1949, 68 per cent of women could not read or write. Today, 90 per cent of Chinese women are literate.

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Click here to see the 60 minutes special on China's Boy/Girl Gap.