Sarah's Reflection ( 3 )

After this lesson, I was impressed how fast China's economic develop so quickly. Compared to China a few years ago, it was actually a country mostly on agriculture and their houses are short, now it is mostly high rise building and it is more industrialize. In fact because it is a big country, they have quite a number of factories to boost productivity. Thus, China was actually not very well-known but now if you asked anyone on the street  99.9% would say yes. In terms of GDP, China rank 2nd behind USA. Their population is very very large 1.4billion. 1.4 BILLION!  This leads to too many people unemployed and low salary. As China is a huge country, they have plenty of factory and their items manufacture is amazing a lots. In addition, the corporate tax rate is lower than USA's so more people tend to import with China instead of USA. As a buyers perspective, people would rather get goods from China as it is much cheaper affecting USA.

Even though we will not be going to Tianjin, I think the Sino-Singapkre Tianjin Eco-city is a very meaningful for both Singapore and Tianjin. From this conserving city, it can maintain the good relationship between both countries. This agree,met is signed on 1 July 2008 and it has been operating for 7 years already.

Si Han's Reflection ( 3 )

International trade, as a major factor of openness, has made an increasingly significant contribution to economic growth. Chinese international trade has experienced rapid expansion together with its dramatic economic growth which has made the country to target the world as its market. 

After opening to International trade, China's economy has increased tremendously. China would be able to earn money by selling goods made in their country to other countries. As the population is very big in China, there will be a large number workers to manufacture goods. Goods would thus be sold at a lower price as the salaries of the workers will be lower with more workers working for the same company. This would result in Singaporeans spending lesser money to buy goods that are made in China, which will leave Singaporeans with more money to buy other stuff. We actually own many objects that are made in China! For example, most of our stationeries, toys and accessories are made in China. This shows that China is a very influential country and many of the goods that China produces are essential in our dally lives. 

However, with the increase in China's economy, more countries would want to do business and trading with China as China has an abundance of land and resources. There will thus be lesser opportunities for smaller countries with little resources such as Singapore as there will be lesser countries willing to invest and do business with Singapore. This would result in economic loss in Singapore. 

Shin Young's Reflection ( 2 )

This one child policy was introduced to China in 1979. As many advantages there are, there are several disadvantages. As for the advantages, they are that the parent of the child is able to pay more attention to their child which will result in the child being better educated. In the past when one family had many children, the parents were not able to support them in education and they grew up without much education and attention. However, after the one child policy has been made, the child will receive more love as well as better education service will be provided to them. All my friends from China are the only child at home. Many a times, my friends will tell me that they are envious of me as I have a sibling. They also frequently tell me that they are bored at home. I feel that this is one of the disadvantages of the one child policy. Although they are able to receive all their parents love, they would not be able to know the love between siblings and they would feel lonely very easily. Also, another disadvantage of one child policy is that if a woman is found out that she have a second child, she would be forced into abortion. This is a very cruel thing to do. Although the baby may not be a full human yet, it is still a living thing and actually has a life.
In my opinion, I feel that there are several advantages as well as disadvantages in the old child policy. Even if the one child policy continue to exist, I wish that woman do not have to go through abortion as this is a really cruel thing to do to both the woman and the yet-to-be baby.

❃ Zi Qiu's Reflection ( 2 )

ONE-CHILD POLICY 

The one-child policy started in China and was instituted on September 25, 1980. The law was set because in 1980, the new regime of Chinese leaders believed that forcibly restricting population growth would lead to greater economic prosperity. This policy restricts the majority of Chinese families to one child each, and if a child did not have a birth permit, the family would have to pay high fines, resulting in majority of families not wanting to have more than one child due to the punishments. 

PROS OF THE POLICY 

In the poor areas in China, there are far too many births and hence, if birth is controlled, quality of life will be raised. The parents will spend more attention and money on one child. Also, parents will not have to worry about feeding other children. Quality of life is improved and poverty can be eradicated. 
Secondly, there is limited space in China and the number of population is constantly increasing, hence there is need for birth reduction. 
It reduces competition for jobs, as places are limited. 

CONS OF THE POLICY 

It forces abortion and violates human rights. The proclamation of the International Conference on Human Rights in the year 1968 revealed that parents have the right to determine responsibly and freely the spacing and the number of children. When the one-child policy is executed, a lot of governments demand abortions once the pregnancy is found to have violated some regulations. 
There will be an imbalance of males and females in the society. There will also be more unmarried males as there are lesser females. 
There will be less people working and economy may suffer. 

HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS POLICY 

I feel that this policy was very helpful in managing the birth rates. There is less poverty and stress weighing on the parents. 

IN SINGAPORE 

Personally, I feel that there is no need for the one-child policy in Singapore. Our birth rates are controlled and the quality of life here is mostly high. There is enough space here in Singapore and in fact, we need more births. The government is even rewarding families with births with packages like SG50 package, etc. 

Thank you for reading! 

Zi Qiu 

Si Han's Reflection ( 2 )

CID 

The Singapore Government has repeatedly encouraged parents to give birth to more children over the last few years. Why is this so? The reason is that Singapore's population growth is dwindling and we need more people to contribute to the society. However in China, the government is enforcing a one child policy on all residents and people caught having more than one child will be punished accordingly. The positive impacts on this enforcement is that there will be a decrease in population growth and lesser people would have to fight for jobs and admissions in schools. Decrease in population growth will also cause lesser families to be in poverty as parents would not have as huge of a burden to raise their one and only child. They will be able to devote all their attention and give the best to their child. However, it would not the same case when parents have many children as parents might not have  enough money and resources to provide the best for their children. However, enforcing the one child policy might also result in more children and babies being abandoned. Parents who have more than one child and do not want to be dealt with the law will abandon their children. 

In Singapore, parents are giving birth to lesser number of children as they fear not having enough money to provide for their children. If this continues and Singapore's population decreases, there will be lesser people working and we might have shortage of workers in Singapore. There will also be lesser people going into the military force and helping to protect Singapore. There will also be a decrease in the working population and there will be more old dependents depending on the working population. The dependency ratio will be higher and will add more stress to the working population as they will have to work harder in order to earn more money to support the old dependents. Singapore will also face an aging population which means that there will be more elderly workers in the workforce than young adults since there is lower birth rate. This would cause the elderly to tire themselves out by working. The defense force of Singapore might become weaker and there will also be a weaker workforce in Singapore when there is lesser birth rate and thus lesser young adults who will enter the army. To prevent the decrease in population, the government has provided baby bonus for every child that is born so that parents can use the baby bonus to help provide for their children. 

           

This would happen to Singapore's population if the number of birth rates continues to decline. There will be an aging population and the dependency ratio will be higher. 

          

Shu Hong's Reflection ( 2 )

  SHU HONG'S  ( ONE CHILD POLICY)

Firstly, let me tell you roughly where the one child policy first started. There was a period of time, where the birth rate in China was increasing rapidly. The growing population had caused the shortage of food as there was more mouths to feed.

Now, let us move on to talk about the food supply of Singapore. In Singapore, do we face food shortages? Despite the fact that we have a large population, there isn't really any food shortage as we can import goods. Thus, we can prevent food shortage. However, we must still be aware that the fact that we are importing goods from other countries, once they decided to break the contract, we will be unable to have a supply of food. This will cause us to lose our source of food.

In Singapore, the government encourages more people to give birth rather than having the one child policy. This is because Singapore is a small country and the government wants to make the small country to be full of youths. Thus, Singapore population is rising.

Singapore might suffer will sometimes suffer from the 'drought' that occurs occasionally and water-rationing exercises have been implemented to solve this crisis.

As I have mentioned above, another problem is that other countries may refuse to sell us products or our daily necessities. Thus, Singapore government have been trying to keep good relationship with other countries to ensure that we continue to trade with each other.

Sarah's Reflection ( 2 )

I personally feels that the 'One-child policy' law has its pro and cons. I think that having this policy it helps to control the number of babies in the country. In China, they have a huge population and not much land for them. I think this the basic reason why China wants to set this law. In addition, there is competition for job and places in better schools. With only a child, parents can spent all their money on one child for education thus the child will be better educated. With this 'One-child policy', it helps to control the population well. In order to prevent parents from giving birth more than 1, parents who give birth more than one they would have to pay quite a high sum of fine. This is a warning for parents as the fine might be not affordable for some lower income family. I think this law does not bring more advantage than disadvantage. As this law goes by, the population of China will shrink drastically. In China, 100 girl baby is to 117 boy baby. This is because the Chinese has the mindset that boys are better and they are the heirloom. This will lead to many dire consequences. Firstly, the number of boys getting unmarried will be more as there are lesser girls. Secondly, as they are the only child, parents tend to spoilt them. In chinese, there is a phrase '要风得风，要雨得雨' , parents will be giving what the children request causing them to also be dependent on their parents. Thirdly, mothers who are pregnant and the baby in the tummy is a girl, they might remove the baby as they have only a chance of giving birth and they want a boy. Next, as there is an increase in the number of boys, who are the ones to be robbing, stealing, killing, there will definitely be an increase in crime rate. 

Now, I agree the actions of China allowing parents who are the only child to give birth to 2. I think this can better control the population preventing the population to decline too much.

I think that Singapore is not facing similar problem, instead of having too much we are declining in population. Comparing with my grandmother and my mother, my grandmother gave birth to 9 children including my father but my mother only gave birth to 2, my sister and I. This is a very common in Singapore having around 2 or 3 children. As from what my parents shared with me previously, Singapore government once promoted a champaign ' Stop At 2'. This caused the population to be declining. However, now the government are encouraging parents to give birth more by providing baby bonus, SG50 baby pack... If Singapore enforce the 1 child policy, I think we would lesser population, lesser people to work leading a declining in economy.