Chinese wisdom of one child policy

Suitcase of Courage Jul 19, 2008 21:34:59

Is there any research on this policy which I believe is well over 20 years now. I do not think the Chinese realised when adopting it that the logical outcome will be a future society of no uncles aunts cousins or the wider extended family. A vertically structured family of mother father and grandparents.

Lawrence Jul 19, 2008 22:03:35

Replying to Suitcase of Courage

I remember there was something about "little emperors", about how Chinese children are often overly pampered because of the lack of sisters or brothers or something like that...

PMM Jul 19, 2008 22:33:00

Replying to Suitcase of Courage

Fragments:

Projected population growth in China is 7.6% between 2000 and 2050. That's 104th out of 141 nations listed. It's current annual rate stands at 0.64% according to 2005 figures (143 of 195 nations listed)

Urban population growth stood at 2.95% in 2005 (58th of 195)
Rural population growth by contrast was negative. -0.89% to be precise.

The policy has let to some cases of infanticide, mainly in rural areas, particularly of female babies.

This link shows the gender distribution of the total world population:

http://www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Image:Sex-ratio-total-population-per-country-smooth.png">http://www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Image:Sex-ratio-total-population-per-country-smooth.png

While this one shows the same but only for those aged less than 15:

http://www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Image:Sex-ratio-below-15-per-country-smooth.png">http://www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/Image:Sex-ratio-below-15-per-country-smooth.png

Red is male. Blue is female. China has become more masculine and now has the highest ratio of males to females in the world, although the statistics do not themselves give reasons. The imbalance may also be due to such things as under-reporting, particularly in rural areas, but sex selective abortion and infanticide seem likely to be part of the reason.

All of the above data came from a variety of sources, collated by nationmaster: http://www.nationmaster.com

handofdave Jul 20, 2008 10:24:23

Replying to Suitcase of Courage

Of course they realized what the outcome would be. It was a sacrifice they decided to make to avoid an otherwise unavoidable population explosion.

It's a radical policy by western standards, but difficult to replace with any other real solutions in a part of the world that has memories of starvation.

As long as we're stuck on this planet, the human race has got to curb it's natural inclinations and stop pumpin' out babies faster than the earth can provide for them.

Rolling Ronnie Jul 22, 2008 08:48:30

Replying to Suitcase of Courage

It's not strictly a 'one child' policy. It's a 'one child free' policy. If you want additional children, you have to pay the state to have them. With the wealth that's filtering it's way into Chinese society through Western investment in manufacturing, two and three child families are becoming more and more common in the areas where wealth is increasing, mainly the East Coast.