China’s One Child Policy
Established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979.
The policy limits couples to one child.
For families who observe the One Child Policy, there are rewards: higher wages, better schooling and employment, and preferential treatment in obtaining governmental assistance and loans. For families who violate the One Child Policy, there are sanctions: fines, employment termination, and difficulty in obtaining governmental assistance.
It is not an all-encompassing rule because it has always been restricted to ethnic Han Chinese living in urban areas.
Citizens living in rural areas and minorities living in China are not subject to the law. In rural areas, Han Chinese families can apply to have a second child if the first child is a girl. Additionally, if a first child is born with birth defects or major health problems.
One major exception to the One Child Policy allows two singleton children (the only offspring of their parents) to marry and have two children.
The rule has been estimated to have reduced population growth in the country of 1.3 billion by as much as 300 million people over its first twenty years.
This rule has caused a disdain for female infants; abortion, neglect, abandonment, and even infanticide have been known to occur to female infants.
Resulted in the disparate ratio of 114 males for every 100 females among babies from birth through children four years of age. Normally, 105 males are naturally born for every 100 females.
If China continues its One Child Policy in the decades to come, it will actually see its population decrease. China is expected to peak in population around 2030 with 1.46 billion people and then begin falling to 1.3 billion by 2050.
Recent Effects on the One Child Policy
A special provision allows millions of couples to have two children legally.
Families who are permitted to have a second child usually have to wait from three to four years after the birth of the first child before conceiving their second child.
Although IUDs, sterilization, and abortion (legal in China) are China's most popular forms of birth control, over the past few years, China has provided more education and
