In the 1950s, the People's Republic of China first implemented the beginnings of the one-child policy. It brought significant changes to the population and the nation's growth rate decreased. Professor Yinchu Ma (1957) initiated this policy with his book New Population Theory. His book responded to the enormous increase in population growth occurring in China (Singer 1998). Under Mao's republic, leaders saw demographic development as a danger to the national economy (White 1994). The political party promoted childbirth in the 1950s and 1960s under the slogan “one is little, two is just enough and three is done” (White 1994). However, these efforts were unsuccessful and by the 1970s there were 250 million more people. Further measures were taken to encourage population control. These steps included focusing on contraception and abortion services in the countryside and encouraging later marriages. By 1982, China's population exceeded one billion, and the growth rate made China's modernization goals more difficult. Therefore, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council Resolution on Strengthening Birth Control proclaimed the one-child policy in 1980. This policy said: “the State supports a couple having only one child, unless special cases, with the approval of the second birth” (Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 1980). The policy goals were to have zero growth in the country and keep the population at 1.2 billion by 2000. China offered financial and marriage incentives to couples with one child and suspended them if the couple had a second child . Although it was characterized as a voluntary program, the policy was enforced through administrative controls (White 2006). Be… at the heart of the document…wnews-11494.html.White, T. 1994. “The Origins of Birth Planning Policy in China.” Pp 250-278 in Engendering China edited by CK Gilmartin, G. Herstatter, L. Rofel and T. White. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.White, T. 2006. China's Longest Campaign: Birth Planning in the People's Republic, 1949-2005. Cornell University Press.Zhan, H.J. 2004. “Socialization or Social Structure: Investigation of Predictors of Attitudes Toward Filial Responsibility Among Chinese Urban Youth from Families with One or More Children.” International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 59: 105-124.Zhao, L. 2006. Woguo chengshi diyidai dushengziyu fumu de shengming li cheng: cong zhongnian kongchao jiating de chuxian tanqi [The life course of parents of first-generation only children in urban China: a discussion of middle-aged empty-nest families]. Youth Studies 6