Perposal for Aging of Population

Chinese Population Issues

Introduction

The Chinese government officially carried out two child policy which applies to all Chinese couples in January 2016 to instead of the one child policy which had been in place for 35 years since 1971.  According to the article from (Clarke & Serrano, 2015), the People’s Republic of China established in the early years, the president Mao Zedong encourage manpower to revive China, but there was no compulsory policy.  However, Chinese people were blind to believe Mao’s principle which is not successful for the long term and result in the population increased double over the next few years.  Indeed, Chinese demand of food exceeds supply causing that China had struggled in famine in next few years.  Until in the late 1970s, the new Chinese president Deng Xiaoping was beginning to initiate the one-child policy to curb massive population growth.  

One child policy has two sides.  In the last thirty-five years, one child policy made many contributions for slowing the population growth rate and was perceived as a threat to the country’s future economic growth and living standards of the people (Festini & de Martino, 2004).  Moreover, there is a prominent example, china’s population increased from 920 million to 1.343 billion from 1979 to 2012, 138% growth over that period.  By comparing with India, which is also one of the most populous countries in the world without carrying out single-child policy, the population increased from 673 million to 1.205 billion from 1979 to 2012, 180% growth during the period (Rosenbery, 2015).  

The goal of one child policy was achieved, but bring consequences that government did not expect.  In the traditional Chinese view, male children are preferred than girls especially in rural areas because male children are going to inherit the family surname and are responsible for taking care of elderly parents (Pletcher, K. 2015).  Due to one child policy restricting and cultural pressure, many parents decided to have one's only child as a male.  So, if pregnant women predict fetus sex that shows babies are highly likely females, they will have abortions which are Chinese legal policy, resulting in sex ration becoming imbalanced.  According to (Rosenbery, 2015), the world's current sex ratio of male to female is 107:100, but in the 1990s, Chinese sex ratio is 120:100.  Over time, more and more Chinese families get rid of the feudal idea as mentioned above, the sex ration has been reduced to 111:100 which is still high.  As time passes, the number of gender gaps are more severe, when those female children grow up there are less and less female available for marriage (Pletcher, K. 2015).  Another consequence is the aged tendency of the population, but the effect of aging problems will not be felt for another 50 years (Zhang, 2016).  As a developing country, the Chinese government is the lack of an adequate welfare and pension system. Therefore, the problem of population aging coming too early bring an enormous pressure to Chinese government because the government needs to put much money on revamping endowment system and medical service for the elderly people.  The aging problem will also lead to a market lack of sufficient labor supply in the next couple of decades.

How to deal with the negative impact of one child policy

The Chinese government encourages childbirth to deal with these negative consequences, so carried out two child policy for all Chinese couples in 2016.   However, Almost Western media believed that it is too late to implement the new birth plan, and this new policy is a limited solution for the demographic issue.  Indeed, many Chinese couples do not buy it.  In Sina.com's survey, a total of 128,806 participants, 40% of them do not want to have the second child, and 30% parents would like to have another child, and rest of them are still under consideration (Fan, 2015).  Also, in the other research Caijing.com indicated, 11,000 people take part in, 40.2% said one child is enough, 34.4% may have a second child, and 12.5% stated that they will be DINK (Fan, 2015).  

According to an article from (Swanson 2015), the biggest reason why Chinese families do not want to have one more child is an economic issue.  The CBNC’s interview bring us two representative examples (Swanson, 2015), the first one is that IT company manager Gong Yanming, said "The financial pressure is my primary concern.  If we decide to have another baby, then my wife needs to quit her job and stay home with kids all the time. However, we will not be able to afford a life with two children in that way. It is so costly to raise a child in China; I would rather focus all my resources on one child."  Another example, Chen Dan, a senior account manager at PR firm Weber Shandwick and the mother of the two-year-old boy, is confident she will not have another child.  She said, "It is too expensive and too stressful. I will not have any freedom and personal time. Absolutely no.”  

According to interviews and surveys, we can find two main points to show why economic issue being the biggest problem.  Firstly, it is cost too much money to raise a child.  Based on the Chinese Academy of Social Science (Fan, 2015), usually, one family spend about $3,622 which is almost occupied 43% annual salary on raising a child every year.  Moreover, in the main cities like Beijing, Shanghai, it cost about $77,165 to raise a child from birth to 18 years.  However, after carrying out second child policy, the government did not support any capital subsidies for families who have the two kids.  Also, parents need to pay extra high medical fees and massive education fees for raising another child.  Secondly, couples live in the main cities like Beijing, Shanghai under much pressure.  Not only they face paying housing loan, but also are many of them have to support their aging parents because most Chinese of child-bearing age are single kids.  The second pressure makes all most families are not willing to have a second child.  

Therefore, the comprehensive, the economic pressure of having a child has deterred many couples from having a second child; the two child policy may not have an effect on the population growth of China.  Two child policy is insufficient to solve these problems.  Economic growth still declines in next decade because next generation’ working-age is still small.  So, not only the Chinese government has to keep improving birth policy, but also need to find other approaches to deal with problems.

Other methods help address problems