China’s one child policy is actually called the ‘family planning policy’ by Chinese authorities and was introduced in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping to try and stop the growing problem of over-population and the suspected negative effect on the development both socially and economically of the country. Although it appears that everyone has to abide by this policy, only urban couples have to. Ethnic minorities, rural couples (after 5 years), couples with a disabled first child and parents that did not have any siblings themselves (in most provinces and cities now) are exempt from the policy - around 36% of the population.

Not only has the policy caused controversy but how it has been implemented has also attracted criticism. The social negatives of it include forced abortions which some deem to be immoral, a rise in female infanticide and also a gender imbalance. In some remote areas there is now proof of female infanticide, as, with the allowance of only one child, couples that have girls often kill them and try to have another, hoping they will this time get a male. This leads to gender imbalances favoured in the male direction. There are 114 boys: 100 girls compared to the natural ratio which is 105 boys: 100 girls. Despite the negatives, 76% of the population apparently support the continuation of the policy (2008).

Another controversial argument around it has been the effect the disparity of wealth can have. Rich families are allowed more than one child if they agree to pay a fine and they also agree to lose some of their benefits such as family health service; this brings up issues regarding the fairness of it. This has led to a gender imbalance in China and although the policy has helped some problems this is one example of a problem that it has created. Human rights are an issue as some have called the fact that you are not allowed to decide the size of your own family a human rights breach.

Abortions are often the way of keeping to the quota, in Huaiji County an estimated 20,000 forced abortions were carried out in one year (2001)! Although the Chinese government banned abortions being forced upon women, local governments often disregard Beijing and carry on regardless, despite how far the woman might be into her pregnancy.

During Ronald Reagan’s presidency funding to the United Nations’ Population Fund (UNFPA) stopped and Bush also continued the block of $40 million a year, however the Obama administration re-started the funding with Obama declaring that he was ‘looking forward to working’ with the UN. The 4-2-1 problem is well known, the solution to the ageing population of China is hard to find and the possibility of stopping the policy has been removed until at least 2015.

‘Little Emperors’ are also being created claim sceptics as being brought up as an only sibling undoubtedly causes the child to usually get better treated and more spoiled than if there were two or more. Another problem with being an only child is the lack of social skills and the ability to interact and co-operate with those around them.

There are benefits however such as increased benefits and support from the government and a better healthcare system for the population. Another is that with fewer children, Chinese families are able to increase investment in the country - this is another aim, higher domestic investment in the country. Although these benefits seem good, some say that they would have occurred to a lesser degree without the policy, e.g. according to the government around 400 million children have not been born (2010) but some say that by the 1980s, only a few years after the start of the policy, the population growth decline was because the benefits of having children were declining and not because of the policy itself. This was reiterated by Professor Wang when he produced a paper explaining why the decline in population growth was because of an earlier initiative to try and reduce population growth started in the early 70s. The government promoted fewer children, a longer period between children and delayed marriages.

Due to this, fertility rates (the no. of children a woman is expected to have during her whole life) was reduced from 5 to just over 2, and he said this happened all before 1978 (though they fertility rate has now gone down to a suspected 1.7). Social opinion has also changed, most mothers questioned revealed that even if they could have more than 1 child they would probably choose not to.