China Faces a "Demographic Time Bomb" Due to its Capitalist One-Child Policy
- Published in Politics
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The Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday 18th January that Ma Jiantang, director of China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), called for the country's one-child policy to be changed because of the nation's shrinking pool of workers. According to the NBS, the working-age population in China decreased by 3.45 million between 2011 and 2012. In October 2011, the China Development Research Foundation, a think-tank affiliated with the Chinese government, also called for relaxation of the policy, stating that the country had paid a "huge political and social cost" for the measure and warned of "the coming demographic disaster caused by low birth rates combined with an ageing population, as well as the severe gender imbalance caused by son preference."
This oppressive one-child policy is founded upon the oppressive and flawed capitalist theory of preventing poverty through population control. It has not only stripped millions of women of their basic right to decide the number of children they bear, suppressing their natural instinct, but has also been associated in China with forced sterilization and forced abortions even in the ninth month of pregnancy. In addition, according to recent statistics 37 million men in the country will be unable to marry due to the low number of women within society resulting from gender-selective abortions that are associated with the policy. This has been blamed for the increase in trafficking of women and other forms of corruption within the state. Alongside this has been a rising number of elderly with no-one to look after them in their old age due to a dwindling younger population. Many have also suggested that the measure has had a detrimental psychological impact upon children growing up under its shadow. On the 11th of January, Australian researchers involved in a study entitled, "Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of China's One-Child Policy" reported that China's one-child policy has created a spoilt generation - not surprising as parents shower their only child with gifts and possessions and children witness that the size of family life and being deprived of siblings is defined by money and economy, fuelling a materialistic mentality amongst a growing sector of China's future generation.
These are the bitter fruits of the materialistic capitalist ideology that looks at solving all problems from the economic perspective, ignoring the social impact of its policies upon the lives of women and society overall. A number of Western states such as Italy and France are also facing a population crisis, resulting from the materialistic mentality nurtured by capitalism which has led to many women viewing children as an impediment to their career or earnings. This has contributed to lower birth rates within these states, with predictions of a reduced workforce and fewer young people to look after their old. In February 2006, the Institute for Public Policy Research in the UK published a report detailing a fertility crisis in Britain due to women delaying motherhood or remaining childless from fears that they would face a reduction in lifetime earnings or lose their place on their career ladder for taking time out to have babies. It described a "baby gap" of 90,000 due to this delay in motherhood. China has therefore tread the same detrimental capitalist path as Western states by viewing children as an economic burden rather than a blessing for families and an asset to society.
The flawed theory of preventing poverty through population control is itself based upon the erroneous capitalist viewpoint on economics that fails to distinguish between what is a necessity for all human beings and what are luxuries and wants. This has resulted in the mistaken belief that there are insufficient resources to provide basic needs for all people and hence the need for population control. This is despite the fact that even the UN, that promotes population control programmes across the world, acknowledges within its World Food Programme branch that there is sufficient food in the world today for everyone to have the nourishment for a healthy and productive life. Furthermore, after 30 years of implementation of this one-child policy, China is still suffering from widespread poverty. This is despite being home to dozens of billionaires. This exemplifies the failure of the capitalistic system to distribute wealth effectively amongst the people which is one of the root causes of the dire poverty facing millions in China and globally today, including in the Muslim world. According to a report released by Oxfam in January, the world's 100 richest people earned enough money last year to end world extreme poverty four times over. Western capitalist states as well as emerging capitalist economies such as China, India, Turkey, and Brazil have clearly failed to match high economic growth with economic justice and equity for their people and for humanity overall.
Islam rejects these damaging family planning-population control programmes which are implemented upon our lands. It removes the oppression from women of suppressing their natural instinct of having many children. And it denounces the sense of guilt imposed upon them by capitalist states that force them to believe that they, rather than the man-made systems implemented upon them are the cause of their poverty. Islam's view is that Allah (swt) is the Sustainer and Provider and that He has created Rizq (provision) that is sufficient for every human being. He (swt) says,
((وَجَعَلَ فِيہَا رَوَٲسِىَ مِن فَوۡقِهَا وَبَـٰرَكَ فِيہَا وَقَدَّرَ فِيہَآ أَقۡوَٲتَہَا فِىٓ أَرۡبَعَةِ أَيَّامٍ۬ سَوَآءً۬ لِّلسَّآٮِٕلِينَ))
"And He set on the earth firm mountains standing above its surface, and He blessed the earth and measured therein nourishment for all things, in four periods: in accordance with the needs of the seekers." [TMQ Fussilat 41:10].
The Prophet (saw) said, "If you were to trust in Allah genuinely, He would give you provision as He does for the birds which go out hungry in the morning and come back full in the evening." [Tirmidhi and Majah]. However, it is only by implementing the economic system of Islam under the umbrella of the Khilafah "Caliphate" that this wealth will be distributed fairly amongst the people. It was this system that succeeded in wiping out poverty from North Africa under the rule of the Khalifah Umar bin Abdul Aziz, where there was no-one who was in need of the zakat to fulfil their basic needs, without the need for population control, due to the just distribution of wealth and successful organization of the economy under the Islamic economic system. Allah (swt) says,
((وَلَوۡ أَنَّہُمۡ أَقَامُواْ ٱلتَّوۡرَٮٰةَ وَٱلۡإِنجِيلَ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ إِلَيۡہِم مِّن رَّبِّہِمۡ لَأَڪَلُواْ مِن فَوۡقِهِمۡ وَمِن تَحۡتِ أَرۡجُلِهِم))
"And if only they had acted according to the Taurat, the Injeel, and what has now been sent down to them from their Lord (the Qur'an), they would have surely gotten provision from above them and from underneath their feet." [TMQ Al-Maida 5:66]
Furthermore, Islam rejects the materialistic capitalist outlook that places limits on family size for economic gain. Instead it recommends having many children without the fear of poverty, resulting in a large young population which will be a major political, economic, military, and social source of strength for the Khilafah "Caliphate" that alone has the ability to harness the full potential of its youth through its sound Islamic policies to make them a force of good for its society. The Prophet (saw) said, "تَزَوَّجُوا الْوَدُودَ الْوَلُودَ ، إِنِّي مُكَاثِرٌ بِكُمْ الْأَنْبِيَاءَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ" "Marry an affectionate woman who gives birth to many children, for I will vie in glory with the Prophets because of your number on the Day of Judgmen)." [Abu Daawood and An-Nasaa'i]
The Khilafah "Caliphate" is therefore a state that will marry economic prosperity with economic justice and equity for its citizens, alongside rejecting this flawed, harmful and oppressive concept of population control. It is a system that the Lord of the Worlds has revealed to serve the needs of humanity rather than the elite few and a human-orientated rather than profit-focused model of managing wealth and organizing the economy - a model which the Khilafah "Caliphate" will seek to spread to the rest of the world, removing injustice and human suffering wherever it finds it. Allah (swt) has said,
((أَلَمْ تَرَوْا أَنَّ اللَّهَ سَخَّرَ لَكُمْ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَأَسْبَغَ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعَمَهُ ظَاهِرَةً وَبَاطِنَةً ))
"Do you not see how Allah has made subjected for you whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and He has completed and perfected His favours upon you, both the open and the hidden." [TMQ Luqman 31:20]
Dr. Nazreen Nawaz
Member of The Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
