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It's widely known that China imposes a one-child rule, but is it universally applied? What mechanisms are in place to enforce it?
What is the origin of this policy?
In 1949, when Mao Zedong announced the creation of the People's Republic of China, he envisioned the nation becoming a global superpower. For a strong military and economy, Mao encouraged the Chinese to increase their population. The newly established communist government rejected birth control and outlawed the importation of contraceptives, resulting in a dramatic population growth during Mao's leadership.
The rapid population growth soon placed a heavy burden on the country's food supply, prompting the government in 1955 to change course and initiate a birth control campaign.
In the following two decades, during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, the government vacillated on population control, switching between promoting and condemning it based on the country's need for labor. As a result, the population fluctuated, but by the mid-1970s, it stabilized, with China housing a quarter of the global population on just 7% of the world's arable land. With a young population eager to start families, another population explosion similar to the one under Mao would have been catastrophic, stretching resources and diminishing living standards. Birth control campaigns were insufficient, so the government adopted a more stringent approach to control population growth, introducing a one-child policy in 1979.
Is the policy applied to all of China's over 1 billion people?
No. The one-child policy (also known as the 'policy of birth planning' in Chinese) affects only 40% to 63% of the population, depending on whether the information comes from China's National Population and Family Planning Commission or American scholars. Specifically, it applies to urban married couples who belong to China's Han ethnic majority.
Who qualifies for an exemption?
Wang Feng, a sociologist from UC Irvine who has researched the policy and its impacts, explains that the exemption system is as complicated as the American tax code. Those generally exempt from the policy include all non-Han ethnic groups, residents of Hong Kong or Macau, and foreigners living in China.
Because the policy is enforced at the provincial level, some groups can receive exceptions depending on the region. In rural areas, families may be allowed a second child if the first is a girl or has mental or physical disabilities. Certain provinces allow couples to have two children if neither partner has siblings or if one is a disabled military veteran. Following the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the provincial government granted exceptions to parents who lost children in the disaster.
Some provincial exceptions are quite unusual. The New York Times reports that in Zhejiang, couples can have two children if the wife has one sister and the husband lives with her family to help care for her parents. However, the sister doesn't qualify for an exemption. In Beijing, couples can get an exception if the husband’s brother is infertile and does not adopt a child, provided both husbands have rural residency permits. In Fujian, a couple may have a second child if the provincial population density is below 50 people per 0.38 square miles, or one person per 11 acres, or if each spouse farms at least an acre and a half of land.
How is the policy enforced?
Population and Family Planning Commissions operate at the national, provincial, and local government levels to promote the policy, register births, and conduct family inspections. Provincial governments are tasked with enforcement, using a combination of rewards and punishments. In most provinces, having an additional child results in a fine, which varies by region. Some provinces set a fixed fine (typically in the thousands of dollars), while others base the fine on a percentage of the violator's annual income. In certain areas, violators may also face the confiscation of property and belongings, as well as job loss.
Couples who delay starting a family or voluntarily comply with the policy, even if they're exempt, enjoy certain benefits. Depending on the region, these may include a 'Certificate of Honor for Single-Child Parents,' a monthly government stipend, special pension perks, priority for government jobs, free water, tax reductions, or extra points on their child's school entrance exams.
Are there any loopholes or ways to bypass the policy?
Nature always finds a way, and in China, money greatly facilitates nature's path. In many rural areas, as well as some urban regions, couples can pay a fee to local authorities to obtain a permit for a second, third, or even fourth child.
Couples can also deceive the government and conceal additional children by registering their births under fake names or in different provinces. For example, in provinces where a second child is allowed if the first is disabled, couples may exploit the definition of 'disability' to their advantage. In Hunan, some individuals received exemptions for children with conditions as minor as nearsightedness.
Has the policy been successful?
This graph of the country's birth rate seems to support this claim, with Chinese authorities asserting that the policy helped prevent approximately 400 million births between 1979 and 2011. The government also argues that population controls have contributed to reduced air and water pollution and have cut down carbon dioxide emissions by about 200 million tons compared to what would have been emitted with an unconstrained population.
When the policy was introduced in 1979, the government aimed for a target population of 1.2 billion by the year 2000. The census of that year recorded just over 1.29 billion people, which is very close to the target. However, studies from both China and the U.S. suggest that the official numbers may be an underestimate due to unreported births and other policy violations, as well as manipulations by government officials.
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