China - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 271

Five-Year Plan called for an urban growth rate of 1% by 1975. The Fifth
Five Year Plan continued the 1% rate and projected a reduction to 0.5%
by 1985, and a zero rate by the end of the century. The methods were
to be delayed marriages, greater space between children, and fewer chil-
dren overall. Its slogan was “One is good, two is all right and three is too
many.” Contraceptives were now to be distributed free, and women could
get free hospital care for abortions, IUD insertions, and sterilizations.
Propaganda attacked the Confucian beliefs about fertility, including the
preference for sons. 13
By the end of the 1970s, the policy was working. The birthrate had
declined from 34 per thousand to 18 per thousand. 13 However, this was
not enough. Because of the baby boom of the 1950s, more young women
were of childbearing age. The total numbers were going up sharply. The
only solution was one-child families. This required both positive and neg-
ative incentives. First, a couple who wanted to have a child needed to get
permission. The rewards for complying were a monthly subsidy, priority
in housing, free medical care, maternity leave, exemption from tuition,
and additional vacation. Those who did not register their marriages or
had a baby without permission, or had too many babies did not get these
benefits and had to pay a fine.
The one-child policy was unpopular, particularly in rural areas. Parents
wanted more than one, and they especially wanted sons. For a peasant,
a son has a duty to care for his old parents, whereas a daughter does not.
The country did not have old-age pensions or health insurance. One con-
sequence of the one-child policy was, of course, abortion, but when that
did not occur, another option was to kill the unwanted babies. A second
or third child might be smothered at birth or drowned in a pond. In cities,
obstetricians would give the mother an injection that would cause a still-
birth. Hospitals were penalized if unauthorized babies were born. Because
of the desire to have sons, parents might kill their baby daughters. This
is, however, against the official government policy. 14 Because the govern-
ment will make an exception and permit a second birth when the first
child is deformed, some parents maimed their daughters. The only child,
the product of this policy, ended up smothered in attention from by his
parents and grandparents. If he were a boy, he gained the nickname of
the Little Emperor. More sympathetic observers concluded these only
children were thriving from the love of their families.
In recent years, the government has eased its program slightly in
response to domestic and foreign opposition. A few localities, mostly rural,