10 Misconceptions About China’s Population Problem
China’s one-child policy has been carried out for more than 30 years since 1980. But this policy has formally come to an end since the Chinese government officially issued a policy on October 29, 2015. The second-child policy stated that Chinese couples are entitled to have their second child. The Chinese government considers this policy an essential measure to mollify the increasingly aging problem of the Chinese population.
The policy aroused a great deal of discussions as soon as it was issued. China’s population problem has become an increasing concern by not only its national people but also the global people. Over the past years, many people have had misconceptions about China’s population problem. According to a report conducted by the site yicai.com, the following 10 misconceptions should be clarified.
10. Decreasing population, good for employment
Chinese people are encountering a fierce competition in employment. Thus, many people blamed this on the population. They said that the decreasing population is good for employment. They assumed that job opportunity remains the same while the population is decreasing. However, the job opportunity comes from people’s demands, so when the population is decreasing, the job opportunity is less, too. The decreasing population cannot bring more employment opportunities, but the aging population can do so.
9. Overwhelming population in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen is a serious problem
When it comes to mentioning the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Many people might say “crowded cities”. We often hear about some complaints like this. But the uneven distribution of population actually caused these crowded cities. Some experts pointed out that the uneven population distribution in China will become more serious if the Chinese population continues to reduce.
8. Overpopulation causes pollution
The environment pollution problem in Beijing has become increasingly serious. Some people pointed out that overpopulation is the main reason of pollution. Certainly, people are one of the factors, but people also played an active role in improving our environment.
According to a country ranking that was undertaken by Green Cross International in 2013, based on environment pollution level, among the top 10 countries with the most pollution problem, Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, and Zambia were on the list, but these countries all have low population. On the other hand, China and India were not on the list even though they are very famous for their high population density.
7. Population control stresses China’s per capita resource
Some people criticized that the open second-child policy will result in more insufficient resources, but population control can relieve the stress of China’s per capita resource. In fact, our life and production way put more impacts on the consumption of resources, while the impact of the population policy is less. During 1980 to 2012, China’s annual consumption of capacity reached a 400% growth. Human being is not only a consumer of resources but also a resource’s developer. We can greatly improve the utilization rate of resources by using advanced technology. This is a better way to reduce the stress of resources shortage.
6. Imbalance of gender benefits for women
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, by the end of 2014, the number of Chinese male population has been up to 700,790,000, which is 33,760,000 more than the female population. This finding gave rise to waves of responses in the country. Chinese people should worry about such a huge imbalance of gender, but partial people seemed to have a different opinion. These people said that this huge imbalance is good for Chinese women to have some privileges in marriage relationship. But on the contrary, the imbalance of gender revealed an invasion of Chinese women’s right as a large number of female fetuses were aborted. With the increasing imbalance of gender, Chinese women may encounter more invasions caused by sex violence, crimes, etc.
5. Overwhelming population grabs Chinese per capita wealth
There is a funny point of view among many Chinese people. It is said that China would be as rich as America if China has only 400 million of population. In these people’s opinion, overwhelming population is grabbing Chinese per capita wealth. Obviously, this is a misconception. If we think about the population this way, Canada would be richer than America as well because Canada’s population only accounts for 1/9 of America’s population. But currently, the fact is America is the world’s most developed country that has the most population. Human being can not only consume wealth but also create more.
The wealth of the western developed countries is attributed to their modern technology, which greatly enhanced economy productivity. Many rich countries like America, Canada, and Australia have a high density of population. Conversely, a lot of poor countries in Africa, South America, and Middle Asia, of which the population density is relatively low. In China, the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta are the richest regions, but they have the highest number of population as well.
4. Chinese population out of control
Many Chinese people thought that the policy played a great role in population control. Without the policy, Chinese population would be out of control. However, if comparing with the family planning policy, the economy development in China played a more active role in reduction of fertility rate. In addition, urbanization and delayed fertility are also main factors that led to slow down the level of China’s fertility rate. We can also look at some western European countries and Russia, which are the ones that have been encouraging fertility for a long period of time, but the fertility rate of these countries has been under the average level of population replacement. Over the past 30 to 40 years, the fertility concept of Chinese people has changed a lot; thus, the low fertility rate has become a truth. Economy development in China worked out better in population control as if it is an effective method for preventing Chinese women from being pregnant.
3. Fertility rate control
Will the newly issued second-child policy bring another baby boom to China? “As estimated, 140 to 150 million couples in China have only one child, and about 65 percent of them may want to have a second child”, said Zhai Zhenwu, dean of the School of Sociology and Population Studies of Renmin University of China. He addressed this at a news briefing held in July 2014 by the National Health and Family Planning Commission. The meeting was held more than six months after the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed a resolution to allow couples with only one child to have two children. However, from Jan. 17, 2014 to the end of May 2014, when the policy took effect, only 2,444 babies had been born under the policy.
So even the Chinese government further loosened the second-child policy to allow each couple to have two children, to not only have one child. However, the latest policy may not significantly increase the fertility rate. Many people may not have been well prepared right after the policy came out, and they need to think through the decision. Some couples may choose not to give birth in the next one or two years. Others may be too busy with work to give birth to another one. Some may be too old to give birth.
Comparatively, reducing fertility rate is easier, but increasing the rate is more difficult once it has been declined. Currently, China’s fertility rate only ranges between 1.2 and 1.4, and Chinese people don’t desire to have more children as well. In a short term, with the implementation of the open second-child policy, China will have a number of new babies, but in a long term, the population of new birth will be further declined unless the Chinese government can carry out better measures to encourage fertility.
2. Chinese Rural People Love Having More Kids
This misconception should be clarified if we look at the figure from the sixth general survey of Chinese population. As reported, China’s rural population fertility rate in 2010 was up to only 1.44, simply 0.46 higher than the rate of city and town population. Furthermore, the actual fertility rate is far lower than anticipated. In the rural regions of China, people did not hope to have many kids. According to the survey, the ideal number of kids expected by the rural couples is about 1.9, significantly lower than 2.2 that is an average level of Chinese population replacement.
1. Chinese people are actually keen on having a baby
As of 2014, China’s population is over 1.3 billion. However, measuring a country’s population should not merely rely on quantity. Population density should come first. Although China is the country that has the largest number of population in the world, if considering the population density, China ranks below 80th among 200 countries and regions worldwide. Even eliminating 1/3 of mountain regions in China’s west region, China’s population density is smaller than Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Korea and other countries. A bit surprising? But that is true. Over the past 20 decades, China’s population rate that’s taking up in the world’s total population has declined from 35% to 19%.
Let’s see more figures. Chinese is the nation that has the lowest fertility rate. In Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Chinese regions in Singapore, where there is no restriction of fertility, their governments even encouraged their citizens to have more babies, but the fertility rate in these regions only reached 0.9 to 1.2, which is the lowest level in the world. According to the general survey of Chinese population conducted by the Chinese government in 2000 and 2010, the fertility rate in mainland China only reached around 1.2, which was simply up to half of the world’s average level.
According to the figures above, do we still think Chinese people have more passions than other countries’ people in giving birth?
In conclusion, China’s population policy is currently facing a turning point of historical revolution. Clarifying various misconceptions can provide us a clearer understanding of new normalcy of China’s population.
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