Numbers

One-Child Policy

How It's Used

“She was soon sold to a farmer for 20,000 Chinese yuan, or $2,500.

“North Korean ‘brides’ are prized in China, where there is a shortage of young women thanks to Beijing's one-child policy, Chinese families' preference for sons, and the government's blind eye toward rampant female infanticide. In northeast China, where many ethnic Koreans live, North Korean women are ‘known to be polite and clean,’ says Hannah. ‘Young Chinese women from rural areas marry into the cities,' adds Naomi. 'It's difficult to find young women in the countryside.’”

“The world's most populous nation, which has built its economic strength on seemingly endless supplies of cheap labor, China may soon face manpower shortages. An aging population also poses difficult political issues for the Communist government, which first encouraged a population explosion in the 1950's and then reversed course and introduced the so-called one-child policy a few years after the death of Mao in 1976.”

"Attacks on children are horrifying anywhere in the world, but in China they are especially devastating because of the country's one-child policy."

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