Molly Suttle 9-27-10 Period-6 Why Is China So Populated If Families Can Only Have One Child?

Ever since 1979, urban Chinese families have only been able to have one child. The one child policy was established in order to prevent the Chinese population from soaring out of control. Yet, at the end of 2009, Chinas population was 1.335 billion. That is one-sixth of the worlds population! Anyone who learns about this has to ask, How is this happening? China is so populated, even though urban families can only have one child, because the Chinese typically tend to favor baby boys over girls. There was also a huge baby boom before the one child policy was established and approximately seventy percent of Chinas population lives in rural areas, where families can more than one child. The Chinese tend to favor having boys rather than girls because boys can carry on the family name. The boys also can provide more for their families. More and more Chinese families are putting their baby girls up for adoption and trying to have a boy. Most of these girls remain in orphanages in China, but some are adopted into families from countries like the United States. There was also a rapid growth in population before the one child policy was established. When Mao Zedong gained power in China, he encouraged Chinese couples to have lots of children. By 1950, the average Chinese women had six children. This baby boom was what caused this policy to be established. The Chinese government feared that if the population kept growing this rapidly, there would not be enough living essentials for everyone, like housing, food, and jobs in urban areas. Therefore, families could only have one child, which led to wanting to have boys. If this baby boom had not occurred, there probably would not be a child-limit in China today. Approximately seventy percent of Chinas population lives in rural areas. Agriculture is a major part of Chinas population. Agricultural exports are responsible for one-fifth of Chinas exports, and the country needs a steady supply of food in order to feed its huge population. China is one of the worlds largest rice, potato, peanut, tea, and rice producers. In order for China to maintain this responsibility, it needs a lot of people to help harvest these crops. Many families live on farms. Agriculture is also considered as family-based in China, so most families can have two or more children. These children make up for the fewer children born in cities. As long as agriculture remains a major part of Chinas economy, the population of the entire country will continuously rise. As you have read in the paragraphs above, Chinas population is so high, even though there is a one child policy, because of the favoring of baby boys over girls, the baby boom before the policy was established, and because of the agriculturebased economy. There is some speculation that the one child policy will be ended soon, yet this would cause an unbearable rise in population, which would lead to a higher poverty rate. I believe that there is no way to stop this high population from growing and China will just have to continuously adapt to it.