Better 10 Graves Than One Extra Birth

    One of the Chinese proverbs says: “Better 10 graves than one extra birth” (1). This proverb gives the best description for the one-child policy in China. It is the official birth control policy which has been implemented by the government since 1978. This policy does not allow married couples living in urban areas to have the second child. However, it does not prohibit rural families to give the birth to more than one child. Thus, this policy is mostly implicated in rural areas. Also, there is an exception for ethnic minorities and parents raised without siblings. Sometimes wealthy families can pay a fee to the government if they want to have more than one child. In case the first child is a girl, Chinese families have an opportunity to get the government’s permission to have the second child. Also, it is possible if a child has physical disability, mental illness or mental retardation.  The government does not count a child without the Chinese citizenship as well (2).

    The policy was created as the response to existing economic, social and environmental problems. The management reproduction principles such as “one family – one child” were officially included in the Constitution of China in 1982 (3). Chinese government anticipated these measures would stop population growth which had led to deficit of natural resources, poor social service, law population income, unemployment and others. The company reached the expectations. According to the government officials the policy reduced birth rate and averted around 400 million births since 1979 (2).

   The reduction of birth rates helped to solve the problems connected with the population growth. Thus, the population income has increased since there were fewer children in a family.  The policy implementation raised parents’ ability to collect or invest some money as they didn’t need to spend much money on children’s upbringing. Moreover, Chinese parents were motivated to save money in order to survive when they were old. However, this tendency had some disadvantages. Nowadays, there is a huge risk for the single child not to support financially his parents in the future.

   There are some other negatives trends created by the policy implementation:

·         The problem of an aging society;

·         The decline of young workers;

·         The gender imbalance (more men in Chinese population structure) (4).

   The policy is criticized for its cruel methods to be implemented. It requires Chinese citizens to pay monetary penalty for breaking the law. Also, they can be deprived of work bonuses or even be fired, especially if they are hired in a governmental organization. The Chinese government pays much money for the information about the law breakers to have unplanned pregnancy. Besides financial manipulation, sterilization and forced abortions are widely used. Due to the traditional preference to have a male child, China faces a huge number of aborting female fetus as well as killing female infants.

   There are some evidences for the Chinese government to force women in aborting the fetus even during the last months of pregnancy.  For example, the press conference held by Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Washington in 2009 presented 14 crying facts by ‘Women’s Rights without Frontiers’ organization (5). These facts inform about the forced abortion and other cruel methods of the birth control and the family planning in China In some regions it is allowed to use the forced abortion if a woman is not married or does not have permission for the childbirth. Sometimes the force abortion leads to women death (1).

   It’s needless to say that despite of all the existing penalties, families do not obey the policy but create different ways to deceive the government. For example, the pregnant woman can hide her pregnancy until a baby’s born. Another way is to register a child as someone’s who does not have his own. Also, there are some cases when children do not acquire Chinese citizenship to hide them from the government. This practice violates children’s rights to have a citizenship and leads to the negative effects (2).

   I have made up my mind to choose this topic for my blog because it had been sticking to my head for a long time. I do not have an unambiguous view on it about it and the more I think, the more I am confused.

   On the one hand, the overpopulation problem explains the necessity of birth control measures. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, our natural resources and territory are limited. Environment makes its own rules for people’s life in each country. Sometimes it gives an opportunity to create strong economy by providing natural resources. Sometimes it forces people to adapt to rigorous climate. However, all cases make people depend on the territory they have. Maybe I need some corrections here. It is not the environment makes the territory rules but people and the government system. As the Earth is divided to different territories, each nation has its own piece of the pie. The size of the “piece” depends on the nation power. It happened so the China the territory which is huge but still is not enough. So, how the government can improve the situation? As it is not possible to broaden the territory and I do not have the alternative answers here, it compels me to accept the idea of the birth control necessity.

   On the other hand, the theoretical idea about the birth control methods and the one-child policy are contradicted with the idea of human rights. Such methods as sterilization and abortion worsen the existing situation as they violate the women’s right to have children and children’s right to be born.

It is interesting that China has to commit the crime against the humanity by sterilizing women and implying force abortion to stop population growth. Meanwhile Russia, its neighbor government, has a demographic crisis and financially encourages citizens to have more children.

   To sum it up I would like you to think over the following questions. Our society turned out to be so complex and systemized by dividing into countries, ethnicities, religions, social classes and so on. The longer the humanity exists the more systems appear, the more rules each system has inside. Originally the systems were created in order to protect the members and make their life safer. So, let me raise the questions here. Does it protect or destroy us? Does it make us strong or weak? Do the boundaries make us feel safe or afraid?

   The policy and situation in China led me to the main question. Is it possible to say to the unborn child - Sorry, but you were conceived in a wrong country, there is no place for you?

Sources:

1.      China: human rights violations and coercion in one-child policy enforcement. (2004, Committee on International Relations House of Representatives). Retrieved March 24, 2012, from GlobalSecurity.org: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/congress/2004_hr/041214-transcript.pdf

2.      The negative trends of “one-child” policy in China.(in Russian)  (2010) Retrieved March 25, 2012, from The Epoch Times: http://www.epochtimes.ru/content/view/37349/4/

3.      China Sticking with One-Child Policy. (March 11, 2008, J. Yardley). Retrieved March 28, 2012, from The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/world/asia/11china.html?_r=2

4.      China's one-child policy and the population explosion. (January, 12, 2012, Button, Graham). Retrieved March 28, 2012 from FPO: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/Indian-Journal-Economics-Business/278509628.html

5.      When a Woman’s body Becomes the Domain of the State, Part II. ( November, 22, 2009, Gary Feurerberg). Retrieved March 29, 2012 from The Epoch Times: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/when-a-womans-body-becomes-the-domain-of-the-state-part-ii-25490.html