How and why the one-child policy works in China

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the implementation of China's one-child policy in terms of embeddedness in the Confucian tradition of morality in government. To do this, the authors describe the modern Chinese efforts to control its population. They describe briefly how the one-child policy evolved from earlier family planning policies and how it has been implemented in ways consistent with Confucian views. Finally, the authors describe key aspects of the implementation of this policy within four Chinese provinces from the perspective of the families who participated in a survey of schoolchildren in 1990.