Implementation of the Policy
Urban areas
Implementation of the policy in advanced urban areas occurred with relative ease; a significant number of couples had already chosen to only have one child, due to long work hours and a shortage of housing. Because many people were employed in the government sector, they were easily monitored and influenced in their adherence to the One-Child Policy. According to a study by the University of Melbourne, not long after the policy was enacted, nearly 90 percent of couples in cities agreed to limit themselves to one child.
Rural areas
Rural families were less likely to adhere to the policy willingly. With limited economic means, peasants needed many children to aid in their farm or business — and to support them when they grew old. Sons are therefore preferred, because they are able to provide a long-term safety net to their parents, whereas daughters historically left to live with the families of their husbands.
Limited access to health care and poor nutrition contributed to relatively high rates of infant mortality (at least 53 per 1,000 live births in 1980), which further encouraged parents to try for multiple children.
Problems
For citizens who refused to comply with the policy, local government officials levied heavy fines, and some notoriously utilized forced sterilizations and abortions — practices still used, to a lesser degree, today. Because of their isolation, rural communities relied heavily on IUDs and sterilization as their main methods of family planning. Without properly trained technicians, both methods can carry considerable risk. Up until the early 1990s, China utilized unreliable steel IUDs, rather than the recommended copper or plastic devices, further increasing risks of infection in women already lacking medical care.
Even with instances of harsh implementation of the policy, many couples were still able to negotiate having a second child, and by 1990, the number of women who had just one child had fallen by only 10 percent — approximately 90 percent of the population had at least two children. Today, family planning in China is nearly universal (80–95 percent), according to Family Health International, and many Chinese equate smaller family size with economic prosperity.
