Deng Xiaoping's One-Child Policy

In 1979 the Family Planning Policy was instituted by Deng Xiaoping as part of the Communist party initiative (Buckley 1). This policy, in effect, was instituted in an effort to limit married citizens to having one child only; this policy is also known as the one-child policy. The policy effected a decrease in fertility rate from about 5.8 births at its peak in 1960s, to less than 2 births in the 1990s. (Branigan 2). As a result, there was a dramatic decline in live births over the next 30 years. A large “son preference” arose, leading to an unbalanced ratio of males to female. In 2010, China had “a surplus of around 41 million males” who will not be able to find “appropriately aged Chinese women in the marriage market,” (Poston 1). This …show more content…
China’s government enforced financial punishments with heavy fines to make sure citizens obeyed the law in place. Not only were there financial punishments, but also, women were forced to have sterilizations, abortions and even participate in infanticide. Daily abortions occurred, about 35,000 abortions every day. while the one-child policy was instated (Gendercide 1). Most of these abortions were female fetuses, because of the desire to have a boy child. “Son preference” was prevalent in China leading to “female infanticide, abortion of female fetuses, and a large number of "missing" girls who are either dead, abandoned, or given up for adoption,” (Luo 1). Married citizens were using illegal ultrasound technology to discover the sex of their child and then decide to abort if fetuses were female. Men are stereotyped to be stronger than females and therefore can help care for their families better than women. “37 million more men than women live in China, thanks to gendercide.” (Gendercide 1). The international sex ratio is 105 males for every 100 women and in April 2002, the fifth national census revealed that for every 100 girls born, there was 116.9 boys born in China. (Luo 2). “Gendercide, defined as “the systematic extermination of a particular gender,” has become widespread in China.” (Gendercide 1). One of the effects of gendercide in China is that there …show more content…
Credit Suisse estimates that population increase will begin in 2017 and lead to an increase in consumer spending. “Those extra babies would generate around 120-249 billion yuan,” (Yu 2). Revenue from nonessential goods will also increase, they have already started to improve, e-commerce sales have “increased 36% year over year,” (Yu 2). Fixing the economy is a large part of why the ruling Communist party has decided to remove the one-child policy and the impact of having more children can lead to the booming economy necessary to help fix