One Child Policy

One Child Policy

Lack of choice in an area as fundamental as reproduction can never be popular, and coercion cannot be condoned. With the evidence that more couples would opt for a smaller family, though, it is encouraging that the need for coercion at a local level is diminishing. But there are other problems too.

Firstly, the policy is resulting in an excess of boys. Data from the in depth fertility survey for 1979-84, when the policy was at its most stringent, put the male: female ratio of reported births at 115:100 in rural Hebei and 116:100 in Shaanxi. This compares with an expected ratio at birth of 106:100 in China. The reasons for the imbalance related to not reporting female births, female infanticide, sex selective abortion, and unreported adoption of baby girls. The relative contributions of each are unknown. The relaxation in the policy and strict legislation on infanticide and antenatal sex determination suggests that the ratios are less worrying now. The 1995 population survey reported average ratios of around 108:100 in rural areas and stated that now "about 51.03% of the population is male."

A second concern is the issue of support of elderly people, traditionally a responsibility of children, especially in the countryside. (Around 60% of the urban workforce is entitled to a pension.) But the proportion of the population above 65 will rise from a modest 8% now to 18% by the year 2025, about the same as most Western countries today.

Finally, what of the psychological consequences for all these only children? Much publicity has been given to the "little emperor syndrome," supposedly suffered by those only children who are the pride and joy of adoring parents and grandparents. Reports about behavioral problems in the so called spoiled generation abound, although they often seem trivial when compared with the behavioral problems of Western children. But there is little hard evidence of causation and in such a rapidly changing society many factors are undoubtedly