One Child Policy in China Changed
According to a CNN report, the Chinese government is making a major change with regards to the one child policy in the country. Whereas previously couples could only have one child in China, now, each couple will be allowed to have two children.
The one child policy in China is one that has been in place under the rule of Mao Zedong. However, the government has been concerned about the low birth rate in China. For example, as John Sudworth explains, “About 30% of the population is now over the age of 50 – a demographic time bomb that holds up a terrifying spectre of rising social costs and falling worker numbers to a wider country that is only just a little way behind.” There is also a concern with regards to labor numbers in China, and thus, the shift from a one child policy to a two child policy is a hope that this will alter the population trends in the country. In fact, in a Washington Post report, they noted that scholars have spoken about about the effects of the one child policy in China. For example, “Wang Feng at the University of California at Irvine has joined other China affairs experts in warning that the country was heading towards a “demographic precipice” and a crisis that could even challenge the legitimacy of Communist Party rule.”
When looking at China under the current one child policy, it becomes evident just how low the birth rate currently is. The Washington Post also explains that
“The nation’s fertility rate — 1.4 children per woman — is far below that of the United States and many other nations in the developed world, leading to a rapidly aging society and increasing demands on the state such as social programs and health care for the elderly.
It also means a substantial decline in the supply of young labor to power the economy of the world’s No. 2 economy as it seeks to dethrone the United States from the top spot.”
Thus, the government in China, for a number of reasons, deems it necessary to move from a one child policy in China to a two child policy, for various domestic related issues, as well as having hopes for increasing their international power through its economy.
