Posted: July 31st, 2022

China’s One-Child Population Policy

China’s One-Child Population Policy
China has, in the past, had controversial population control policies, but the one-child policy spiked numerous controversies among people domestically and internationally. This goes back in 1980 when China introduced the one-child policy that limited couples to having only one child. The temporary measure was intended to rehabilitate China’s surging population. Experiencing severe capital shortage and deteriorating natural resources, China retorted to this policy which was designed to help achieve a controlled and manageable population growth and facilitate economic growth. Before the one-child restrictive policy, there was the longer-fewer policy, which had been introduced in 1973, encouraging people to take longer intervals before conceiving, lowering fertility levels. This and other less restrictive policies had a significant effect of lowering the fertility levels compared to the one-child regime.
China associated the increasing population rates to then-existing underdevelopment and deteriorating economic conditions. However, the one-child restrictive regime did not necessarily or directly provide the solution. The breakthrough came from changes in the policies that allowed more freedom in the economy rather sole control by the government. The economic boom in China over the past decade has remarkably reduced poverty, enabling millions of young people to access quality education and allowing millions of others to venture into the economic sector successfully. However, the decline in fertility levels continued declining, surpassing the preferred point and thereby rendering the one-child policy impractical.
In an effort to rectify the demographic situation, the government began loosening the overly restrictive population control measures. In 2013, China merged the National Population and Family Planning Commission with the Ministry of Health to create the National Health and Family Planning Commission. Later in the same year, China declared partial relaxation of the one-child policy allowing couples who were the only child to have up to two children. This, however, had just a subtle effect with only an estimated 15% of all couples who were eligible to have a second child applying by August of 2015.
Finally, in January of 2016, China lifted the one-child policy allowing two children per couple. This move was deemed necessary in developing a more balanced population. The decision received major criticisms, awakening the brutality and the pain experienced by couples who were forced to terminate their second pregnancies prematurely. Thousands of cases of forced abortions and unauthorized sterilization for such an extended period in some way, all justify these criticisms. And for couples who lost their only child and are not in a position to conceive another, their psychological plight is overwhelming!

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