one-child policy

The government formally introduced the policy in 1980 in order to reduce population growth and has pushed it vigorously since then. With slight modifications, the policy remains in force as the twenty-first century dawns. The censuses of 1982, 1990 and 2000 showed the PRC population in millions respectively at: 1,008.2, 1,133.7 and 1,265.8. The two last figures represent average annual growth rates since the preceding census of 1.56 and 1.13 per cent. The census number of those aged fourteen and under fell from 312.9 million in 1990 to 289.8 million in 2000. The policy has thus had the desired effect of reducing population growth.

It has also had unwanted and highly negative side effects, the main one being population imbalance. The 2000 census preliminary results showed a sex ratio of 117 males for every 100 females.

This was a very big rise since 1990, when the census had a sex ratio of 106.6. Selective abortion and infanticide of females are clearly very significant problems.

The minority nationalities are exempt from the one-child policy. In general, the nearer an ethnic minority is to sensitive borders and the more remote from the eastern seaboard, the more relaxed is the family planning policy. However, the local governments of autonomous regions have almost all imposed restrictions on the number of children couples may have.

Further reading

Croll, Elisabeth, Davin, Delia and Kane, Penny (eds) (1985). China’s One-Child Family Policy. New York: St Martin’s Press.

Peng, X. with Guo, Z. (eds) (2000). The Changing Population of China. Oxford, UK and Malden, USA: Blackwell.

COLIN MACKERRAS