With the death of Mao in 1976 and the disastrous fallout of both the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, China’s new government under Deng Xiaoping was eager to pivot away from the perpetual revolution of their forebears and move towards stability and economic improvement. China hoped to achieve rapid economic growth in the coming years, aiming to raise China’s per capita GDP from around $250 to $1000 by the year 2000. The CCP believed that China’s rapidly rising population was an obstacle to this and committed itself to controlling it.

Their solution was the infamous One-Child Policy that restricted the number of children a couple could have. Today on A Day In History, we explore the diabolical ways that China enforced this policy through deception, intimidation, sterilization, and murder. If this sounds interesting to you, go ahead and like this video and subscribe to the channel for more historical videos like this.

The One-Child Policy

The One-Child policy was not a single law but a general policy guideline issued by the CCP and enforced by various local and provincial governments. A letter from the CCP’s Central Committee issued on September 25th 1980 which explained the need to control population to avoid economic collapse in the near-future is usually pointed to as the beginning of the policy. The policy was revised and reinforced several times over the years, such as in the creatively titled Document Number 7 in April 1984 and Document Number 13 in May 1986, but local governments had some leeway in how they handled the implementation of these guidelines.

Broadly speaking, Chinese couples were limited to one single child. They could apply for permission to have a second under certain circumstances, such as when the first was disabled, and eventually rural families were permitted a second child if their first was a girl. So-called ‘excess births’ were dealt with mainly with contraceptives which were available for all women. Failing that, a regime of fines, sterilization, intimidation, abortion, and infanticide comprised a sinister tool that China used to keep a tight control over its population.

These laws were enforced by family planning cadres in every region and every town. At half a million strong, they were one of the most extensive arms of state power and had significant power to enforce compliance and punish dissent relating to the One-Child policy.

#onechildpolicy #ccp #chinahistory #history

Sources:
Yong Cai and Wang Feng, ‘The Social and Sociological Consequences of China's One-Child Policy’, Annual Review of Sociology, 47(1), (2021)

John S. Aird, Slaughter of the Innocents : Coercive Birth Control in China, (1990)

The Laogai Research Foundation, Better 10 Graves Than One Extra Birth: China's Systemic Use of Coercion To Meet Population Quotas, (2004)

Mei Fong, One Child: The Past and Future of China's Most Radical Experiment, (2015)

Raymond Li, ‘Forced Abortion Casts Shadow over Human Rights Plans’, South China Morning Post, 17th June 2012, https://www.scmp.com/article/1004254/...

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