At the end of October, the Chinese government ended its one-child policy, allowing married couples to have two children. More than three decades earlier, the Communist Party had unveiled the policy in order to control population growth. Harsh measures to limit family size—forced abortions, sterilization, and fines—have led to a population that is “too old, too male, and quite possibly, too few,” writes Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mei Fong in her new book “One Child: the Past and Future of China’s Most Radical Experiment.”
Fong began reporting on China’s economic boom in 2003 for the Wall Street Journal. “One Child” illustrates the human costs of the one-child policy, and takes readers on a journey through China’s countryside and its cities to tell the story of how the plan affected the world’s most populous country.
NBC News recently talked with Fong about her book, whose publication date was recently pushed up one month in light of the October news about the one-child policy.
