Population and Family Planning

Name: Li Sha

Population and family planning (Family policy)

Recently the Chinese government adjusted the family policy. In the past 3 decades, according to the family policy which was promulgated in 1978, each family in China only have one child. However, now, if both of a new couple are the only child in their family, they can have two children after marriage. This change is significant to many Chinese people and families.But in some degree, This is not fair to others.

During the early days of the nation, the population of China is much less, because of the second World War. The state encouraged childbirth, and the nation’s urban population has expanded rapidly at that time. China had plenty of labor force.

We used to suffer a lot from the family policy. In Chinese tradition, because of the deficient welfare system and agricultural culture, each family must have a boy which means a labor force in the family and the insurance for the parents when get old. Under this policy, this tradition became impossible and relied more on luck. Therefore, from 1978-1987, the first decade after the policy being enacted, countless families whose first babies were girls tried every possible method to get the second baby. They paid a large sum of fine to the government, which was a considerable economic burden for many families. They also tried fake divorce to get a quota of having a newborn baby, which actually threatened the social stability, some of them even abandoned and killed female babies. This policy bring disaster to these family.

Now, many young couples in China can have the second chance if they cannot have a boy for the first time thanks to the change in this policy. To many Chinese people, this change is quite humanistic. This change in the law also can handle the negative population growth in some modern Chinese metropolis and alleviate the pressure of aging society problem. But in recent years, people set up new knowledge value theory in  metropolitan city and fast pace of life . People do not want children. Especially in shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou. At the same time, In some village and poor areas, people still keep traditional thoughts and they want more children. They think more children can bring more money and labor force to their family. But in fact, this leads them to become poorer. And in the whole society, extreme disparity between the rich and the poor become more serious every day. Population and family planning lost its function.