During the 1980s, the Chinese government enforced the infamous one-child policy which is conceived as vitally important to the social and economic aspects of the communist nation. For decades, human rights activists have been pushing for the deregulation of the
There were also cases of infanticide, kidnappings and forced
said policy, with some saying that it is as if the Communist Party had also owned the wombs of its citizens. That being said, the government has rebutted that if the one-child policy was not introduced, there would be an additional 400 million in the country’s growing population.
The results of the policy were harrowing. The Diplomat reported that there were around 70,000 children being sold on the black market each year. There were also cases of infanticide, kidnappings and forced abortion. In comparison with the abortion in Australia, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said that China performs at least 13 million abortions in a year.
Just last year, The Guardian published in an article that the Chinese government has finally put an end to the one-child policy. Due to gender imbalances that ensued following the implementation of the said policy, a statement put out in China’s official news agency said that “the change in policy is intended to balance the population development and address the challenge of an ageing population.”
Interestingly, there are also rules that were put in place as measures in controlling the population. There were incentives given to couples who will marry or have a child late. In addition, there were sex education, family planning and use of contraception.
Sex Education
Although a relatively new concept in the country, the sex education in China aims to make sure that young Chinese adults will be given complete and thorough information on sex and family planning. Through this, they will be able to come up with a responsible decision regarding sex and contraception.
Contraception
According to US-China Today, China has one of the highest rates of the use of contraception in the world, with 86.4 percent prevalence. This is in contrast with Japan’s 54.3 percent prevalence and the United State’s 78.6 percent.
The Chinese government’s policies on family planning are primarily intended on married women. In fact, sterilisation has 28.7 percent rate of use while intrauterine devices (IUDs) have 40.6 percent rate of use.
Even with a relaxed one-child policy in the form of two-child policy, the billion-people nation is actively promoting family planning methods in order to control the growth of its population, decrease gender imbalances, and lessen the ratio between its ageing citizens and its workforce.