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Article ” China’s Brutal One-Child Policy”

As one of the largest populations in the world, China introduced one-child policy in 1979. The goal of the policy is to reduce birth rates and stabilize the population growth. However, the controversy that exists behind this policy consists of breaking of some of the basic human rights such as the right over your body. Due to this policy, many families in China are faced with lack of help in the fields and the preference of boys over girls. The violation of the polity leads to severe abortions. This trend leads to large number of male population versus female one.
If we apply Demographic Transition theory, it can be noticed that China is in the stage four-stabilization. In this stage the discrepancy between the birth rate and the death rate decreases in favor of the death rate. Some of the major issues that may arise from this stage are that, in some cases, the number of birth rates are so increased that the population suffer because of the reduction of the work force and the needed replacement level of births. According to the Demographic Transition Theory, the difficulty in funding pensions for the growing older population may arise as there is a decreasing number of working population that furthermore decreases each year due to the severe Chinese policy on one-child. Unless China does not abolish this policy, the Chinese population will enter the phase five where the discrepancy between death and birth rates will be so big resulting in on old population and the nation’s shrinking.
It seems that the Chinese politicians have taken the Malthusian dark theory about the prediction of human population. According to the Malthusian theory, at some point in the future, the population number will exceed the food supply leading to the collapse. Due to this predication, the sociologists of the time reached a conclusion that the only way to avoid the catastrophe is to decrease population growth which can be achieved through the intentionally caused wars, epidemics, scarcity or limited birth. Based on the One-Child policy, the Chinese government limited the birth rates by introducing fines for every second child. As China is a mainly agricultural country, many families cannot afford to pay fines and this result in forced abortions. However, there are many other ways that Chinese government can use to maintain the population growth including the education of birth-control among population and positive stimulation. In this way the percentage of birth rate will be maintained and the politics of brutality that follow this policy will be abounded. Even if the one-child policy is abolished in the near future, there will not be enough working population to sustain the economic growth of China. The question of sustainability of the nation arouses form this policy and the future will tell whether it was productive or counterproductive. Additionally, one cannot neglect the number of Chinese immigrants who have fled the country due to the severity of the policy.
Many would agree that the existing one-child policy in China sends a negative message about the enforced population restrain. As Jian states, ” According to Chinese Health Ministry data released in March, 336 million abortions and 222 million sterilizations have been carried out since 1971.” The majority of these abortions were forced and behind each number a human sadness and grief over the lost child hides. No matter which demographic theory is applied, the fact that Chinese population will soon lack in working force remains.

Jian, Ma. ” China’s Brutal One-Child Policy”. The New York Times. 21. May 2013. Web. www. nytimes. com