Desperate attempts by China to curb population growth in 1979 led the communist authorities to offer couples condoms, coils, sterilisation and financial rewards as part of its one-child policy. When this failed, fines and even forced abortions were said to have been used to enforce ‘family planning.’
Even in the 1950s, when China’s population was just below 600 million, birth control was seen as being beneficial to ‘national prosperity’, so said a party leader in 1956.
By the 1970s, population growth, though having slowed a little since the revolution, was nearing 900 million. To prevent families from having too many children, the state forced women to apply to Planned Birth offices to see if it was ‘their turn’ to have a child in a given year. The authorites also made up rhymes for broadcast, such as “One’s not few, two will do, three’s too much for you!” to get the message about having smaller families across.
By the time China’s population topped the one billion mark in the early 1980s, the country had already begun to enforce its controversial one-child policy. While parents who adhered to the scheme were rewarded with a monthly financial bonus and special rights, those with bigger families could lose state benefits. But the policy was met with resistance in rural China where families wanted sons so they could maintain the tradition of passing on the family name.
Despite criticism from outside China - and occasionally from within - China’s leaders stuck with the controversial policy, often ignoring the plight of mothers having to resort to abortions or being forced to have their children adopted.
One thing the Chinese couldn’t ignore though was that population numbers were still swelling. More than twenty years after its introduction, the Chinese admitted that the one child policy was a failure.
In 2016, China said it would allow all couples to have two children as a ‘response to an ageing population’ and amid concerns over its economy.
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