one child policy

Family structure

Firstly, the family structure in china honor the patrilineal descent system, where a child's lineage and descent is calculated from his father only. Men are the only ones that can inherit family membership and family land or other inheritance in this type of system. Males are responsible for maintaining, providing for and protecting of the family. They are also given all the decision-making power. However, China are biased against females where china was extreme in that a woman was quite explicitly removed from the family of her birth (her niángjiā 娘家) and affiliated to her husband's family (her pójiā 婆家), a transition always very clearly symbolized in local marriage customs. In china, a woman was said to engage in “three followings” (sāncóng ): “At home to follow her father, at marriage to follow her husband, after marriage to follow her son” (zài jiā cóng fù, chū jià cóng fū, hūn hòu cóng zǐ 在家要从父, 出家要从夫, 婚后从子). In china, they used many expressions to refer “overweighting males and underweighting females” (zhòng nán qīng nǚ 重男轻女). They range from the blunt (like referring to a daughter as “goods on which one loses money” —shíběnhuò 蚀本货) to the fatalistic (like the little girls’ plaintive jingle, “Marry a chicken, follow a chicken; marry a dog, follow a dog” —jià jī suí jī, jià gŏu, suí gŏu 嫁鸡随鸡，嫁狗随狗). Hence, in china, females stay in the home to take care of the home, the children, and the rest of the family, giving the impression that females are weak and useless, resulting many chinese couples not wanting to have a female child.

Secondly, the family structure follow the patriarchal system where the family is hierarchically orgainsed and No two members of a Chinese family were equal in authority. "A state cannot have two monarchs," a widely cited proverb held, "or a family two heads" (Guó wú èr jūn, jiā wú èr zhŭ 国无二君，家无二主.) Officially at least, (1) senior generations were superior to junior generations, (2) older people were superior to younger ones, and (3) men were superior to women. ("Men are high, women low" — nán zūn, nǚ bēi 男尊女卑— said another old proverb.)

One child policy

the one-child policy is the population control policy of the People's Republic of China, which allows families to have only one healthy child. However, there are exceptions where families can have a second child if the first child is a girl or is disabled ,if one of the parents is an only child and if both parents are ethnic minorities. china’s provinces each charge varying fines for those who break the one-child policy, but the penalty is almost always several times a worker’s average annual income, making it prohibitively expensive to break one-child policy rules. This policy has implicated an increase in forced abortions, female infanticide and underreporting of female births, which china’s sex imbalance could be a possible cause.

After the introduction of the one-child policy, the fertility rate in China fell from 2.63 births per woman in 1980 to 1.61 in 2009.  However, the policy itself is probably only partially responsible for the reduction in the total fertility rate. China has a long tradition of son preference due to widespread remnants of Confucianism, to prefer sons over daughters. Sons are preferred as they provide the primary financial support for the parents in their retirement, and a son's parents typically are better cared for than his wife's. In addition, Chinese tradition holds that daughters, on their marriage, become primarily part of the groom's family. Male-to-female sex ratios in the current Chinese population are high in both rural and urban areas
           

                    Sex ratio at birth in mainland China, males per 100 females, 1980–2010.

The sex ratio at birth (between male and female births) in mainland China reached 117:100 and remained steady between 2000 and 2013, substantially higher than the natural baseline, which ranges between 103:100 and 107:100. Monica Das Gupta showed that whether or not females "go missing" is determined by the existing sex composition of the family into which they are conceived. Girls with no older sisters have similar chances of survival as boys. Girls conceived in families that already have a daughter, experience steeply higher probabilities of being aborted or of dying in early childhood. Gupta claims that cultural factors provide the overwhelming explanation for the "missing" females."The disparity in the sex ratio at birth increases dramatically after the first birth, for which the ratios remained steadily within the natural baseline over the 20 year interval between 1980 and 1999. Thus, a large majority of couples appear to accept the outcome of the first pregnancy, whether it is a boy or a girl. If the first child is a girl, and they are able to have a second child, then a couple may take extraordinary steps to assure that the second child is a boy.

Human rights violation

The one-child policy has been challenged in principle and in practice for violating a human right to determine the size of one's own family. According to a 1968 proclamation of the International Conference on Human Rights, "Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children." A 2001 report exposed that a quota of 20,000 abortions and sterilizations was set for Huaiji County in Guangdong Province in one year due to reported disregard of the one-child policy. The effort included using portable ultrasound devices to identify abortion candidates in remote villages. Earlier reports also showed that women as far along as 8.5 months pregnant were forced to abort by injection of saline solution. There were also reports of women in their ninth month of pregnancy, or already in labour, having their children killed whilst in the birth canal or immediately after birth. In 2002, China outlawed the use of physical force to make a woman submit to an abortion or sterilization, but it is not entirely enforced. In the execution of the policy, many local governments still demand abortions if the pregnancy violates local regulations, or even force abortions on women violating the policy. One such case, Feng Jianmei, gained international attention after the family posted graphic pictures of the aborted fetus online. Feng's case has been credited for renewing public debate on the one-child policy both in and out of China.

4-2-1 problem

one adult child was left with having to provide support for his or her two parents and four grandparents. Called the "4-2-1 Problem", this leaves the older generations with increased chances of dependency on retirement funds or charity in order to receive support. If personal savings, pensions, or state welfare fail, most senior citizens would be left entirely dependent upon their very small family or neighbours for assistance. If, for any reason, the single child is unable to care for their older adult relatives, the oldest generations would face a lack of resources and necessities. In response to such an issue, all provinces have decided that couples are allowed to have two children if both parents were only children themselves

spoiling children

Some parents may over-indulge their only child. The media referred to the indulged children in one-child families as "little emperors" who are less trustworthy and less independent. Since the 1990s, some people have worried that this will result in a higher tendency toward poor social communication and cooperation skills among the new generation, as they have no siblings at home. this greatly improved purchasing power coupled with excessive pampering of only children is the cause of increased spending on children. From toys to clothes, parents shower their child in material goods and give in to every demand. it is common for children to be the "best-dressed members of their families."  Parents put immense pressure on these children to succeed and compete academically by parents push their only child to educational extremes from early age. Parents also plan their child’s future ,resulting their child to be unable to think and make decision on their own. Moreover, with the less competition in the job society, many young adults will decide to change job often when they are slightly unhappy with their job since their parents pamper them a lot.

Benefits

 Chinese authorities consider the policy a great success in helping to implement China's current economic growth. The reduction in the fertility rate and thus population growth has reduced the severity of problems that come with overpopulation, like epidemics, slums, overwhelmed social services (such as health, education, law enforcement), and strain on the ecosystem from abuse of fertile land and production of high volumes of waste. China on population control helps provide a better health service for women and a reduction in the risks of death and injury associated with pregnancy. At family planning offices, women receive free contraception and pre-natal classes that contributed to the policy's success in two respects. First, the average Chinese household expends fewer resources, both in terms of time and money, on children, which gives many Chinese more money with which to invest. Second, since young Chinese can no longer rely on children to care for them in their old age, there is an impetus to save money for the future.