The most sobering lesson from this tally of the one-child policy’s toll on China lies in the simple fact that the authorities were able to enforce it for so long. In fact, China is the only country in history where a government has actually succeeded in using coercion to limit its people’s reproductive choices.
一胎政策给中国造成的代价的最令人警醒的教训是一个简单事实：当局能够在如此长的时间里执行这一政策。事实上，中国是历史上唯一一个政府成功以强迫手段限制人民生育选择的国家。其中的关键就在于以庞大而强力的官僚体系为基础的不受约束的一党制度。