It is said that history keeps us from repeating mistakes. In order to learn and improve we must fail. Implemented to limit an ever growing population, China’s one-child policy has evolved into much more than that, it has become a learning experience. Through the intolerance and injustice brought about by a policy made to evoke a positive change in China, we can learn how to be better. Better in knowing when once good intentions fail, better in recognizing basic human rights, better in listening.
The idea of controlling population is not inhumane but the way it is done can easily be. China implemented the one-child policy to control their rapidly growing population and improve their nation. Fong says that “China’s leadership argued the policy was a necessary step in its Herculean efforts to lift a population the size of the United States’ from abject poverty.” Going in, this was supposed to be a positive change for China because they believed if the growth continued there would be negative consequences, such as poverty, from having to provide for too many citizens. Unfortunately, for many citizens this hope for a positive change quickly turned into a nightmare.
Women were being forced to undergo abortions and sterilization against their will, families were being destroyed by this single policy that had gone too far. The policy that was once backed by good intentions had failed, it had failed the people that it had been trying to protect. Officials of China ignored this, knowingly or not, they did not acknowledge the turn the policy had taken. Instead they continued to implement it throughout China, ignoring the ways it was failing their people. Quin states “For policy makers in developing countries today, understanding this trade-off [quality vs quantity] is especially relevant…” Governments need to take into account the effect of controlling the quantity of the population has on the quality of the lives.
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This relates to knowing when a policy has failed. If the quality of lives are largely comprised there needs to be changes made. Not only did the policy fail the citizens of China, it failed in controlling the population in aspects other than size. The population became uneven with a higher percentage of males than females because of the favoritism of having a son. This heightens the intolerance towards women and daughters as a lot of parents don’t find them as valuable as sons, lowering self esteem. The chinese government and leaders however, did not acknowledge this as their policy failing. If they had acknowledged the failing policy changes could have been made and negative consequences of the policy could have been avoided.
The one-child policy in China completely dismissed basic rights that one should be entitled to. Because of this policy women did not have the right to their bodies, instead their bodies were at the hands of the government. Women faced great intolerance by having abortions and sterilization forced upon them. One’s body is the one thing that is truly theirs and when that is taken away, one may feel as though they have nothing left, which takes its toll. Therefore not only are these violations destructive to one’s body, they are destructive to one’s mind and wellbeing as well. Many feminist groups, as well as pro-life groups, have stepped forward, advocating against the policy and instead to the lives and rights of the women involved and their future children. Rob Schwarzwalder, senior vice president of the christian pro-life group, Family Research Council, has come forward with stories from women who have experienced these injustices first hand and the effects it has had on them and their families.
Schwarzwalder, recounting a forced abortion of one woman, states after the birth of her aborted baby “…the doctors in southern Hunan province would not even let her hold the dying infant…putting the baby in a plastic bag and instructing him [the husband] to pay a cleaner a small sum to bury it on a nearby hill.” The heartbreak and terror this family, along with many others, is unimaginable. The lack of compassion towards these women and their families is as awful as the medical procedures they are being forced into. This should have been a red flag that something needed to change, something as simple as relaxing the policy a little bit by considering the rights of the citizens. In some regions of China the policy was relaxed, allowing exceptions for some to have two children, this way they were able to avoid some of the horrors that others had to go through.
Not only did the policy have an effect on the mothers’ rights but it also had an effect on some of their children’s’ rights. Because of the backlash and taxes parents would have to endure for having more than one child, many children went undocumented. These children did not exist to the government, which led to them being excluded from certain rights, such as education, something that should be available to every child. The misfortunes and horrors that the people of China went through teach that one’s rights needs to be acknowledged in order for a nation to be successful. If we acknowledged the rights of not only women but of all people there would be less issues overall like those from this policy.
During the enactment of the one-child policy, chinese leaders failed to to see the negative consequences and listen to those opposing the policy. The resentment of women having abortions and sterilizations should have been enough for China to reconsider the policy, as their own citizens were against it, but leaders failed to listen to their complaints. This proves that they didn’t care much about the effects to policy had on their citizens well being. They also failed to recognize others speaking about potential negative effects the policy would have on the country as a whole.
If the policy continued there would be negative effects on the elderly, as there would be less of a younger population to take care of them. Pletcher states the drop of a younger population “…became a concern, as the great majority of senior citizens in China relied on their children for support after they retired, and there were fewer children to support them.” However, leaders failed to listen to these concerns and continued the policy despite the worrisome effects. According the Bongaarts and Greenhalgh, chinese leaders ignored the effects the policy had on families. In China they very much value continuing their family line, but because of the policy less families were having sons.
As Bongaarts and Greenhalgh state “…the policy would break over 50 percent of the descent lines…” This had a major effect as people took pride in their families and considered it their purpose to continue the line, but because chinese leaders ignored this issue many family lines were broken. This shows how important it is to listen to citizens in times of change and acknowledge their concerns. If China had listened to their citizens during the one-child policy they could have avoided breaking families and they could have had a better support system in place for their elderly citizens.
The one-child policy in China had horrible effects on both the citizens and the nation as a whole. We should take this as a learning experience to prevent similar future events. One needs to take into account what is more important, people or policy? This will help to move us, as a world, into a better place that pays attention and has compassion towards others and their situations, keeping us from repeating history.
Works Cited
- Bongaarts, John, and Greenhalgh, Susan. “An Alternative to the One-Child Policy in China.” Population and Development Review, vol. 11, no. 4, 1985, pp. 585–617. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1973456.
- Fong, Mei. One Child: the Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.
- Pletcher, Kenneth. “One-Child Policy.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 21 Mar. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/one-child-policy.
- Qian, Nancy. “Quantity-Quality and the One Child Policy:The Only-Child Disadvantage in School Enrollment in Rural China.” NBER Working Paper Series, 20 May 2009, doi:10.3386/w14973.
- Schwarzwalder, Rob. “On Children, China, America, and Abortion.” FRC, www.frc.org/twochildpolicy.
