Chinese officials moved toward formalizing what would become the one-child policy, a sweeping population control measure driven by fears that unchecked growth would overwhelm the country's resources. Enforced through a mix of incentives, fines, and coercive measures including forced sterilizations and abortions, the policy would remain in place for 35 years, radically altering China's demographic structure.
Demographer Song Jian's calculations, warning that China's population could balloon uncontrollably without drastic intervention, had captured the attention of top leadership including Deng Xiaoping. The resulting policy framework, taking shape through 1979, established quotas, monetary rewards for compliance, and penalties for families who exceeded their birth allotment.
In rural areas enforcement often meant local officials tracking women's menstrual cycles and pressuring those who became pregnant without permission into abortions, sometimes far along in pregnancy. In cities, the policy created a generation of only children, sometimes called 'little emperors,' doted on by parents and grandparents alike.
The policy's long shadow includes a skewed sex ratio, as families favoring sons in a patriarchal culture used sex-selective abortion, and a rapidly aging population with too few young workers to support it. China finally abandoned the one-child limit in 2015, shifting to a two-child and later three-child policy as the demographic costs became impossible to ignore.
Key people: Deng Xiaoping, Song Jian