Title: China's infamous one-child policy.

POPLINE Document Number: 277006

Author(s):

King M

Source citation:

Lancet, 2005 Jan 15;365:215-216.

Abstract:

Your Sept 11 Editorial (p 909) refers to China's "infamous one-child policy", without acknowledging that without it conditions of life for the country's 1-3 billion people would have been much worse. In theory, one-child families should only be necessary in certain circumstances. These are: (a) that a community has outgrown the carrying capacity of its ecosystem or is about to do so, and (b) that there is nowhere for people to migrate to, and (c) that a country has too few exports to exchange for food and other essentials. Known as demographic entrapment, these circumstances invariably result in severe poverty, starvation, and violence; the only response is for a community to limit its fertility radically. As such, China's one-child policy saved 200-400 million people, and was the only rational solution to what the country perceived as its "grain problem" in the face of its rapidly increasing population. (excerpt)

Keywords:

China
Africa, Sub Saharan
Critique
Evaluation
Demographic Analysis
Family and Household
One Child Policy
Macroeconomic Factors
Developing Countries
Asia, Eastern
Asia
Africa
Research Methodology
Antinatalist Policy
Population Policy
Social Policy
Policy
Economic Factors