China Stories

Xiao Di - the single child

Xiao Di is a ten year old boy who lives in Beijing and is a product of China's one child policy.

"The disadvantage about the One Child Policy is that single children find it difficult to make friends... sometimes he feels lonely." - Xiao Di's mum.

• The Chinese government's single child policy was introduced in 1979 to try and keep China's population from growing too rapidly. Not every family is limited to having just one child, though. In farming communities many families who have a daughter as their first child are allowed by the government to have a second child.
• Chinese officials say if it wasn't for the policy there might be 400 million more people in China by today.