How is the crisis artificial? The amount of agricultural land China needed to sustain its population is totally calculable. the Chinese population grow threefold from 1912 to when the policy was introduced, had it been growing like that, today China would have HALF of the world's population. it's understandable to think it might an ecologically unsustainable growth.
I totally understand you. Peoples come in here and just go on criticize policies because they don't know the reality of living in an overpopulated country with limited ressources.
In Africa, Burundi, my country of 28km2, we have more than 90% of the litigations in the courts about land and properties. Siblings kill each other for land! We have 5.4 children/woman. One of the biggest natality rate in Africa. Only surpassed by Niger! We have American evangelical coming in scaring peoples to do abortions and contraception! We can't even talk about sterilization! With population density of more than 450 peoples by the km2.
Primary School is free and children get free healthcare till 5 years of age. It means that those 5.4 children per woman are likely to live and multiply!
What do you think we need to do?
I can only imagine how Chinese peoples did projections and saw that by the end of the century they would be half the world population without half the ressources and took drastic measures!
Absolutely! We have been doing so for the last 20 years. Reducing child mortality at the fastest rate in East Africa. Women education is one of our top achievement from those years. Urbanization and industrialization is the only thing that's coming slow.
Life is still not so expensive for the families (essentially men) are still having more babies than they can afford to nurture!
What is the difference in between 10 people making less than 1 ton on an acre and starving, and 10000 people making less than 1000 tons on 1000 acres, and starving?
The difference is just the number of starving people.
And add to that that all land was, and still is nationalised in China.
> I can only imagine how Chinese peoples did projections and saw that by the end of the century they would be half the world population
And communists knew it being 100% bullshit for masses. Just like Mao very well know how "4 pests," and other mass actions been complete bonkers.
They were not stupid to the point of drinking their own coolaid.
> The amount of agricultural land China needed to sustain its population is totally calculable.
And it was more than enough to feed China even back then.
It's a poor insinuation claiming that top statesmen didn't know that. They knew it very well, and they also knew how catastrophically they mismanaged the agriculture.
