“Dear Chairman: How Many Kids Should I Have?”

The imposition of the practice of eugenics by political powers has been prominent since the 19th century — all with an underlying goal of controlling the population. Whether executed to cleanse a certain race/religion, as seen with the Holocaust, or to prevent ‘unfit’ people from reproducing, as seen with the United State’s Sterilization Laws in the 20th century, the government mandated laws imposing personal health and beliefs — both basic human rights.

However, in China, since 1956, the government has been implementing various birth rate control laws to keep its population numbers within limits. In all cases, the handful of leaders of these countries took upon themselves to formulate policies and laws based on their beliefs and underlying agenda — which impacted millions of its citizens. While it is a fact that all humans have an inner biological instinct for the regard to place their own life first, just as any other intelligent living species tends to do.

In May 2021, China’s government announced that married couples are allowed to have up to three children, increasing the number from one child.

A Brief History of Chinese Population Control Laws

When China was run by Chairman Mao Zedong and the Communist Party in 1949, one of the main policies implemented was for increasing their population. The deal made was: the more children there were in a family, the more rations of food they would receive from the government. Most of China’s population worked in the farming industry, and if a family had more children, then they had more help in the farms — benefiting China’s food production and economy, hence the encouragement. Therefore, families started having children just to survive. Families with fewer children suffered the most, and many died of starvation as they received the least amount of resources from the government. These population control policies was one the key factors that led to the Great Chinese Famine between 1959 and 1961 when tens and millions of Chinese died.

After years of encouraging its citizens to have large families, the Chinese government, under Chairman Deng Xiaoping, in 1979, decided to implement a one-child per family policy. Officials framed “excessive population growth” as a setback when competing in the global economy. However, after their once-a-decade census was evaluated, analysts saw that the country’s population growth had been the smallest since the 1950s, calling for a restructuring of their population control law which has now led to “3-child policy” law . This act of state mandated eugenics regarding population control was implemented with sole intentions of feeding the economic requirements of the country for the future. If tomorrow a country decides that they want to expand their army, is it right for them to ask families to have more children so they can draft more people?

Unintended Consequences of these Laws

This “flexibility” and disguise of reproductive rights only applies to married heterosexual couples. Unmarried women still face many inequities with assisted reproductive technologies, and for the LGBTQ+ community, reproductive rights looks impossible. 

One would assume that by changing it to three children per family, couples would be thrilled with the chance to have a larger family; however, with the cost of living, average salaries, and sky-high competitiveness in schools, families are unable to accommodate another child. Furthermore, when observing the history and propaganda of birth control by the Chinese communist party, citizens don’t have a choice, they must adapt to the changing reproductive cues. The birth control policies are framed as a recommendation, but are a directive. 

Two of the main problems with the one-child policy was the increase in the sex-ratio gap and the “4:2:1 phenomenon”. As families were only allowed one child, and since boys are culturally favored, if the child was a girl, abortion was common. The thinking was: if only one child is allowed, then why have a girl, try again for a boy. This resulted in a skewed ratio of more boys, and hence more unmarried men. The second problem being the “4:2:1 phenomenon”. With no social security or pension system for elderly people, couples will be responsible for the care of their parents, four people, and their one child. Soon enough, the one child will be responsible for all the six family elders, causing tremendous stress. 

As for women specifically, there is worry that gender discrimination in the workplace will drastically increase. If the female employees are now going to be taking up to three lengthy maternity leaves, employers will be more encouraged to hire men. This “relaxed” improvised law may just push women out of the workplace and into the homes. 

To add to the stress, building a family has always been a part of Chinese culture, and with the relaxation and flexibility of the birth control policy, women are going to face even more pressure from their families to have children. 

If the birth and couple rates in China continue to show no increase, it is possible that they may fall into the same boat as Japan. Japan had its record low number of births this past year along with a record low number of registered marriages since the post-war. With Japan being one of the most expensive places to live, adults are finding it difficult to, firstly, find a decent, well-paying job, and, secondly, find a spouse with similar financial stability to start a family. Projections show that the population will drop from 126 million in 2019 to 88 million by 2065 — disrupting the country’s labor force and economy significantly.

So the question that begs to be answered – do the Chinese policies infringe on the ethics of a human’s right to live, and raise their family based on their desires?

References

Fincher, L. (2021, June 4). Perspective | China’s government wants families to have more children. Chinese women don’t.The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/06/07/china-three-child-feminism/. 

Jr, S. W. (2018, December 16). (PDF) The Ethical Aspects of Chinas One Child Policy and Overpopulation. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330184844_The_Ethical_Aspects_of_Chinas_One_Child_Policy_and_Overpopulation. 

Kuo, L. (2021, June 1). Facing a demographic crisis, China to allow three children per family. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-three-child-policy-demographic/2021/05/31/95a086e2-c1e8-11eb-89a4-b7ae22aa193e_story.html. 

Li, J. (n.d.). China’s propaganda journey from “only one child is good” to the three-child policy. Quartz. https://qz.com/2015205/chinas-propaganda-journey-from-one-child-to-three-child-policy/. 

Reuters, S. by. (2021, June 5). Japan’s birth rate fell to another record low in 2020. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/05/asia/japan-birth-rate-2020-intl-hnk/index.html. 

Tharoor, I. (2021, May 31). Analysis | China’s ‘three-child’ policy and the new age of demographic anxiety. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/31/china-three-children-anxiety/. 

View of Ethical Perspectives on China’s One-Child Policy: Business and Public Administration Studies. View of Ethical Perspectives on China’s One-Child Policy | Business and Public Administration Studies. (n.d.). https://www.bpastudies.org/index.php/bpastudies/article/view/21/50. 

Weigel, G. (2014, September 4). China’s One-Child Self-Destruction. Ethics & Public Policy Center. https://eppc.org/publication/chinas-one-child-self-destruction/.  

Zhou, Y. (2021, June 6). Analysis | Beijing wants a baby boom. Its new three-child policy probably won’t make one happen. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/07/beijing-wants-baby-boom-its-new-three-child-policy-probably-wont-make-one-happen/.