Article Writing Homework Help

You will prepare and submit a term paper on Chinas One-Child Policy: Birth Control and Chinese Demographics. Your paper should be a minimum of 2000 words in length. In 2006, China had a population of over 1.3 billion people and is predicted to grow to just over 1.4 billion by the year 2050 (“2006 World”, 2006). This makes China the most populous country in the world today. However, because of implemented measures to reduce its rate of population growth, in 2050, it is projected to be the second most populated country just behind India (“2006 World”, 2006). In the 1960s and 1970s, when the population seemed to be increasingly out of control, the use of contraceptives began to be promoted vigorously, which gradually resulted in a drop in fertility rates in China (Kent & Haub, 2005). The most popular contraceptive method used continued to be female sterilization and intrauterine devices (IUDs), followed by oral contraceptives (Kend & Haub, 2005). This was successful in lowering fertility rates, however, the Chinese government still believed a more rigid policy must be implemented to successfully contain the population rate.

The history of China’s population control has fluctuated between encouraging births at certain times in its history, while actively prohibiting births at another (Love, 2005). In 1949, the same year the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was created, the regime encouraged births to “increase the rate of socioeconomic development and to strengthen the county” (Love, 2005, p. 143). In fact, the leader of the Chinese Revolution, Mao Zedong, publicly announced that a large population would be a very good thing for China because out of all the things in existence in the world, “people are the most precious (Zedong, as cited by Love, 2005, p. 143). The population grew so fast during that time, that only a few years later, policy changes were implemented.

In 1954, birth control was discussed openly by the PRC, however, only four years later in 1958, Mao returned to promoting births once again, calling for three years of “intense efforts” to build the Chinese population (Love, 2005, p. 144).&nbsp.