China's One-Child Policy: A Giant Mistake?

China's one-child policy, one of the harshest attempts at population control the world has seen, forced abortions on women, made sterilization widespread, and led to baby daughters being sold or even killed, because parents wanted their only child to be a male. Now, the question is whether it was all necessary, per the AP. China's birth rate fell to record lows last year and its population has fallen for four years in a row, official statistics showed this week. Authorities, alarmed by the prospect of a shrinking workforce and an aging population, scrapped the policy in 2015. "It's hard to escape the fact that China demographically shot itself in the foot," said Mei Fong, the author of the 2016 book, One Child: The Story of China's Most Radical Experiment.

China's leaders saw unbridled population growth as a potential threat in 1980—to both economic development and its ability to feed what had grown into a nation of 1 billion people. The birth rate had begun to fall in the 1970s after the government began encouraging people to have fewer children. But the leadership at the time decided to curb population growth more directly, launching the one-child policy and enforcing it with stiff financial penalties for parents who had more than one child, as well as abortions and sterilization campaigns. It lasted for 35 years.

In 2016, the government began allowing two children per couple and raised the limit to three children in 2021. But it has proven more difficult to reverse the mentality of people than the policy. China is far from the only country facing the challenges of an aging population. Around the world, as people get wealthier, they tend to want fewer, or no, children. What's more, the one-child policy, leading to a preference for sons, has also created a gender imbalance in the one-child generation. Now, some from that generation, once dubbed "little emperors" because they were so fussed over, face the pressure of meeting the expectations, including financial, of being the only child.

As they reach their 30s and 40s, there is only one child to support two parents, and in some cases, up to four grandparents. For some, this can lead to anxiety and depression, Fong said. "The little emperor at some point becomes the slave," she said. Read the full story.