For a 12-page verbal, quantitative and graphic summary, critique
and proposal concerning family size and family-size policies during
1970-2040, download the following readable source:
Feng WANG [Department of Sociology, University of California-Irvine], "Can
China Afford to Continue Its One-Child Policy?" _Asia_Pacific Issues_
[East-West Center], no. 77 (March 2005), URL:
http://www.eastwestcenter.org/res-rp-publicationdetails.asp?pub_ID=1588&SearchString=wang+feng+china+child+2005
And here is the abstact of Professor Wang's report:
Twenty-five years after it was launched, China's "One Child" population
control policy is credited with cutting population growth to an all time
low and contributing to two decades of spectacular economic development.
But the costs associated with the policy are also apparent and are rising:
a growing proportion of elderly with inadequate government or family
support, a disproportionately high number of male births attributable to
sex selective abortion, increased female infant and child mortality rates,
and the collapse of a credible government birth reporting system. Today,
as China contemplates the future of the policy, many argue that a change
that allows couples to have two children will not lead to uncontrollable
population growth. Instead, it could help meet the fertility desires of
most Chinese couples; avoid a worsening of the demographic and social
consequences already evident; and relieve the Chinese government of the
immense financial and political costs of enforcing an unpopular policy.
But changes will need to come soon if China is to avert even greater
negative consequences of the policy.
Vincent K Pollard
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~pollard
U n i v e r s i t y o f H a w a i ' i S y s t e m
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