During Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, having more babies-little Communist Party members- was strongly encouraged. Families would have an average of five children. This resulted in a population explosion and China's became the biggest in the world. By the 1970s the Chinese government was having a hard time supporting its gigantic population so it started restricting couples to having only one child. Its unofficial name: the one-child-policy, OCP. It worked. China's population growth slowed, but the policy had unanticipated consequences.
Boys and girls were equal under Mao. In fact, in a famous declaration he proclaimed, "women hold up half the sky." But when the OCP was instituted, it was almost like the country reverted back to feudal times. A greater value was placed on boys because not only did they carry on the family name, but it was economically more advantageous to have a boy over a girl. As a result thousands and thousands of baby girls were abandoned, aborted or killed. China began allowing girls to be adopted by foreigners in the 1990s and currently there are more babies from China adopted into the U.S. than from any other country in the world.
