Perhaps it's not overcrowding as it is drain on resources? With more than 3 times the number of people with only slightly more land (and I imagine a higher fraction of it is not usable, e.g. western mountains) it could be a natural resource strain. This is just a suggestion of course, I will still defer to you since you clearly know way more than I do about China.

Read the article. I edited the post to link it directly, before I didn't have time to search and I linked the search engine, but later I looked and it was exactly the first search result.

I did read it just now, and it does not mention in any way why the government decided to implement the policy, only that it did, and then it discusses why it's a bad thing. I would point out, as did the end of the article, that the US is facing many similar issues, e.g. declining birth rates and a massively aging population as a result of the post WWII "babyboom". Our Social Security will be dead in a few decades. I've also been one for the past couple of years who has believed that China has its end game within the next decade or so (maybe two).

[QUOTE=Dubslow;291258] it does not mention in any way why the government decided to implement the policy, only that it did[/QUOTE]
That is clear: as a measure of control. Why all the governments implement their policies? :shock:

As mentioned there (but not only because of that), China is a low-trust society outside of the family. See the Chinese that emigrated (in US, Moscow, wherever), they conduct all the business "in the family". They do not wash their clothes in public. They do not trust the "outside". If they do good, they do good in the family. If they suffer, the suffer together "in the family". And when they riot, they plan it "in the family". You may know/heard that under any martial law (I lived under one in Romania long ago for days, and I lived under another one in Thailand during anti-Taksin coup events) there is not allowed for groups larger then x (3? 4? 5?) people to walk during the day, and none should be out of the house during the night. This rule is not only to protect you of being shut, but also to protect the new fragile power structures from you, assuming you can gather enough people and kick new guy's asses down. So, [I]divide et impera[/I], as we Latins say. Break the Chinese family, and you can easily keep them under control. Deng Xiaoping was not a stupid guy. He planned this long enough, but did not dare to apply it until was announced together with the agricultural reform (gave the people land, and told them they can keep the benefits they would get by working the land). I give you a bread so you can be happy and don't see that I am stealing your oven in the same time.

[URL="http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/toddler-swallows-magnets-in-oregon-28513358.html"]Toddler swallows magnets in Oregon[/URL]

well that's one set of magnets she may not get her hands on again they thought she had swallowed a necklace then they realized it was 36 rare earth magnets through her gastrointestinal tract. a few holes had to be repaired I think.

[URL="http://ca.news.yahoo.com/google-chrome-hacked-twice-vancouver-conference-205316874.html"]Google Chrome hacked twice at Vancouver conference[/URL]

[QUOTE]Hackers found and exploited two previously unknown security flaws in Google Chrome at a Vancouver IT security conference this week — the first time the browser has succumbed in such competitions.[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://whattheinternetknowsaboutyou.com/"]whattheinternetknowsaboutyou[/URL]

[QUOTE=ET_;292734][URL="http://whattheinternetknowsaboutyou.com/"]whattheinternetknowsaboutyou[/URL][/QUOTE]Hehe, just following the non-JS [strike]links[/strike] redirections is funny. They pretend to be searching when in actual fact it will always return no results after a four second delay.

[url]http://www.youhavedownloaded.com/[/url] doesn't pretend

[url]http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/10/chicago-symphony-orchestra-fight_n_1337089.html[/url]

[URL="http://www.voanews.com/english/news/health/DNA-Tests-Prove-Worms-in-Sardines-are-Kosher-141575033.html"]DNA Tests Prove Worms in Sardine Cans are Kosher[/URL]