China’s One-Child Policy, a Policy without a Future

Abstract

The Chinese Communist Party government has been forcefully promoting its jihua shengyu (planned fertility) program, known as the "one-child policy," for more than three decades. A distinctive authoritarian model of population governance has been developed. A pertinent question to be asked is whether China's one-child policy and the authoritarian model of population governance have a future. The answer must be no; they do not. Although there are many demographic, economic, and social rationales for terminating the one-child policy, the most fundamental reason for opposing its continuation is drawn from ethics. The key ethical rationale offered for the policy is that it promotes the common social good, not only for China and the Chinese people but for the whole human family. The major irony associated with this apparently convincing justification is that, although designed to improve living standards and help relieve poverty and underdevelopment, the one-child policy and the application of the authoritarian model have instead caused massive suffering to Chinese people, especially women, and made them victims of state violence. A lesson from China--one learned at the cost of individual and social suffering on an enormous scale--is that an essential prerequisite for the pursuit of the common good is the creation of adequate constraints on state power.

Retracted: Family planning services use: A shared responsibility between men and women of reproductive age in Hubei province, China

“…16,22,38 This finding implied how far FP services may be fragmented and a fringe of beneficiaries are deprived of basic RH services. In accordance with the other studies and irrespective of economic growth, 1,28,34 the studied populations lacked RH information to support the policy.…”

“…9,11,16,30,32 Since 1979, when the Chinese government launched it's one-child policy, 15 FP service use has varied widely in contraceptive methods for men and women. 1,14,16,38 Since the relaxation of the one-child policy in 2013, 12,34…”

“…Previously revised for ethnic minorities, the current one-to-two-child policy relaxation is implemented nationwide and should be supported by the whole population regardless of its previous and future predicted critical outcomes. 1,12,27,28,33,34 Although Chinese FP is well documented locally, little is known of it overseas.…”

Multilevel Index Decomposition of Energy-Related Carbon Emissions and Their Decoupling from Economic Growth in Northwest China

“…This indicates that the ongoing population growth hinders decoupling. Although over decades China has implemented strict family planning policies, the natural population growth rate is still high in Northwest China [76]. Taking Xinjiang for instance, the average growth is 11.6‰ over the examined period, which is about two times the average value in the whole country.…”