Research Process Step 4: A research paper is an original essay where the student poses a research question, gathers materials (designing interview questions, observing and taking notes, designing questionnaires, critical analysis of readings and sources) focuses the research, shapes the argument, and frames the materials in relation to the larger themes developed in the course. It continues the same topic.
2.A formal outline following APA format must be submitted.
3.Final paper must be submitted in Canvas.
4.Essay should include introduction including a thesis statement that states the position on the issue.
5.Body includes examples that develop the thesis with evidence in each paragraph.
6.Conclusion includes restated thesis, summary, ending, impact, and reflection.
7.You must include at least 8 researched sources. You must then incorporate this material in to the paper and cite the sources correctly in the paper. The sources should then be cited correctly using the APA format as a References page. If it is on the References page, it must be cited in the paper.
8.Five of the sources must be from the college library database. One includes a reading from the iBook.
9.Include more data, chart, map, images, and brief video to expand your paper.
10.This paper develops a strong argument on your continued topic. You must incorporate the main aspects of the first two papers and then further expand your ideas and the sources from the annotated bibliography into a formal, well-developed, written persuasive research paper. The paper must convince the reader of the point you are arguing for in the paper. You must prove your thesis.
11.No first person “I” point of view. The paper is in third person pov.
12.How does this connect to freedom, equality, justice, and power? How is it important to society, and how does it affect society? Why is this issue important? What is the impact of this position?
My Essay
China is the fastest growing economy in the world, with an average GDP of over $13 trillion. The main reason, and threat, to China’s economic success remains its population. With over 1.38 billion people, China is the most densely populated country in the world. The country rapidly grew despite its one-child policy, implemented for more than four decades until it was replaced by the two-child policy in 2015 (Zeng & Hesketh, 2016). The two-child policy was thought to quench the negative implications of the one-child policy. However, although the two-child policy solves some of the problems created by the one-child policy, it creates a new set of problems that threatens the economic and social stability of the country. The two-child policy creates an economic and social problem for China, but it is more important to look at the human rights standpoint, which both of these policies neglect, as all life is precious.
China’s one-child policy officially became a legal requirement in 1979, after a decade long endeavor by the government to encourage people to have only one child. The policy was set to control the bloating population. However, the policy turned the country into one of the most rapidly greying populations in Asia (Zeng and Hesketh, 2016). Echo experts’ estimations that the country’s population would peak at 1.45 billion in 2030, if the rule still applies, some speculate this peak would occur as early as 2029. The IMF had predicted the number of people in their intellectual and physical prime (adolescents as young as 15 years and adults as old as 59 years) would drop by 170 million by 2050 if the one-child policy continued to be implemented. It also estimated that more than a quarter of China’s population would be 65 years old or higher if the policy continued (Bloomberg, 2019). Despite China’s rapid and expansive economic growth, its output per hours of work decreased to its lowest level since 1999 in 2016. The average number of births by a woman over her entire lifetime also decreased from 6 in 1965 to just 1.7 in 2015, which is way below the required minimum of 2.7 to maintain a steady and productive population (Bloomberg, 2019). To maintain an active population, for effective productivity, China set to replace the one-child policy with the two-child policy. This initiative was hoped to ease the pressure on single children to take care of a rapidly growing aging population, while still maintaining active and proactive economic output for the greater economic good.
The one-child policy in China also had detrimental effects on the social fabric of the country that were hoped to be solved by the two-child policy. The one-child policy was, inexplicitly, horrific for China’s women. It subjected many children to forced abortions and sterilizations. The policy went as far as giving legal validation for the killing of new-born girls by many family planning officials, while others were abandoned by their parents entirely, due to the fear of reproach. Indeed, the policy’s preference for boys led to adverse effects on women and girls in general. The policy prevented over 400 million births since its implementation in 2015, with an average infant deaths ratio of 21:28 (21 male infant deaths per 1000 live births as opposed to 28 for females) (Parkinson, 2015). This statistic places the number of boys born for every girl at 1.26 (Parkinson, 2015), which is an astounding figure, for a country with a bloated population like China. The shrinking female and young population created a fertile ground for the discrimination of women, as reported above. Pressure from both the international community and Chinese feminist movements also contributed to the enactment of the two-child policy, which sought to dilute and end the discrimination created by the implementation of the one-child policy in China (Zeng & Hesketh, 2016). It was hoped that raising the child limit to two would deflate the increasing and validated disapproval of the one-child policy.
Although the two-child policy solved the economic and social problems created by the one-child policy, the new policy offers its fair share of detriments that threaten China. For example, most Chinese couples, more so those in big cities and relatively large urban centers are finding it hard to have more than one child (Wang & Song, 2018). Experts estimate around 33% of women in China get pay cuts after giving birth and 36% of women were demoted at their workplace as a result of the same. This form of subtle discrimination offers Chinese couples and women, in general, less incentive to give birth to more than one child. The high cost of living in Chinese urban areas required long working hours as well as the ever-increasing child-care expenses further induce an inverse incentive for Chinese couples, more so women, to not have children at all (Wang & Song, 2018). Also, in relatively smaller and rural cities in China, this incentive increases, although hospitals and other health providers were overwhelmed by the subtle baby boom experienced after the enactment of the two-child policy.
Apart from the detrimental social effects of China’s two-child policy, other transcending economic policies are experienced. For example, the increasing aging population and labor shortages experienced in mainland China as a result of the one-child policy created a production deficit for China’s industries. Manufacturers in China’s export powerhouse, the Pearl River Delta, moved to Hong Kong, in an attempt to invest in less labor-intensive manufacturing activities like robots and automation. Therefore, a sudden expanding population places China at a disadvantage, since the country’s main economic front, manufacturing, and export is moving away from mainland China. A majority of these companies are not willing for the country’s population to reach its production optimum, predicted to be a reality 30 years from the implementation of the two-child policy. Also, these companies are satisfied and attracted by the relatively low costs of automation and robotics, at least, as far as labor requirements are concerned.
Also, most companies are reluctant to pay for more than one maternity leaves, since the same would be considered additional costs on their operations. The subtle baby boom experienced in 2015 and 2016 after the implementation of the two-child policy significantly increased the amount spent by companies on maternity leaves. This increase prompted these companies to reduce the pay or demote women in China after giving birth.
As mentioned before, China’s Two-Child Policy poses socio-economic threats to industry and results in companies spending more on maternity leaves and demoting pregnant women either in pay or in position. This is not the only issue posed by either of the policies, Human Rights must be factored in as well, all life is precious and under the one-child policy women and families were being heavily fined for the second child and in rural areas of the country, forced into abortions and sterilization. There is not much that has changed since the adoption of the two-child policy and the country suffers from the fact that because of such harsh conditions, families do not want to have more children which also factors in the higher cost of living in today’s day and age. People live in fear of having their children immediately taken away or killed or having to pay a fine. These family planning policies that are placed by the Chinese authorities clearly violates international standards. Provinces in China have also been found to be terminating jobs for women who exceed the two-child limit as these children are known as ‘illegal child’. China holds the record for highest female suicide rate in the world and trends would show a correlation between these suicides and the claims by the Chinese government of about 400 million abortions under its family planning policies (Board, 2015).
China is facing a serious battle now as their work-force is aging and not enough children are being born in order to take from the previous generation. The human rights debacle that was the one-child policy and later the two-child policy has left ripple effects that may seem like it’s too late to reverse the damage done. The CECC (Congressional-Executive Commission on China) reports that due to Human rights violations such as birth limits in which baby girls were ill-treated due to a preference for boys will result in a ratio and predictions for 2050 estimate that 30 million working aged men will not have female counterparts (Funk, 2018). The CECC also suggests that this will further increase in human rights violations as this will increase the trafficking of women from countries such as North Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal and Cambodia for unwanted marriages and sexual exploitation. Some local state governments in China also have women of childbearing age to undergo pregnancy tests, compel them to undergo invasive “three inspections” for the placement of IUD’s, health inspections and pregnancy tests and some women are heavily fined if they do not accord. These family planning methods are not in any way helping China’s ill-balanced ratio of men to women mainly because all of these rules are turning families away from bearing children. The increase in cost of living also has an effect on the issue and if women are losing employment because of these policies, in no way does that help raise children (Funk,2018).
As demonstrated, the two-child policy was enacted to counteract problems created by the one-child policy. However, in as much as this new policy solved a variety of these problems, it created its fair share of problems for the Chinese people, both socially and economically. As such, a more holistic approach is needed to create and implement a policy that addresses the threats and problems posed by the one-child policy as well as deal with the emerging problems of the two-child policy. They still have not been able to fix the human rights violations and the vast difference in the ratio between men and women.
