DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - China's One-Child Policy: Is it a success?

**CenICrerflind** · 11-09-2010, 12:26 AM

I disagree. Much of Northern China is drying up and water is already becoming scarce with the current population. The amount of arable land in China barely feeds the entire population even now. The reason why China was able to get ahead of the rest of the third world was because it curbed its birthrate. More people=more social/economic/political complications, regional conflicts will become even more widespread and instability will permeate from the bottom to the top. Did you know that there were 90,000 riots/civil disturbances in China in the last 4 years? That number will be much higher with 300mil more people. Without the one-child-policy, China's development will slow to a snail's pace regardless of the type of government and its institutions.

I agree that the environmental problems are pretty serious but many countries today import much of their food from abroad; that's one of the great things about globalization. They don't have to control their population just because they don't have enough arable land. I don't think China got ahead because it curbed its birthrate; it had much more to do with the economic reforms that took place after Mao's death. Those riots/disturbances are the result of government repression and corruption; the solution to that problem is not reducing the population but reforming government institutions to make them less corrupt and oppressive.

11-09-2010, 12:26 AM	#18
CenICrerflind Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 390 Senior Member	I disagree. Much of Northern China is drying up and water is already becoming scarce with the current population. The amount of arable land in China barely feeds the entire population even now. The reason why China was able to get ahead of the rest of the third world was because it curbed its birthrate. More people=more social/economic/political complications, regional conflicts will become even more widespread and instability will permeate from the bottom to the top. Did you know that there were 90,000 riots/civil disturbances in China in the last 4 years? That number will be much higher with 300mil more people. Without the one-child-policy, China's development will slow to a snail's pace regardless of the type of government and its institutions. I agree that the environmental problems are pretty serious but many countries today import much of their food from abroad; that's one of the great things about globalization. They don't have to control their population just because they don't have enough arable land. I don't think China got ahead because it curbed its birthrate; it had much more to do with the economic reforms that took place after Mao's death. Those riots/disturbances are the result of government repression and corruption; the solution to that problem is not reducing the population but reforming government institutions to make them less corrupt and oppressive.
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