University of Texas El Paso

History

         The People’s Republic of China has a population of 1.4 billion and growing, and China ranks number one in the world for population.  Throughout China’s history the population has always been a little rocky.  It was filled with famine and natural disasters.  Furthermore, five of the nine deadliest wars took place in China.  As a result of those five wars, it is estimated a total of one hundred twenty-three million people were killed.  Between 220AD-280AD, The Three Kingdom period was the most deadly time period, which resulted in about forty million deaths with the contributing factors of famine and disease.  In 1850 Hong Xiuquan, while in control of a third of China’s land, caused fifteen years of rebellion and about thirty million people died due to plague and famine.  Between, 1937 to 1949, the Communist and Nationalist parties were at war, and in combination with the invasion of Japan resulted in about 14 million deaths (Todd, 2013).  After the Civil War Mao Zedong encourages the people of China to have as many children as they can.  It was thought to bring wealth, help to populate the country, and make a stronger military defense.  He quoted “people is the power of the country’s defenses”.  Since 1949 to present day the population of China has grown to 1.4 billion and it is still growing  (CWN, 2014).

Economic Boom

          China's population is equivalent to 20% of the total world population (Seven billion).  In addition, only 20% of China’s land is farmable; therefore, it is a struggle to maintain the ability to satisfy the needs of over 1.4 billion people  (Laowaiblog, 2011).   But when the population increased in China, the demand for jobs also increased, which resulted in cheap labor.  Even with all the factories from foreign countries that brought jobs to China, many people were still left with unemployment problems due to the high population.  Although, this was a big push for China’s economic growth, but this also placed an enormous contribution to many aspects of environmental pollution.  

Limited Resources 

Food/Water shortage

          The overpopulation problem in China has already made a big impact and caused a long lasting damage to China’s future.  At this point in 2015, China’s population is at 1.4 billion and counting, not to mention the resources are limited.  Population increases 220,000 people everyday, and food shortage is a big issue, because of the lack of recourses to sustain all the people.  Many people and young children are dying of malnutrition.  As of today in many parts of China, the struggle to support families is a challenge all by itself.

            Water shortage is caused by water pollution, which is caused by factories’ irresponsible actions of dumping chemicals into China’s water source.  Half of China’s lakes and reservoirs are polluted.  Not to mention 60% of China’s underground water is not fit for human contact.  (Laowaiblog, 2011).  People in many parts of China are consuming cancer causing toxin water.  Water pollution leaves over 5 million people without clean drinking water.  It is estimated that by 2030, China will run out of water.

Environmental Pollution

Air pollution

         Overpopulation has caused the demands of energy to increase, and eighty percent of China’s energy is dependent on Coalmines (Laowaiblog, 2011).  Combined with transportation, and factories that are releasing carbon dioxide into the air.  This is the leading cause of lung cancer throughout China.  In result, this leads to the number one cause in the of death toll rise.  For that reason China’s population has a greater chance of decreasing.  This applies to many major cities in China, such as Beijing and Shanghai and their main causes of air pollution are Vehicle emissions, Industrial and Coal usage.  70% of the air in China is considered unhealthy.  That is the reason majority of the people wears facemasks when they are outside of their homes  (TestTube news, 2015).

Water Pollution

                   Water pollution is a serious problem and it is much worse than air pollution.  Many provinces near Beijing are full of polluted rivers.  In addition, over half of China’s rivers and lakes have been declared unfit for human consumption, nor could it be used for bathing.  In Henan province, polluted water has been linked to the rise of cancer with the residents in the village.  In Hubei Province, Algae blooms are a common thing in the rivers.  In addition, garbage and dead fishes floats among the rivers.  Some reservoirs have the lead level of twenty times higher then the safe level by the world health organization.  In 2013, Shanghai River was filled with more than 2000 dead pigs floating on the surface (Ludacer, 2015)

            Factories are the main causes of water pollution due to the lack of proper disposable of chemicals.  But individuals who are not doing their part are also the cause of pollution in China’s rivers, lakes and reservoirs.  This led to pollution in more then half of China’s water sources.  As a result of all the water pollutions over 1/3 of all native fish species in the yellow river are extinct.  In Chongqing province, the public used the help of social media to push the official to take action.  Fortunately, China has plans to spend 850 billion dollars to cleanup water pollution in the next decade (Ludacer, 2015).

One-Child Policy

            The Communist Government of China mandated the public to a maximum of one child per family in 1979.  They Controls the One-Child policy by mandatory checkups for females every three months to ensure there are no pregnancies.  If any women are pregnant and already have a child, they are forced to abort it immediately.  Furthermore, even women that are caught pregnant in their third trimester are forced to abort that child.  Because of cultural preference of males over females and the advanced technology with ultrasounds, sex of the baby is more easily identified.  Unforturnaly, this results in many voluntary abortions of female fetuses or it would be given up for adoption, abandoned or sold.  Some people even left their newborn babies girls for dead. The One-Child Policy has been around for three-decades, throughout this period it is estimated about four million births were prevented (Jiang, & Cullinane, 2015).   In result of that it caused an imbalanced sex ratio in China.  Consequently, this will lead to about twenty to thirty million Chinese men unable to find wives.

             After Thirty-five years the One-Child policy ended in 2013.  Some of the reasons that resulted in that decision are China’s concerns for the decrease working population, imbalance of female to male ratio, and China’s cultural beliefs on the younger generation being obligated to support their parents and elderly grandparents on both sides of the family.  Therefore, this puts a burden on one child.  Due to these concerns the Chinese government amended the One-Child policy and enforced the Two-Child policy in late 2013 (Makinen, 2015).

              It is not a surprise how damaging can overpopulation cause problems for a country.  Overpopulation in China led to many unfortunate problems and human rights issues.  Which will also affect many generations to come.  It is heartbreaking for people living in urban areas having to live in that type of environment.  Moreover, those women having to go through forced abortions.  We as a human race takes life for granted we must do something about it knowing that every child is a gift from God.  “When we forget about the fragility of planet Earth, when we waste, pollute, and ignore the gifts of Mother Nature, tragedy is soon to follow.”  (Earth Porm. 2015).