Executive Summary
The following discussion analyses the one-child reproductive policy in China and its influence on citizenship. In particular, the analysis entails the background, history, the impacts, criticisms, and recommendations among other aspects that will assist in building the premises of this account. The ongoing economic transition of China remains the single most influential factor that shapes the demographic course of the country as well as the birth rate. The paper focuses on the policy as a whole alongside its tenets and microcosm. Incorporating models from countries such as the UK, the discussion proceeds to make critical projections for effective strategies and policies aimed at assisting the government to eliminate the extremely undesirable impacts of the one-child policy including aging population and gender inequality among others. To this end, the overall recommendation for the successive governments concerning the policy and other reproductive policies include conducting further inquests on the influences of this policy and the feasibility and plausibility of the available alternatives. In the face of this analysis, the discussion concludes that the two-child policy proposal would create the best reproductive approach and population control framework for China and any other country that would wish to adopt the one-child policy.
Introduction
Population growth is one of the contemporary world’s prime concerns vis-à-vis aspects such as the environment. A faster rate of population growth also faced Chinese leadership in the middle of the 20th century. The problem seemed insurmountable given its impacts both in the rural and urban areas throughout the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Birth and population control policies are not new to China, and a wide spectrum of them have been in existence since the Maoist epoch. The first set of population control policies sought to increase population with a view to meeting the thresholds of rapid industrialisation in the face of the dire need for labour and workforce in a growing world. However, the dusk of the industrialization era marked the dawn of opposite population control and reproductive policies-those that sought to cut down population growth. The programmes, since then, have always encouraged the use of contraceptives and championed for the birth of a manageable number of children as per the standards of a country or a geographic region. Since the one-child policy in China is emblematic of these policies, this paper will focus on the influences of such policies on citizenship as a whole including the various aspects of citizenship. The first section of the discussion will present the historical underpinning of the one-child policy, the second section will then examine both impacts of the policy with respect to a UK’s child or population planning policy, and lastly, the third section will give appropriate recommendations in light of the criticisms or shortcomings.