Absolutely yes. Although it looks like a little inhumane, it effects a lot. It does good to China, even to the whole world. As for me, China is rectifyng her previous mistakes by implementing this policy.

We could write essays on this, so trying to sum it up in a few sentences is very tough. Yes, the one-child policy has caused terrible social problems including a massive gender imbalance. Looking in from the outside, it is a demographic disaster. So, what’s the solution? I don’t know. I don’t think even the Chinese authorities know. I hope that other countries around the world learn from the Chinese example. The policies favoured by the Chinese government - and not just in the area of demographics - have an unfortunate tendency to be draconian in nature and often infringe upon basic human rights. As world populations increase, we need to come up with newer, fairer and more effective ways to limit population growth. Simply, we need to make sure other countries around the world don't repeat the same mistakes. In any case, I’m not really sure italki is a suitable place for such discussions.

Hi Mike, the research tells us that this policy led to infanticide of newly born baby girls, early abortion of female foetuses and consequently there is a huge gender imbalance in China. When I participated in a study tour of China, teachers told us very frankly that they were finding it hard to motivate and teach spoilt 'little emperors'.

everything has two sides...

Absolutely - when it come to Mandarin learning! See, before there was a special word for older sister, younger sister, older/younger brother, cousins, aunts, uncles etc. There were 100+ special words for relatives - all gone now! Learning Mandarin is sooo much easier now thanks to the commies!