On Sunday Vice President Joe Biden included in his talk at China’s Sichuan University a characteristic blunder, saying, “Your policy has been one which I fully understand – I’m not second-guessing – of one child per family.”
The blunder has inevitably led to uproar, bringing much-needed attention to a Chinese policy that is deplorable not only because of the reprehensible restrictions that it imposes on Chinese women and families, but also because of the gender imbalance and unsustainable aging population that it has created.
The draconian one child policy was originally implemented by the Chinese government in 1979 in an attempt to curb the country’s worrying rate of population growth.
It is easy to understand the government’s legitimate fears of overpopulation and recognize the successes of this policy – accomplishments include preventing a 400 million increase in the population and, by proposing (or imposing) a preference for smaller families, the policy has also been recognized as preventing poverty.
While the policy has helped, its negative consequences far outweigh its benefits. Because while the one child policy aims to address important issues, the way in which it does this is problematic.
That the one child policy is, in Mitt Romney’s words, “gruesome and barbaric” is unquestionable; it is not the government’s place to deny women the right to plan families and impose blanket regulations on them. Further, it is not the government’s place to force sterilizations or compel women to have abortions – denying women fundamental rights.
While the issue of women’s rights is important, there are other considerable consequences of this badly planned policy.
Restricted to only one child and biased by a culture that favors baby boys to girls, many families have opted for gender-based abortions. This is problematic as it furthers a culture where a male child is preferred to a female child and also because it has created a significant gender imbalance in the population, where there are 119 boys born for every 100 girls, a situation that experts suggest will have dire implications in prostitution and sex-trafficking.
But China’s one-child troubles don’t stop there. Biden, after his gaffe, touched on another issue the country is facing as a result of its policy: an aging population. Young wage earners have now been left supporting an increasing number of retired people – often two parents and four grandparents to an individual. This is not just a matter of a large expense for the working-age population to shoulder, it’s an unsustainable situation.
While Biden’s faux pas was lamentable, it has brought media attention back to and re-ignited debate on an important issue. There’s still hope and lots of good reason for the Chinese government to revise its policy: in the name of human rights, social planning, or sustainable economics. There’s just too much wrong with the one child policy for the government to hold on to it.
Photo Credit: jimmiehomeschoolmom
The Discussion
I'm unclear as to how this was a "characteristic blunder" from the Vice President?
China's incredible growth has a lot to do with its huge working population - that's bound to stall as the country has to support more older people, and there are fewer young people to take their place. Not only will China have a larger old population to support, but their economic outlook will only get weaker, and potentially less able to deal with it anyway.
Not sure I have a satisfying solution to the overpopulation problem though either...
I guess apart from policy, its a social movement, advocating sex education and also trying to eliminate gender bias which is huge in countries such as India and China. Educating women, sensitising them to their rights, creating a more favourable workplace for them are a few steps in this direction.
Forced sterilization and abortions are indeed gruesome, but happened mostly in the early days of the policy in the 80s. Policy enforcement now, (fines) is much more reasonable. That said, as a teacher in China, a classroom full of children who have no concept of 'brother' or 'sister' is bizarre.
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As China enters the developed world the problem will solve itself. As countries become rich their population growth rate quickly approaches replacement rate.
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China is a totalitarian regime with a population problem. They have chosen to limit the number of children to solve that problem. They could have chosen a much more draconian path.
The population problem is a global issue and the only country I see trying to address it is China. Their solution feels wrong to me but I am unable to come up with a better one. Judging by the comments I see here, neither can this group. I commend China for trying.
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What, if any, sort of family planning information does China have? As the one child law is becoming outdated perhaps this is what could take its place? Thus the ability of families to chose to have maybe two children and be aware of how to control this without ending up with many children. Also, what sort of steps is China actually taking to implement a change in the one child law?
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China has a population of about 1.34 billion. In the past ten years, the number has increased 73.9 million, 5.8% higher than in 2000 (obtained from a NY Times story in April 2011). If you assume a 2% annual increase, population would increase to 1.62 billion in ten years. Seems to me the Chinese government has a real problem if they do not stem their population growth. However, forced sterilization and gender-based abortions are repugnant and a violation of a human rights. So, what should government policy be? Perhaps one that is based upon economics- no support for families with more than one child might be effective.
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Yes, it's a real problem, and thank you for addressing it!
The unintended consequence for China also is that the gender imbalance has increased domestic and cross-border trafficking into China's urban areas. It's a problem that's only going to get worse. As of right now, one in nine men will never marry. Lianyungang city has a ratio of 163:100!
Yet still the US TIP report fails to lower China into Tier 3 status or address the one-child policy as an indirect cause of increased trafficking in their country narrative. Mostly because the TIP report and TVPA is a completely politicized joke, but that's another issue.