China’s One Child Policy

One Child Policy It was created by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 because China’s population growth was too high. It was supposed to be a “temporary measure,” but they never stopped it. The law only lets you have one child. If you break the law, you get fined, pressured to get an abortion, or forced to have an operation so you can’t have more children.

Effects on Girls This law has made people want to have boys. Many girl babies are put in orphanages, neglected, abandoned, or even killed. In China, there are 114 males born for every 100 females. Normally, 105 males are born for every 100 females. Many girls are hidden away in their houses so no one knows they exist. China has one of the highest suicide rates among girls and women.

Exceptions Wealthy families often pay a fee to the government so they can have more than one child. In most rural areas, families can apply to have a second child if the first is a girl or has a physical or mental disability. You can have another child if your child dies.

Punishments If the neighborhood committee doesn’t convince you to not have another child, community "units" at your work are called in to pressure you. They reduce your pay, take away bonuses and threaten to fire you. If a villager can’t pay the fine, family planning officials confiscate their pigs and cattle, ransack their homes and even seize their children. Sometimes officials make regular visits looking for illegal children.

More Punishments Parents with extra children can be fined from $370 to $12,800 (many times the average annual income for many ordinary Chinese). If the fine is not paid sometimes the couples land is taken away, their house is destroyed, they lose their jobs or the child is not allowed to attend school.

Mao Hengfeng She got pregnant with her second child, was fired from her job, forced to undergo an abortion and was sent to a psychiatric hospital and was still in a labor camp the early 2000s, There were reports that she had been tortured.

Population Police The National Population and Family Planning Commission runs the one-child policy. It has 300,000 full-time paid family-planning workers and 80 million volunteers, who are nosey, intrusive and using social pressure. Local officials are often evaluated in how well they meet their population quotas.

Rewards If you only have one child, you get a "one-child glory certificate." This gives you an extra month's salary every year until your child is 14. You get higher wages. Interest-free loans Retirement funds Cheap fertilizer Better housing Better health care Better schools These privileges are taken away if you decide to have an extra child.

Advertising Slogans such as “Have Fewer Children Live Better Lives” and "Stabilize Family Planning and Create a Brighter Future” are painted on buildings in rural areas. Some slogans like “Raise Fewer Babies, But More Piggies” and “One More Baby Means One More Tomb” and "If you give birth to extra children, your family will be ruined" were banned in 2007 because of anger about the slogans and the one child policy.