China. When someone mentions china what do you think of? High tech brands like Sony, Panasonic, & Fuji film up in lights or maybe Chinese noodles and sushi. What about sumo wrestlers, haiku’s and origami? Quite shockingly the thing that most of us forget when thinking about this amazing country is the orphanages full to the brim, the forced abortions, and the female infanticide that goes on everyday. Sadly this is the reality that the Chinese government face today as part of their consequence due to their actions that took part almost 30 years ago…

The One child policy

This law, passed in 1979 was to “relieve” social, economic and environmental problems in china, and in my essay on japans enforced law of the one child policy. I will be looking at the consequences of this, the views of the citizens who live there , the out come, the traditional impact, & the change in proportions. By the end of my research i hope to achieve a good understanding of china’s one child policy from both governmental & family perspectives

Law

The law in china is that only one child is permitted per family (family = one married couple), however this is argued as it is only strongly reinforced in urban city areas where it is over populated. Unlike Urban areas,in the rural areas families are permitted to have two children – however this only applies if the families first child was a girl, or if the boy had a disability. There is also another exception & this is for farmers with difficulties such as a shortage in labor power. So all in all the one child policy is only in place in already densely populated areas this is mainly in the coastal area where most tourists head and where chinas business centers is held. There are many benefits, to couples who accept the law; the most important of all is the “one child certificate” which gives the one child parents many benefits including:

* Income Bonuses

* Better health care benefits

* Better retirements pensions

* Priorities in housing

The mother is also granted longer maternity leave, & The child receives preference for daycare, they are also well off for the future since they get priority jobs when they are ready to work. In the exchange for the certificate and benefits, the couple pledges to never have anymore children .In the 1980’s, less than one fifth of the married couples had the signed the certificate.

Well what abut the other four fifths of the population? And what if Chinas citizens still don’t want to follow the one child policy and accept this law? In these circumstances,-when the one child law is violated there are serious consequences. Chinese government have taken action towards women who are pregnant with their second child, who then have to face violent threats,the imprisonment of their husband,there water electricity and heating cut off,Being imprisoned until agreeing to an abortion a fine of approximately 20 to 50 percent of the family’s income. Some people have even reported their houses being destroyed.

Even a special tax that can range from ten percent of their earnings has been introduced in urban areas .

Infanticide…

Infanticide. Infanticide is the killing of infants. This is the result of the one child policy. This is often a last resort if abortion and contraceptives have failed. However the methods of the infanticide are shocking some of the method are done secretly without the mother knowing and some are done by the mother or forced by the government

in some such cases the mother thinks she is going for a

normal checkup however the doctor is actually instructed by the government to kill the baby by any methods; injections, pills prescriptions and so on. If all fails as soon a the baby has been born it is dropped into a bucket of water before its first breath some are abandoned in fields left to die. However these actions are some times taken by the parent as you will find out on the next page . . .

Tradition

Tradition plays a big part in infanticide, as in my research i have come to find that infanticide is mainly female as Chinese parents prefer boys, This is mainly due to tradition, as women are seen inferior to men and they are often referred to as “maggots in the rice.”

Many Chinese people agree with this as they see Girls as a burden, this is because they pay for their daughters expenses until she is old enough to marry, she then leaves the family household and goes on to join her husband. Without being able to help her family financially.

With boys however it is the complete opposite when they get old enough they begin to work and support the family he also sees to it that the family has enough money for any necessary needs the family may have before going off to marry.

So in conclusion boys are seen to be a help to the family.

However because of this there have followed a lot of problems,it has caused the abandoning of baby girls, filled up the orphanages, created a unbalance of the sex ratio, and extended the black market.

Although the government has tried to eliminate the death of these legal and perfectly healthy baby girls (by making scans, to determine the sex of the baby illegal, so the couple have no knowledge whether the baby is a boy a girl eliminating the possibility that that is used to determine whether or not the couple decide to have an abortion.) This has resulted in the expand in the Chinese black market. This is what many Chinese couples turn to to find the sex of a baby. More to the fact this scan can cost as low as just �2.70 for a girl and �3.00 for a boy. Which again shows the sexual discrimination towards girls in the Chinese tradition.

So as Chinese couples have access to these scans easily even though it is illegal, it still doesn’t stop them, therefore still creates the unbalance of the sex ratio.

China has the biggest unbalance of males and females in fact it is ——————-

Orphanages

The state of the orphanages in china are in horrible conditions. The staff are under paid and have no care for the children. The state of the equipment & medicine is horrendous. The upbringing of the children is not even to animal standards. There is no source of education for the children. The list of things that have gone wrong in chinas orphanages are endless. Even more so the government appoint the job to staff who are not trained, and under educated, so the staff (About 2 or 3 for 20 to 30 babies) have no say on whether they accept the job or not. They are simply given something they must do.

As much as i would like to leave this matter, the babies in the orphanages deserve to at least be thought of and remembered. They should not be seen as a menace to china and its society but should be respected as they have been on the receiving end of chinas one child policy. I will try and go through what they have been suffering behind the closed doors of chinas orphanages. China – The country which i once thought of as one of the most respectful countries in the world is doing this. I realize that china is a great country, but known in technology and in money. And i finally understand that china isn’t perfect and that they have big problems as well as the other countries in the world.

But what i don’t understand is that china has the money to put things right yet they have not taken any action towards this matter. Unlike other countries they have created this problem themselves and unlike other countries they have the resources to put this right yet they still choose to ignore this matter and try to hide it from society and try to conceive our minds .These babies deserve to be thought of for the very least we can each personally do. So just for a moment i would like to remind you of Chinas orphans. . .

The lives of these innocent and defenseless little bundles of joy are taken without need and they die, some of neglect and some of illnesses that could have been easily prevented and even treated if they were just thought of. Lives are lost needlessly and without a trace. Being taken to an orphanage is literally a death sentence for these harmless babies who just want a loving home but are denied this by the government.

Many babies in chinas orphanages die due to neglect as babies they are left in their cots to cry themselves to sleep they are wrapped up like parcels very tight and cannot move

blankets are piled up on top of them whole even their faces making it harder for them to breath unless they turn their faces to the side even being able to look out the cot is denied for them as they are covered with blankets oblivious to the world, the only time they receive physical contact with humans is when they are changed and washed and even when this is taking place the staff act like they are working in factories completely dead, it would make no difference to the babies if they were robots or machines. they may as well just go back to having their chat with the other staff and continue to drink their mint tea.

This is the life of a baby in a Chinese orphanage. When the baby gets to be about 1 year (thats if they survive that long.) They are tied to chairs – to reduce the amount of work the staff do they have made a new design of chairs. It consist of a wooden row of 4 chairs stuck together with a hole in the middle of each seat, when you look through the hole you see bowls and buckets used for makeshift potties. each child has a hole cut into its trousers. They are then tied to the chairs by the legs and their arms restricting their movement to the similar rocking motion they all seem to have.

This device makes it easier for the staff as they don’t need to change them they are literally tied to the toilet seat. When the child gets old enough to walk it is left to do whatever it wants, lie on the floor, walk around bottomless ( the hole they cut in their trousers are still kept for some reason) So the child has nothing to do except go and see the other babies sometimes to harm them not on purposely they have just never been taught there is no role model for these children. The only verbal contact they have with staff is to tell them which babies have died and to check on the ones in the dying rooms.

After the age of 10 the children just seem to disappear without trace.

The statistics of the amount of children that live and die in the orphanages are not accurate and have been changed for a number of reasons. the police officers say that they bring in about 20-30 babies a month yet only about 15 are seen at a time so what has happened to the other 15 and what about the other children that had been delivered in the previous months. Lost without a trace. Gone in a flash not even their names remembered, sometimes they aren’t even named and if they are lucky some of them are named “no name.” Or in Chinese ” Mei Ling ” These babies are denied existence. But why are they lied about? They are just objects that had once been. Now all that is left of them is lied about even when there is concrete proof like footage it is denied that they ever lived.