It has been 30 years since the implementation of China’s “One Child Family Policy”. Now in the 2000s, this heroic attempt at curtailing a race explosion has proven somewhat successful, with current statistics standing at a heady 1.34 billion people in China. This strict control of family size is not without serious consequences nor ramifications. As a people who pride themselves on family values, taking care of their elderly, and wanting a male as their first-born child, this 30-year old law has made great impact on Chinese life and the Chinese family unit.

As part of an economic reform and an attempt to offset stagnation of the Cultural Revolution, China’s government established planning committees at both the provincial and local levels, aimed at regulating an approved size for Chinese families; late marriage and childbearing; plus the spacing of children in a family that is permitted to have two children.

However, established rules regarding this tend to be more lax in rural areas than in cities, where the one child family policy is strictly enforced, especially for employees of government or big companies. There are only a few exceptions to this law. Couples are allowed to have a second child if the first one is disabled. They are also permitted a second child if both parents work in high risk jobs such as mining, or both parents come from a one-child family. Since the majority of prevented births in China tend to be girls, this prevention has had a major impact on the cultural life of China.

Sex Selection

As much as sex selection is frowned upon in Western civilizations, Chinese attitudes are biased in favor of a male child. Boys are considered assets, heirs to carry on the family line, get a job, take care of the family, be the main bread winner, etc. Girls on the other hand are considered a curse and a liability. Another mouth to feed, so to speak. Therefore, it is not uncommon to allow urban couples to make a sex selection in favor of males. In rural areas, if the first-born is female, and the second birth is to be female as well, these subsequent pregnancies often disappear (in their quest for a son).

Unwarranted Abortions

Unwarranted abortions are also frowned upon by many in Western cultures, but this situation appears to be a necessity in Chinese society. The trend of married women aborting females has extended to unmarried women, teenagers, migrant workers, urban professionals and prostitutes. In major centers such as Beijing and Shanghai, it has resulted in women having multiple abortions.

Human Trafficking

The sale of children is not a new phenomenon in China, as it has been an established practice for a poorer woman or family to sell a male child to a family that is more fortunate, and can take better care of the child financially. However, in the 21st century, with boys still being in demand and families allowed to have only 1-2 children, male children are systematically being kidnapped and sold to families, bypassing any kind of adoption agency, as done in Western society.

Trafficking of mature females is also on the rise due to a shortage of eligible women, as latest estimations claim 120 men to 100 women in China. Women are often kidnapped and sold to another man in a distant part of the country far from where she was stolen. Social trends are changing as Chinese women are becoming more picky, choosing to marry at a later age, or not marrying at all. 

Due to the glut of “buyers” so to speak, rural women are choosing to “marry out” into cities, hoping for a better life. Men with lower incomes have more difficulty in finding a wife. Public parks in cities have become match-making centers, where pictures of men wishing to marry are posted, with a note of their qualifications and their desire to marry. With the imbalanced ratio of men to women, the situation is now reversed, with men becoming “male-order husbands”.

Social Implications

Male-dominated, one-child families are raising boys with a “Little Emperor” mentality, completely spoiled and totally unable to fend for themselves. This kind of child rearing results in a generation of men who can be quite self-centered, selfish, immature, and still expecting women to wait on them hand and foot. In some ways, the stereotyping of Asian women as being subservient is still being perpetuated through the one child policy of China.

China as a Small-Family Culture

Perspectives regarding big families have changed as young, urban, educated women want fewer children, compared to those in rural areas.  Even though fewer women want more than two children, the one child family policy remains unacceptable for at least 50% of urban Chinese women.

Caring for the Elderly

In China, young people have always been brought up with the expectation that they would care for elderly parents when they became old.  However, with the one child family policy, the phenomenon of 4:2:1 ratio places a great deal of pressure on an increasing number of couples who are taking care of one child and four aging parents.

Economic Impact

Compared to other industrialized countries, China has fewer elderly people, but their numbers are increasing rapidly. Lack of adequate pension coverage in China has created financial dependence for 70% of the elderly, as only employees who work for the government or big corporations receive a pension. 

Western Implications

With China opening its doors to Western couples wishing to adopt abandoned baby girls, it is a blessing for many of them to have this opportunity to do so. Attitudes regarding the value of female children in China need to be changed, as families should be educated to the fact that girls are an asset, and can indeed contribute to the social and economic fabric of the changing Chinese family and China’s future culture.