China's one-child policy: Impressions of a Fulbrighter

by Karen Seccombe, MSW, Ph.D., School of Community Health, Portland State University
NCFR Report
Content Area
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Families and Individuals in Societal Contexts
Family Law and Public Policy
Human Sexuality

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Few Americans can imagine a level of government intrusiveness into our fertility decisions that most Chinese take for granted—telling you how many children you can have and when you can have them. But this has been the law in the People's Republic of China since 1979. As a Fulbright Scholar to China in 2011–2012, I was able to take a closer look at this policy in action.

China recognized 50 years ago that its population was growing rapidly and that soon the people might be unable to feed and house themselves. Following the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, when tens of millions faced starvation and near death, the Communist Party was eager to avoid another famine. During the 1970s the government encouraged people to voluntarily reduce their family size. When those measures were deemed insufficient, the Party implemented a radical family planning policy in 1979, known in the West as the "one-child policy." This policy consists of three main objectives: (a) delayed marriage and delayed childbearing, (b) fewer and healthier births, and (c) one child per couple. At the time, Party officials assumed that the policy would be in effect for two to three generations.

By 1980 a mass public effort took hold, touting the benefits of the family planning policy. Billboards and neon signs (some of the first in China) publicized the advantages of having only one child. Family planning workers were in the workplace, in schools, and in neighborhoods urging young couples to heed the call of their country, checking on their use of birth control, insisting that women have monthly ultrasounds to catch any pregnancies early on, and urging them to have abortions if their contraceptives failed. Now, more than 30 years later, the program continues, although there are always rumors in the West that the Chinese government may soften or eliminate the policy altogether.

Couples in China are strongly discouraged from having more than one child. Ideally, pregnancy is prevented in the first place, so birth control methods, including sterilization, are free and readily available. Families can be rewarded with extra salary, larger houses, or better jobs if they follow the government's policy, particularly if they agree to sterilization.

If an accidental pregnancy occurs, women are strongly pressured to have an abortion. China Daily, a state-controlled English-language newspaper, recently divulged that there were 13 million abortions in 2005. This is in contrast to 20 million live births during that same period. It is estimated that the number of abortions has now declined to about 6 million annually. Stories abound of forced abortions as late as the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy.

If a family insists on carrying a second child to term, they are slapped with a large fine, otherwise known as the "social maintenance fee." The amount of the fine varies across China. A typical husband and wife living in Shanghai could pay 110,000 yuan, or $17,000, for a second child, at least three times the average post-tax annual income in that city. The fine increases with income, and the super-rich may be fined more than a million yuan, or about $160,000. In rural areas the fine is lower, perhaps 40,000 yuan or about $6,000, which again is many times the average annual income of rural residents. Overall, the government has collected at least 2 trillion yuan (roughly $314 billion) in these fees since 1980. Failure to pay the fine carries serious repercussions. The second child, known as a "black" child, cannot get a household registration and therefore will be denied basic rights, such as education.

I met two such second children during my time as a Fulbright Scholar. One second child, a girl from a rural area, said that her parents paid the hefty fine to keep her. Her extended family rallied around her parents and gave money to them. The other, a boy, told me that he had to pretend publically that he did not know his parents. Instead, he was raised by his grandmother, who told authorities that she found him as a baby and volunteered to care for him.

Yet, despite its rigidness, the one-child policy is full of loopholes that allow certain people to have a second child legally. For example, the policy does not apply to ethnic minorities. Also, couples living in rural areas are allowed to have a second child if their first is a girl and the two children are spaced about four years apart. The government also decrees that if a husband and wife are both single children—that is, their parents have followed the law of the land—they are allowed a second child. Other conditions allow a second child if the first child has a serious medical condition or if the first pregnancy results in twins or other multiple births. Other rules seem arbitrary. For example, in Shanghai, if either the husband or wife works in the fishing industry and has been going out to sea for five years, the couple may have a second child without facing punishment. With these exemptions, the one-child policy does not apply to a significant number of people. Nevertheless, for those to whom the policy does apply, at least 85% follow it. I spoke with many young women and men in China, and although a few told me that it would be "nice" to have two children, all told me that they would have only one child. They cited the country's overpopulation and the expense of raising two children, but first and foremost they cited their responsibility to abide by the government's rules, which they believe are in their best interest. "It's good for us," they told me. Others were more explicit: "My government tells me it is good."

What are the consequences of this unique and contentious policy? The primary result is a significantly reduced population. The one-child policy may be responsible for reducing China's population by up to 400 million people—more people than live in the entire United States. China's population, while feeling extremely crowded at 1.3 billion people, may have been 1.7 billion without the one-child policy. This reduction has contributed to a startling economic boom never before witnessed in the world. My first visit to China in 1990 was like going back in time, prior to the Industrial Revolution. Instead of cars I saw a sea of bicycles and ox-drawn carts. Today's China is a very different country, especially in urban areas. The Olympics showcased this new China, and the family planning policy surely has contributed to its economic growth. However, this success also has unplanned consequences that China is just beginning to grapple with.

First, China suffers from a severe shortage of young women and girls. After the one-child policy was implemented, many families clung to their traditional preferences for male children, who will presumably carry on the family name and take care of the parents in old age. Due to gender-selective abortion, female abandonment, and female infanticide, the gender ratio in China is highly skewed, with a recent Chinese census finding 32 million more boys than girls under age 20. In a natural state there are 105 boys for every 100 girls, but in parts of China the ratio is as high as 130 or even 150 boys per 100 girls. This means that many Chinese men will be competing with one another to marry. Men find themselves having to bid for women. This contributes to China's high savings rate, because parents now have to sock away money to secure a bride for their son. Moreover, a shortage of women will affect the culture in many other ways. Mara Hvistendahl, author of Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, claims that "societies in which men substantially outnumber women are not nice places to live. Often they are unstable. Sometimes they are violent." China is already experiencing increased trafficking in brides, mail-order brides imported from poverty-stricken countries, and prostitution. However, quite surprisingly to me, many of my college students knew little or nothing about this sex imbalance. They were familiar with the cultural preference for males, and most knew that Chinese girls were being adopted by families in other countries, but they did not understand the cultural factors that would allow them to connect these two important issues. These students were highly intelligent and attended one of China's top universities, but they had simply never been told this dark side of the one-child policy. And apparently, they had never asked.

A second unintended consequence of the one-child policy is that lowered fertility rates will soon lead to a decline in the size of the labor force that fuels China's economic boom. Currently, the mandatory retirement age is 55 years for women and 60 years for men. Over the past several decades, China's political and social legitimacy has been linked with fast economic growth powered by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of young (i.e., cheap) labor. Migrants from rural areas flood the urban areas looking for work. But the proportion of Chinese aged 14 and under has fallen to less than 17%, well below the 23% counted in a recent census. As the population of young people continues to decline, the era of inexpensive young Chinese labor may be drawing to a close. This has substantial economic consequences both nationally and globally.

Third, the population of China is aging rapidly. Today, only about 8% of Chinese are age 65 or older, but within the next few decades that number will grow fourfold. Not only are fewer people being born, but life expectancy in China has increased from the 40s to the 70s in only two generations. Yet, China lacks the government support for the elderly that is available in industrialized nations like the United States. There is no Social Security or Medicare and few businesses offer retirement pensions. Instead, China relies on younger family members to take care of older family members. This system worked well when families averaged five or six children. But today, young adults face a substantial new burden of care. Because most Chinese citizens do not have siblings, each child will likely have to care for two parents and four grandparents, nicknamed the "4-2-1 problem." This puts an enormous pressure on young people to get the best education, so that they can get the best job, so that they can take the best care of their parents and aging grandparents. My conversations with students revealed the strain and anxiety they felt from this responsibility. "It's so hard"; "It is all on me"; "I must do well"; "It's my job to take care of them"; I was told. Yet, once again, I had the impression that I was the first to speak of these issues publicly. I have a newfound appreciation for sociologist C. Wright Mills—what people see as personal troubles are indeed often social problems.

A final unplanned consequence of the one-child policy is what has been called the "little emperor" syndrome. Many psychologists suggest that single Chinese children are spoiled and overindulged by their parents and grandparents. I see their point. Everywhere I went—the parks, the stores, the streets—I saw extended families doting on their one child. However, unlike the psychologists, I wondered whether this doting might be a good thing—wouldn't it be beneficial for children to have the immediate love and security of their extended family? Yet, many psychologists believe that Chinese children are not properly socialized because they have no brothers or sisters. These claims (and mine) are anecdotal and unsupported by research. Nonetheless, it is interesting to think about the consequences of raising so many single children in a communist society with a collective emphasis. I wonder if their two worldviews—what is good for me versus what is good for my country—are bound to collide someday.   

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