Pondering the Population of China

China's "Single Child Policy" all but guarantees that these three girls are not sisters.

October 21, 1999
Web posted at: 3:17 p.m. EDT (1917 GMT)

Christina has written a letter to her mom and wanted to share it with you!

I've been thinking about you. A disturbing experience I had the other day has gotten me thinking about the difference between being a woman in Muslim, Chinese, and American cultures.

I went to the Muslim market in Hotan with a few other team members, but in the chaos, I wandered from the group. Suddenly, I felt a hard whack on my leg! I turned to face the glare of an angry old man- he had hit me with a wooden stick! Every way I turned there were crowds of disparaging men and women, tsking and staring at my legs, saying angry things I couldn't understand. Wearing shorts hadn't been a problem with the group, and never for the men, but somehow being alone was different, much different. For the first time, I was treated badly for being a woman. You raised me not as a girl, but just as me, unique for my personality and experiences as I went through life. Growing up, I never felt like I was kept from doing things because I was a girl. What if I had been born in a Muslim society? What if I had been born in China? Would my rights be different? Would I be a different person, have a different personality?

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Since I was a girl, I've looked forward to the joys of having a child, maybe even two if I chose. But girls here grow up with a different outlook. Han Chinese women are encouraged by the government to only have one child. I think about Robin (Christina's sister) and her twins. What would have happened if she were Chinese? I've heard Chinese and Americans speak out strongly against China's "Single Child Policy" as cruel, an abuse of a natural human right. But just a few minutes ago, in the town of Min Feng, I asked three women how they feel about it. They all said the same thing. "The government tells us it's good to have only one child and we believe it's true. When we were little girls, we always wanted to have only one child. We are a poor country and it's better for everyone if we have only one."

As an environmentalist, I know there's a good reason for the law. China has 1.2 billion people, a fifth of the world's population, but less than a tenth of its arable (farmable) land. What's worse, almost all the people live in just half its land area, resulting in a human density more than three times the world average. Overpopulation is at the root of most of China's and the world's environmental problems, from air and water pollution to the collapse of fisheries, acid rain, shrinking forests, the extinction of plants and animals, and global warming. China is home to five of the ten most-polluted cities in the world, including Beijing and Xi'an, on and near our route.

Due to human and industrial waste, a third of China's rivers and over 90% of water in urban areas is severely contaminated. Trying to provide electricity for China's huge population by burning high-sulfur coal has resulted in increased air pollution and acid rain over much of the world, which kills rivers and lakes and much of what lives in them. Freshwater shortages are now one of the most serious constraints to development in Beijing.

China has a long history of problems related to overpopulation and its leaders have been struggling with solutions for half a century. The decisions about how to provide food, water, and electricity for so many people without completely destroying the environment have been very tough. Education has been a priority, and today China has a higher rate of literacy than the United States. Also, since the Single Child Policy was put into effect in 1979, population growth has decreased dramatically, from 2.3% in the early 1970s to 1.4% in 1990, even lower than the world average. Without China's policy, scientists predict that the world's population would have reached 6 billion five years ago.

As an environmentalist, I believe that the Single Child Policy may be the best thing China has ever done for the future of the planet. China has more experience struggling with issues related to overpopulation, so who are we to say what's right for them? Shouldn't we appreciate the gift they've given the world in cutting back on population growth? As a woman, though, it's hard for me to support a policy to which I wouldn't want to be subjected. As an American, too, it's hard for me to imagine sacrificing my own life dreams so that the planet can be a little bit better for others. Is it more important for each person to have the right to choose now, or for generations to come to have a better standard of living?

In China, every town is a big town.

When the Uighurs first arrived in Xinjiang a thousand years ago, they encountered a people called the Tocharians. The Tocharians were fair-skinned, fair-haired Caucasians who spoke a language closer to German and Celtic than to any Asian language. Their woolen clothes are woven in a style identical to textiles found in ancient burials in Germany. They made a living on the edges of the desert for thousands of years and then vanished without a trace.

Even if the Single Child Policy is a complete success, reducing China's growth to zero, the prospect of all the people that already live in China modernizing and increasing their use of resources will still do untold damage to the world's environment. In Beijing, the sound of whirring bike tires still dominates car traffic noise, and bikes rule the road, but more and more people are switching to cars as they get richer. The impact of all those people owning cars is too scary for me even to imagine.

Too many people, more and more cars, I still have a hard time figuring out where I fit into all this. But considering some of China's difficult population and environmental issues has made me reflect on my own choices. I feel very grateful to live in a place where I have the choice, but I also take the responsibility of that choice much more seriously. I wonder, Mom, if you and your friends even associated having children with the health of the environment when you were my age?

Love,
Christina