Chinese Population Issues, Part 4

The question remains; is China’s population a huge problem that must be corrected through inhumane methods that violate the dignity and rights of the citizen that the government should be protecting? Or are the policies an extension of what has been done by the people themselves to manage the population previously, only now by force? Mao’s assertion that a large population is a benefit and resource for a country reflects the phrase “People are born not only with mouths that need to be fed, but also with hands that can produce, and minds that can create and innovate."(5). It was not the large population that caused mass starvation during the Great Leap Forward, but reckless public policy decisions driven by communist philosophy, such as steel production in backyard furnaces, unobtainable production expectations for communes, and bombastic statements fueled by Marxist thinking. These policies and ideas handicapped the government in providing assistance in food prouction and distribution, critically disrupted resource allocation during harvest time, and fundamentally disordered the existing economic system, which in turn caused millions of deaths through starvation.