Overpopulation in China

Faraj Aldossary

Population is the number of people who are alive in the same place; house, area, city, country, or entire the world at the same time. Any country has to know the trends of its population to take care of them in the future. A country’s government is responsible to provide a good life for its population. The government has to have strong infrastructures such as schools , health care centers, hospitals, and housing. On the other hand, there are many countries around the world that have overpopulation; China is one of them. Overpopulation is a large number of people who live in a limited place together. Overpopulation is a problem that comes with many social, economical, environmental, security problems. Overpopulation is a main cause of serious crises whether they are individual or public. “Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too space, is closely associated with poverty” (Zaki, 2007, para. 9). China is the biggest country that suffers from overpopulation. Moreover, China’s population forms a high percent of the increase of world’s population growth. According to Associated Press Online (2007), China’s population increased by almost 7 million people at the end of 2006. China has 20 percent of the world’s population. Chinese authorities formulated procedures to control or decrease overpopulation. According to Ford (2007), China’s family-planning policy, China’s birth-control policy, and one-child policy are examples of China’s government polices to control its overpopulation. Therefore, I believe that any country that has overpopulation will be exposed to be after developing countries, because it will suffer from environmental and economic problems; besides, it will have places that will be overcrowded.

First of all, overpopulation affects environment negatively. If a society consists of many people, then the society will face impact from people. The people will suffer from a lack of natural resources; food, water, energy, and clean air. When population increases, then natural resources should increase to perform people’s needs. For example, surely people need to eat every day; if Chinese people eat a unique kind of food such as a burger meal, China’s government will be forced to provide a lot of burger meals; this requires killing many cattle, consequently, they will end the category of cows or they are not going to find burger meals to eat in the next day. ”Population growth results increases the demand for food production” (Stancheva, 2003, para. 4). Furthermore, overpopulation impacts water sources. Overpopulation demands an increase of agriculture, industry, and other areas that basically depend on water. Thus there is an increase of water consumption. Furthermore, water is not less important than food, so people need it for many vital uses. According to Stancheva (2003, para. 2), water is a fundamental thing of life. It is demanded to keep the balance of each ecosystem. Also, it is used by plants and animals to fulfill important functions. The consumption of water increases as long as human population increases.

Second, overpopulation causes negative effects on a country’s economy. Government will face many people without jobs to support themselves. This will raise the rate of unemployment; therefore, this will increase the rate of crime because the people will need to steal, fight, burglarize, or even kill to get vital needs to survive. For example, if someone is starving but he does not have money to buy food and does not have any source to get help, then he will resort to wrong ways to get food by stealing that will lead him eventually to be criminal, that is a basic pushing forward of crime. On the other hand, most Chinese people are working-age; besides, the Chinese authorities apply some policies to control overpopulation. This will lead to China’s having many old people over working-age. “In the next decade, the proportion of China’s over-65 population will begin to grow while the working-age population will being to shrink. That will impose huge financial burdens on a country struggling to meet its pension commitments to the elderly” (Radio and Television Stories, 2006).

Third, overpopulation pushes people to be crowded. In some countries, there are many cities that have become increasingly crowded until whole families lived in one-room. In China country, people have migranted from rural places to urban areas for searching of work, jobs, and a good life. Therefore, the crowd of people will bring many social problems such as poverty and homelessness. For example, in the down town of big cities, it is difficult for traffic because many people are crowded over there. “Roughly two thirds of China’s population is born in rural areas. But more and more of those people are moving to the cities to look for work”(Lim, 2006). On the other hand, I truly feel that rural people’s moving from the countryside to city should not blamed for all the country’s problems but they are increasing the effects of overpopulation and making problems harder to solve. For example, many people may move to the city at same time; then, the government can not immediately provide houses for all of them. “Cities are predicted to edge out rural areas in more than sheer numbers of people. Poverty is increasing more rapidly in urban areas, and governments need to plan for where the poor will live rather than leaving them to settle illegally in shanties without sewerage and other services, the United Nations report says” (Celia, 2007).

Many opponents believe that any country that has overpopulation will be a developing country, and then a developed country, because overpopulation will support many vital areas. They argue that China’s overpopulation is going to force people to work in different fields; consequently, they will produce benefits in different areas. They think if population increases, then factories, companies, shops, farms, and buildings will increase, too. In addition, they say that China will export its culture through its immigrants. In addition, China’s overpopulation will be useful to increase other countries’ populations. However, the overpopulation problem is the big cause for many problems. Overpopulation may support some fields by many people, but more and more people will be unemployed. This situation will put China’s government in trouble because they will face social, economic, political problems. Consequently, the government can not control overpopulation. Then, there will be noisy, crazy, and starving people nationwide. For example, when a country has overpopulation, then those people will have many children. Those children will need schools, health care, and all vital services or they will be homeless. According to Zaki (2007, para. 2), poorest people around the world live in developing areas such as Asia. Mostly, they suffer from poverty, drug use, crime, and high rates of disease.

In conclusion, when a family has a big number, then it will buy a bigger house to live comfortably. That is a good solution for family, but it is impossible for a country. Chinese authorities have tried to control overpopulation. They applied many policies to control it. All the world takes care of China’s overpopulation because the Chinese people have a high percentage of the world’s population. Overpopulation is a big controversial issue. Overpopulation has advantages if the authorities can control it, or it will have many disadvantages. However, there are some debates about overpopulation now. Nevertheless, to control overpopulation, it is essential to produce vital needs. Moreover, China’s overpopulation may be a coming danger to the world. The Chinese authorities are facing many troubles with overpopulation. Many people in China live in large cities that affect the. Since the increasing of the population size in China country, the government should take care of residents and they should control and decrease China’s overpopulation. Absolutely, they should consider and make better urban areas to prevent becoming an under-developed country.

References
Associated Press Online (2007, March 01). China’s population Grew About 7 Million. Retrieved Aug 02, 2007 from http://web.lexis-nexis.com

Celia, D. (2007, June 28). U.N. Predicts Urban Population Explosion. The New York Times. Retrieved Aug 02, 2007 from http://web.lexis-nexis.com

Ford, P. (2007, Feb. 27). Chinese county reins in birth-rate-without a one-child limit. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved Aug 02, 2007 from http://web.lexis-nexis.com

Lim, L. (2006, may 17). Rural Chinese Leave Home in Search of a Better Life. National Public Radio (NPR). Retrieved Aug 02, 2007 from http://web.lexis-nexis.com

Radio and Television Stories (2006, March 07). Population Pressures. VOA’s latest series. Retrieved Aug 02, 2007 from http://www.voanews.com

Stancheva, T. (2007, June 02). Effects of overpopulation on the environment. Swarthmore College Environmental Studies. Retrieved Aug 02, 2007 from http://fubini.swarthmore.edu

Zaki, H. (2007, April 21). Poverty and Related Issues. Global News Wire. Retrieved Aug 02, 2007 from http://web.lexis-nexis.com