Zhang 1

Wenqi Zhang Kristen Foster CO 150, 401 October 25, 2013 Should the Chinese government give up the one-child policy? I decided my issue after I read a shocking story online. The story was about a Chinese woman who was nine months pregnant had already had a 2-year-old daughter. According to the one-child policy, the woman had to take a forced abortion, which meant that a nine-month life had to be killed. This is normal in Chinese tradition. As a Chinese person, I am familiar with this policy, and I know thats the reason why I dont have a brother or sister. Although I was aware that the one-child policy has changed the Chinese family and kin structure, I was still curious about the specific ways that the one-child policy affects Chinese society. For this research, I am focusing on whether the Chinese government should give up one-child policy. This issue is controversial because the one-child policy has controlled population in China effectively while it also has negative effects.

Before I could focus on the necessity of the one-child policy, I first needed to learn more about the basic information about the one-child policy. I started by turning to a book, International Handbook of Chinese Families (Settles, et al). In chapter 38, the title is The One-

Zhang 2

Child Policy and its Impact on Chinese Families. This chapter not only gave me a detailed introduction to the history and development of the one-child policy but also provided me with different perspectives of the consequences of the one-child policy. According to the authors, the population growth slowed down from 11.6% in 1979 to 5.9% in 2005 in China and the population was reduced by almost 300million which nearly equaled the population of the United States. This meant that the implementation of the one-child policy achieved its original purpose. Settles also briefly pointed out that this policy caused some social and economic consequences which I wanted to learn more in details.

Before finding social and economic consequences of the one-child policy, I was also curious about what power pushed the one-child policy all the way. Considering of this question, I found a research article, Population, Policy, and Politics: How will History Judge China's One-Child Policy? from Population & Development Review in 2013(Wang, Cai, Gu), which explained why the one-child policy with all its known negative effects had been allowed to stay in place for more than thirty years since its inception. This research article had a particular focus on the role of politics in the one-child policy. In this article, I found some evidence that proved the importance of politics in the implementation of the one-child policy. Especially, the policymaking process in China is carried out among political elites shrouded with secrecy and lacks public scrutiny(118).Whats more, there is a statist tradition and bureaucratic institutions

Zhang 3

that treat individual citizens as subjects of the state in the Chinese political system(118). According to the authors, the one-child policy is pushed by the Chinese Communist Party and will be perceived historically as a totally mistake caused by government interference in reproduction. (126)From this source, I learnt that this policy was not democratic and was carried out to satisfy the specific interests of the Chinese Communist Party.

According to the sources I had found by now, I got enough background information about the one-child policy. For the next stage of my research, I wanted to explore more about the consequences of the one-child policy. I first located my next source by searching through the Academic Search Premier. I was lucky to find a really helpful news article, The Economics of China's One-Child Policy, from CNN (Riley), to analyze the consequences of the one-child policy from economics perspective. This news reveals the facts that the one-child policy results in the severe shortage of labor force. I think this is definitely obvious in China. Now the labor force keeps shrinking and the number of the elderly people is increasing all the time, which slows down the development of the Chinese economy. Riley also mentioned that social problems were severer than economic problems because of the aging society. I felt I could totally understand the policys effects on the Chinese economy but I never recognized the aging society as a huge problem before.

Zhang 4

As I was still unaware of the severity of the one-child policy, I used the CSU library database to find sources related to the aging society and found an academic article, Who will Care for the Elderly in China?: A Review of the Problems Caused by China's One-Child Policy and their Potential Solutions." from Journal of Aging Studies (Zhang and Goza). In this article, the authors focused on the aging society caused by the one-child policy. Although this source is not recent, it still consists with the facts in China. Because according to the authors, there are too many old people with physical disability while there are not enough young people to help the elderly which totally fits the situation in China. As I got inspired from this source, I thought that a young person had to look after six old people in average according to the one-child policy, parents, two grandfathers and two grandmothers. Not only the elderly cant be well taken care of but the young people also bear too much burden on their shoulders.

After I understood the severe condition of the aging society in China, I also found a moving news article about the situation of the elderly in China, How China's One-Child policy Hurts the Elderly. from CNBC (Yoon). Yoon said Traditionally in China, aging parents live with their children. However, those traditions are breaking down due to changing lifestyles and the consequences of the one-child policy. Most the elderly spend their rest golden years in retirement communities rather than with their families. Living in nursing home is the choices of rich families. To poor families, the elderly are just left at dilapidated house. This news article

Zhang 5

also reminded me of the shocking news I read last year. Its a sad story happening in a poor village that an old woman was found several days after death because of starvation. Her son was too busy to look after her and her husband died several years ago. I found this article useful because this article not only contributed to my research but also reminded me to give more concerns to my parents.

I was now several days into my research. Before moving on, I found a scholarly report article accidently when searching for the consequences of the one-child policy through Academic Search Premier Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of China's One-Child Policy. from Science(Cameron, Erkal, Gangadharan and Meng) .This scholarly report showed the behavioral differences between people born before one-child policy and people born after one-child policy. The authors focused on estimating whether one-child policy has produced less trusting, less trustworthy, more risk-averse, less competitive, more pessimistic, and less conscientious individuals.(953) According to this pre-experiment and post-experiment survey, the one-child policy had significant effects on peoples optimism, conscientiousness and neuroticism. This source provided me with the analysis of how the one-child policy effects on peoples behavior, which was also important for researchers interested in peoples behavior or the Chinese parents who cared a lot about their childrens behavior.

Zhang 6

After learning the social and economic consequences of the one-child policy, I was eager to make sure the necessity of the one-child policy. At first, I found a news article, which was against the one-child policy from the point of human nature, Severe Gender Imbalance in China Due to Sex-Selection Abortion, Study Concludes." from National Right To Life News (O'Bannon). O'Bannon attempted to explain the main reason for sex-selection abortion was the one-child policy, which also resulted in severe gender imbalance because people in China prefer sons to daughters. This article provided me with the information that the one-child policy included forced abortion, which was meaningful for me to research on the necessity of the onechild policy and also shaped my thinking directly. However, I still wanted to collect more academic opinions about the necessity of the one-child policy.

I discovered another credible source, Has China Outgrown the One-Child Policy? from Science (Hvistendahl). Hvistendahl attempted to prove its time to scrap the one-child policy.(1458) through data and achievements from demographic detectives; he also presented that an advocacy group in China were against the one-child policy by providing researches and surveys which showed that the one-child policy was no more necessary while Chinese government kept ignoring this issue. There are some efficient opinions against the one-child policy proposed by some specialist, which are meaningful for my research.

Zhang 7

By now, I have got enough sources related to my research. After reading these sources in details, I learn a lot about the one-child policy and these sources effects my thinking by providing different perspectives of my issue. To conclude my research progress, the one-child policy did have a great effect on birth control but loses its necessity with bad social and economic consequences.

As I continue with my research, I find that I have to do more research on the necessity of changing the one-child policy as I read some discussion online about this. Some specialists said that Chinese couples are used to the one-child policy and may think they dont have enough time and money to have another baby. I am still thinking about this issue. If the Chinese government gave up the one-child policy, there would be no obvious changes on birth rate, so why should the Chinese government give up this policy? I hope to explore this issue further before writing my major paper.

Zhang 8

Works Cited

Hvistendahl, Mara. Has China Outgrown the One-Child Policy? Science 329.5998 (2010): 1458-1461. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. O'Bannon, Randallk. "Severe Gender Imbalance in China Due to Sex-Selection Abortion, Study Concludes." National Right To Life News 36.5 (2009): 23. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. Riley, Charles. The Economics of Chinas One-Child Policy. CNN.com. Cable News Network. 14 August 2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. Settles, Barbara H., et al. "The One-Child Policy and Its Impact on Chinese Families." International Handbook of Chinese Families. Springer New York, 2013. 627-646. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. Wang Feng, Yong Cai, and Baochang Gu. Population, Policy, and Politics: How will History Judge China's One-child Policy? Population & Development Review 38 (2013): 115-129. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. Yoon, Eunice. How China's One-child Policy Hurts the Elderly. CNBC.com. NBCUniversal. 22 Oct 2013. 23 Oct 2013.

Zhang 9

Zhang Yuanting ,and Franklin Goza. "Who will Care for the Elderly in China?: A Review of the Problems Caused by China's One-child Policy and their Potential Solutions." Journal of Aging Studies 20.2 (2006): 151-164. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.