Exceptions

Only 35% of Chinese are subject to the one-child policy due to the numerous exceptions to law. The Chinese government allows rural families to have two children if their first-born is a girl in order to allow families to have more children to help in the fields and to prevent the gendercide of females (Hays). Parents who are only children themselves are able to have two children. Ethnic minorities in China, such as the Han and the Mongols, are exempt from the policy because of their already limited populations (Chang). Despite the various exceptions to the one-child policy, those that are not required to comply with the policy sometimes decide to have only one child because of the expense (Hays). Since some couples do not take advantage of the opportunity to have more children, they end up contributing to China’s decreasing population growth and the various issues it causes.