Mao’s Leadership
Who was Mao Zedong?
The leader of China who brought communism to power in 1949.
What year was the one-child policy introduced?
1979.
Name one benefit of the one-child policy
Slower population growth, healthier mothers/babies, more jobs
What is a population pyramid?
A graph showing the age and gender distribution of a country.
How did the Chinese government promote the one-child policy?
Through posters, rewards, and public campaigns.
What was Mao’s plan to modernize China called?
The Great Leap Forward.
What was the goal of the one-child policy?
To slow population growth
What happened to China’s birth rate after the policy was introduced?
decreased.
How did China’s population distribution change after the one-child policy?
Fewer children, more older adults
What message did government posters about the one-child policy try to spread?
That having one child—especially a daughter—was good and beneficial.
Why did the Great Leap Forward fail?
Famine and lack of industrial success.
How did the government encourage people to follow the policy?
Rewards like money and benefits
Why did many families prefer to have boys instead of girls?
Boys continue the family name and care for aging parents.
Why is an aging population a problem for China?
Fewer young workers, more elderly to support.
Why did some people oppose the one-child policy?
They wanted more freedom in family planning, preferred large families, or needed more children for labor
How did Mao believe China would become strong?
By having a large population
What policy replaced the one-child policy in 2016?
The two-child policy
How did the one-child policy contribute to China’s "marriage crisis"?
More men than women due to gender imbalance.
What is the dependency ratio?
The number of working people compared to non-working people
How did the government change its approach to enforcing the one-child policy over time?
It shifted from strict punishments to offering rewards and benefits for compliance
How many people died during the Great Leap Forward famine?
Over 20 million
Why did rural families resist the one-child policy?
they needed more children to help with farming.
What was one tragic consequence of the one-child policy during natural disasters?
Parents lost their only child and couldn’t have another.
What is one reason the two-child policy was introduced?
To fix the aging population problem
What was one unintended consequence of the one-child policy on China’s culture and traditions?
A preference for boys led to gender imbalance, and fewer children meant fewer caregivers for the elderly