China has implemented a national policy that regulates the amount of children couples may have. This policy has caused a number of complications and negative effects including gender imbalances, which have been furthered by acts such as infanticide and illegal pregnancies or abortions. This paper examines the cultural traditions of China as well as their role in family planning. I will also recount the introduction of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and how they came to not only make the discourse on sexuality a public concern, but also institutionalize it. The family planning policy as part of this discourse has effectively met its goals--fertility decline, population control, delayed marriages--but also had negative consequences, such as sex ratio imbalances, absentee mothers, and women being kidnapped. Despite these unintended repercussions, there exist key narratives in historical and present day China that continue to be promulgated.
