When Formal Laws and Informal Norms Collide: Lineage Networks versus Birth Control Policy in China

2010 ◽  
Vol 116 (3) ◽  
pp. 770-805 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusheng Peng
Keyword(s):  
Birth Control ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Birth Control Policy

Birth Control to Birth Promotion? China’s Population Policy at a Crossroads

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (04) ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
Min ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Birth Control ◽  
Population Policy ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Question Mark ◽  
Child Policy ◽  
Private Rights ◽  
Birth Control Policy ◽  
Policy Incentives ◽  
Direct Measures

China officially ended its one-child policy effective from 1 January 2016. Yet the effects of the relaxation of birth control policy have been limited thus far. Largely relying upon policy incentives, China’s policymakers also face pressure to take more direct measures to boost fertility rate. Whether the Chinese government is able to balance the needs of the nation and the citizens’ private rights remains a big question mark.

Lost and Found

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
John James Kennedy ◽  
Yaojiang Shi
Keyword(s):  
Birth Control ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Rural Families ◽  
Control Policy ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Sex Selective Abortion ◽  
Birth Control Policy ◽  
Rural Parents ◽  
Local Leaders

Between 1979 and 2010 local leaders and rural families across China concealed the existence of millions of girls from government officials and the national census. The single child policy (1979–2015) was introduced in 1979, and the central government’s goal was to reduce population growth through strict birth control. Yet, at the same time, many rural parents had strong incentives not to comply with the birth control policy because under economic reforms in the 1980s and 1990s, larger families meant increased labor and income. However, most journalists and scholars reported that the combination of a strictly enforced central policy and a historical preference for sons had led to a stark gender imbalance, with an abnormally higher number of males being born than females. The result was an estimated 20 million “missing girls” in the population from 1980 to 2010. Most demographers have believed that this dearth of girls has been due to widespread sex-selective abortion and infanticide. Yet quantitative analysis of China census data and qualitative interviews with rural parents and local leaders suggest that at least half of the “missing girls” were hidden in China. This was due to two key factors. First was the discretion to implement central policy that street-level bureaucrats and local leaders have. There was mutual noncompliance between rural families and village leaders, such that rural parents did not immediately register additional children and local leaders underreported illegal births to higher authorities. Second is the increasing value of daughters and equal preference for sons and daughters over the last several decades.

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