Global population control: A feminist critique of the fertility reduction policies in the Republic of Korea and the Republic of China (1961--1992)

This comparative case study draws on archival research and interviews to examine fertility reduction policies of the Republic of Korea (ROK, or South Korea) and the Republic of China (ROC, or Taiwan) from 1961 to 1992. It asks: Who were the major political players and forces behind policymaking? What were their motives, philosophies, stated objectives, manifested practices, and hidden interests in controlling women's fertility? What were the inducement mechanisms for radical birth control? And what were the results in terms of better lives for the people and improvement in women's status?; In response to the questions, this study investigates the genesis of global population control, the influence of foreign and national forces, the role of key political figures, and the dominant discourses, policies and programs relevant to global fertility control. It also analyzes the dynamics and interactions between major political players (identified here as: the state, global capital, and technocrats) in intruding on women's reproductive function in both nations. As stakeholders, those three parties exercised significant dominance over poor women's reproductive autonomy, while women—the targets of the policies—were completely excluded and silenced; in the process of policy making, implementation, and measurement of the results.; Dynamics of the policy implementation in the ROK and the ROC included: (1) the intervention of foreign forces through global capital —characterized as commercialization, disempowerment, oppression, and objectification of women; (2) the roles played by the male elite, specifically technocrats, in exercising significant dominance over women's reproductive autonomy; (3) passivity, silence, and women's internalization of the newly perceived need for birth control; and (4) social marketing through mass media, leading to drastic reductions in family size norms.; The findings identify significant policy failures in projecting short-term and long-term plans for reaching the replacement level of fertility rate (2.1) in the ROK and the ROC. Both nations now face the issue of a seriously low fertility rate (1.4 in the ROK and 1.5 in the ROC in the year of 2000) that urgently requires a policy correction. Other side effects of the policies include an unbalanced sex ratio, a lack of blue-collar workers, and a rapidly aging population.; The study demonstrates that the political economy of fertility control in both nations during the period from 1961 to 1992 was a manifestation of the intervention of capital from the industrialized West into poor women's reproduction. It also provides a new understanding of the forces behind the birth control movements in South Korea and Taiwan. In essence, global capital's intervention into poor women's fertility in developing nations, starting in the early 1950s, was an important aspect of the globalization of the labor force and the creation of a new international division of labor on a global scale.