A family portrait in Shanghai. In the late 1970's, in an effort to bring China's one billion-plus population under control, the nation adopted a contraversial mandate of: one child per urban family and two children per rural family. The logic was that too many families are attracted to working in the more industrialized cities, and fewer citizens prefer (the highly essential) farming occupations. This family is thus burdened with higher taxation and other penalties for having their three children. Some scholars are now seeking a revised family planning policy, asserting that city dwelling people should be permitted two children per family. In thirty years, the population of the People's Republic grew by only .3 billion. Some argue that that population management is actually weakening China's economy.  To support family planning regulations, abortion and birth control are legal, and encouraged, by the government.

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