Chinas Family Planning Policy

Why was the family planning policy more successful in urban

areas than rural areas of China?
Internal Assessment
Daisey Lin
History HL: Europe
Mr. MacCollum
May 20, 2014
Word Count: 1895







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Table of Contents
Section A: Plan of the Investigation.3
Section B: Summary...4
Section C: Evaluation of Sources...6
Section D: Analysis...8
Section E: Conclusion..10
Section F: List of Sources...11














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Section A: Plan of Investigation
In 1979, the family planning policy in the Peoples Republic of China was mandated nationwide,
stating that, in general, families would only be permitted to have one child. However, the living and
working circumstances between people living in urban and rural areas of the nation were very different,
and greatly affected the enforcement of the law and the response of the citizens. This investigation
focuses on determining the reasons why the family planning policy was so much more successful in urban
areas than rural areas. To answer this question, I will identify the different aspects of law enforcement of
the policy and the responses of citizens in the two different areas of the nation in order to define the
differences between the two, and then look more in depth into these aspects in order to identify the
reasoning behind them.














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Section B: Summary of Evidence
Background to the Family Planning Policy
The family planning policy, implemented in 1979, was mandated as a result of the baby boom that
occurred under the rule of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China , during which he
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encouraged families to have as many children as possible. This began to ruin Chinas economy because
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of food shortages and insufficient housing and education. In both urban and rural areas, a family planning
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committee monitors the activity in specific assigned areas, along with distributing contraceptives and
educating inhabitants about the importance of family planning. Failure to comply with the policy led to
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many consequences, including heavy fines, jail time, loss of jobs, and the denial of basic rights for their
child.
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The Family Planning Policy in Urban Areas
Generally speaking, the family planning policy was very successful in the urban areas of China.
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Families who violated the policy were subject to large fines or social maintenance fees, which were
more evident in the urban areas of the nation than the rural areas. The purpose of these fees was to in a
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way pay back the state for having to support another child. Along with that, abortion rates were higher in
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urban areas, and many urban women report they have had at least one abortion. According to Cecilia
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Milwertzs book Accepting Population Control, women living in urban areas are more likely to comply
with the family planning policy because they understand and agree with the rationale of the policy than
those living in rural areas. In interviews conducted in the cities of Beijing and Shenyang, Milwertz
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Richard Cavendish, Mao Zedong Becomes Chinese Head of State
2

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Graham Button, Chinas One-Child Policy and the Population Explosion
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Christopher J. Smith, China in the Post-Utopian Age, 75
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Graham Button, Chinas One-Child Policy and the Population Explosion
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Ibid., 73.
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Liu Rongjun, Family Planning Policy- to change or not to change?
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Ibid.
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Christopher J. Smith, China in the Post-Utopian Age, 85
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discovered that 50 percent of respondents thought the one-child policy benefits the child; 70 percent
thought it benefits the mother; and almost 90 percent thought it benefits the nation.
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The Family Planning Policy in Rural Areas
In the rural areas of China, the family planning policy varied greatly, and was subject to many
exemptions throughout the different regions of the nation. In many areas, a 1.5-child policy was
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enforced rather than the more well known and widespread one-child policy. The 1.5-child policy
permitted families to have two children given that the first child was either disabled or a female. There
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are even more exemptions of the policy in the rural areas of the Autonomous Regions, which are home to
many of the ethnic minorities of China. One notable region is Ningxia Hui, which is populated by Muslims.
In this region, minority families residing in rural areas are permitted to have three children. Generally,
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even though there were so many exemptions in rural areas, most births that exceeded the policy limit were
outside of the law. A contributing factor to these illegal births was that the birth control offices in many
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rural areas were limited in terms of workers, and many families had either very little knowledge of the
policy or were completely uninformed.
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In terms of female infanticide, most families in the rural areas preferred sons because of the poor
pension plans for the elderly, and daughters were usually married off into other families instead of staying
with their own families to take care of their parents. This caused a high rate of female infant
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abandonment in rural areas, going along with the 1.5-child policy . Abandoned children are also very
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difficult to adopt because are considered as illegal children.
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10
Ibid., 82
11
Ibid.,76
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Xu Yiqing, Comments: Planned Parenthood Adverse Sustained.
13
Christopher J. Smith, China in the Post-Utopian Age, 76
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Ibid, 78
15
Ibid.,79
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Ibid.,78
17
Zhang Weiguo, Institutional Reforms, Population Policy, and Adoption of Children: Some Observations in
a North China Village
18
Christopher J. Smith, China in the Post-Utopian Age, 84
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Section C: Evaluation of Sources
Source 1:
Smith, Christopher J. China in the Post-Utopian Age. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000
The first source is a book by Christopher J. Smith called China in the Post-Utopian Age.
Christopher J. Smith is an American geography professor at the University of Albany and teaches many
courses on Chinas social and economic state throughout history. This book addresses the changes that
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occurred in the Peoples Republic of China after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong. The purpose of this
source is to look deeper into Chinas modernization project and put it in context of the transitions from
socialism that began in the 1980s. It looks at the transformations of the nation under the rule of Deng
Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin and aims to identify what has changed and what stayed the same. This source
is important because it addresses in-depth the family planning policy and the effect it had on families in
both urban and rural areas of the country.
This source is valuable because it uses statistics taken from different areas of the nation in
regards to fertility rates, abortion rates, and other factors of the impact made by the family planning policy.
It also references many different and relevant sources such as the book Accepting Population Control
by Cecilia Milwertz and Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China by X.X. Zhang and
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S. Ye. This book is limited because only one section focuses on the family planning policy, and the
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majority of the rest of the book is focused on other changes that occurred during that time.
Source 2:
Liu, Rongjun. "Family planning policy - to change or not to change?." Life Awakening, December 2011.
http://life.91sqs.com/html/zazhi/youzhengyidehuati/2011/0113/1451.html (accessed May 18, 2014).
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http://www.albany.edu/gp/Smith.shtml
20
Christopher J. Smith, China in the Post-Utopian Age, 81
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Ibid., 489
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The second source is an article from the Life Awakening magazine titled Family planning policy
- to change or not to change? Life Awakening is an e-magazine registered in Shanghai, China, and has
contributors from all over the country. There is no information on the author of the article, but it can be
assumed that they have Chinese nationality. This article was written in December 2011 and specifically
addresses the family planning policys effects on the Chinas economy and also social issues. The purpose
of the article is to discuss the pros and cons of the family planning policy. It looks into both the economic
and population benefits of the policy, along with the perspectives of families in both urban and rural areas.

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This source is valuable because it is in the point of view of someone who experienced the family
planning policy first hand. It also shows many perspectives of different families residing in China and
discusses specifically about the impact of the policy on socio-economic development, which addresses the
state of urban families at the time. This is important because there are fewer sources that focus on the
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urban side of the policy rather than the rural. This article is limited because it has very few references and
citations, and we can question the general reliability of the source.







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This article addresses both sides of the argument of whether or not the family planning policy was worth it.
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Therefore, urban residents in violation of the provisions of two births or multiple births "price" is much
higher than in rural areas, and this is one reason why the phenomenon is more common in rural areas of
reproductive irregularities. Addresses the social-maintenance fee issued to violators of the policy, more
evident in urban areas than rural.
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Section D: Analysis
The results of the family planning policy in urban areas of China is based heavily off of the fertility
rate in these areas. Studies show that the fertility rate is generally higher in rural areas than urban areas,
which demonstrates the success of the policy is these various places. The reasons for the lower fertility
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rate in urban areas has been explored in the book Accepting Population Control by Cecilia Milwertz. It
is believed that families living in urban areas comply more with the policy because they understand the
rationale behind implementing such a law. More than the residents in rural areas, urban families can
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experience the overcrowding and other issues first hand. In a way, they have more sense of a society than
those in rural areas, and they understand better the benefits of enforcing the policy. The cities were more
crowded and dense in the first place, and supporting large families would not have been an easy job.
Another reason why the family planning policy was so obeyed in urban areas could be that urban
families were monitored more closely by birth control offices. Most families living in larger cities would
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have been employed, making them more exposed to authorities and more willing, out of fear of shame and
the penalties involved with violation, to comply with the law. The fines for having too many children were
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also a lot heavier in urban areas, which is another reason why families were more compelled to comply
than in rural areas.
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In the rural areas, one of the greatest factors that may have influenced the rate of compliance of
the policy was the poor pension plans given to the elderly living in these areas. Generally it was
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customary for children to take care of their parents when they grew old , and this would have been
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stunted with the passing of the family planning policy. It would be more difficult for only one child to take
24
Christopher J. Smith, China in the Post-Utopian Age, 74
25
Ibid., 82
26
Ibid., 80
27
Hanming Fang, Parenthood is a persons basic need A case in which a university lecturer in Beijing is
suspended due to violation of the policy and his wages are cut.
28
Xu Yiqing, Comments: Planned Parenthood Adverse Sustained.
29
Christopher J. Smith, China in the Post-Utopian Age, 78,
30
Ibid., 89
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care of both their parents, whereas if families had more than one child, responsibilities can be distributed
throughout the family to lighten the load. This fact is important because it explains a large portion of why it
was that so many exemptions made in the first place, and also why so many violations occurred even
outside those initial exemptions.
Unlike the families living in urban areas, rural families generally were not employed. This made
them harder to monitor and to subject penalties to. The lighter fines for violation also was a contributing
factor to why people may have been more willing to violate the law.
The other contributing factor mentioned in Part B was that many rural families were completely
unaware or insufficiently educated about the policy. This came from the fact that compared to those of
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urban areas, the birth control offices in rural areas were shorthanded and very overworked. Especially in
the most remote and isolated parts of the nation, the policy, if heard of at all, wouldnt have been very
clear, and families who did not follow it likely did not even know about it.










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Ibid., 79 ...one study reported that out of more than 1,200 women with two or more children only 5
percent had even heard about their local family planning program; 27 percent had never read about it; and 44
percent said they had never considered birth control measures before getting pregnant.
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Section E: Conclusion
In conclusion, the reason for the greater success of the family planning policy in urban areas was
because of a multitude of contributing factors. Firstly, the enforcing of the policy was much stricter in
urban areas compared to rural areas, with the heavier fines for violation and other harsh penalties that
were generally more lenient in rural areas. Secondly, there was definitely less of a need for larger families
in urban areas because they had better access to social services and pension plans for the elderly. And
finally, urban families generally understood the policy better, both in terms of familiarity of what it was
enforcing, and the reasons behind it. All of these reasons had to do with the social circumstances and the
means of enforcing the policy in each of the areas. The success of the policy in urban areas was generally
greater just because urban areas were in a sense closer to the law, being more condensed, more
advanced, more informed, and much easier to get to.













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Section F: List of Sources
Books
Milwertz, Cecilia. Accepting Population Control. Surrey, BC: Curzon Press, 1997. Print.
Perry, Elizabeth J, and Selden Mark. Chinese Society: Change, Conflict, and Resistance. New York:
Smith, Christopher J. China in the Post-Utopian Age. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000. Print.
RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. Print.Button, Graham. "China's One-Child Policy and the Population Explosion."
Indian Journal of Economics and Business Dec. 2011: n. pag. Questia School. Web. 2 May
2014.
Zhang, Weiguo. "Institutional Reforms, Population Policy, and Adoption of Children: Some Observations in
a North China Village." Journal of Comparative Family Studies 32.2 (2001): n. pag. Questia
School. Web. 2 May 2014.
Articles
Cavendish, Richard . "Mao Zedong Becomes Chinese Head of State." History Today Sep. 1999: n. pag.
Questia School. Web. 20 May 2014.
Fang, Hanming. "Parenthood is a person's basic need." DW [Bonn] 18 Jan. 2011: n. pag. DW. Web. 19
May 2014.
Liu, Rongjun. "Family planning policy - to change or not to change?." Life Awakening Dec. 2011: n. pag.
Life Awakening . Web. 18 May 2014.

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Xu, Yiqing. "Comments: Planned Parenthood adverse sustained ." Sina Finance 14 Jan. 2013: n. pag.
Sina. Web. 3 May 2014.


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