One Child Policy

While I appreciated China’s ban on families having more than one child to take a bold step towards reducing over population, this policy has created a society of only children. 

When the government dictated that a family can have only one offspring, couples often did unthinkable things to ensure that their one child could carry on their family name.  If having a male child guarantees that the family name will live on and that this male child will be able to take care of them in their retirement better than a girl, then aborting and giving girls up for adoption became the thing to do.

But now, 37 years after the ban, China has 30 million more men than women. 

Talk about taking a decent plan to reduce over-population and really messing it up for cultural purposes.  When China had the largest population that was growing out of control, they set up a plan that actually did reduce their population growth.  Instead of finding another solution to balance the sexes today, China recently announced that they are lifting the ban on the one-child policy. Oh NO!!!

While I was in China last week, I talked with many people in Beijing who said that this new policy probably wouldn’t change things. 

Young couples are busy with their careers and don’t want to have several children.  The cost of raising and educating children is so high that they don’t have the funds to take care of both their children and their parents, too.

Chinese youth will be faced with the problems of a “sandwich generation” – those couples who have to care for their own children as well as both sets of parents.

Now that there is a shortage of women in China, maybe families will see the benefits of raising girls.  Hopefully they’ll see that a society of mostly men doesn’t work, and that young Chinese female professionals and entrepreneurs are soaring to the top. Yes, women can support a family and many out earn their male counterparts.

So hopefully with the lift on the one-child ban, Chinese families will continue to have just one child and appreciate having both boys and girls!