Death Of China’s ‘One Child Policy’ Ex-Chief Sees Backlash: ‘Children We Lost Are Waiting For You’

Last Updated:December 25, 2025, 14:21 IST

Peng Peiyun’s death sparked criticism of China’s one-child policy on Weibo, with users blaming forced abortions and demographic decline, despite state media’s praise for her stint.

The death of Peng Peiyun, the former head of China’s family planning authority, has triggered a wave of criticism on social media, with many users condemning the legacy of the country’s now-scrapped one-child policy rather than offering tributes.

State media described Peng, who led the Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as an “outstanding leader” for her work related to women and children. However, reactions on Weibo, China’s largest microblogging site, were sharply critical following her death in Beijing on Sunday, just days short of her 96th birthday.

Several users posted messages blaming the one-child policy for the loss of millions of potential lives, with some accusing authorities of forcing abortions and sterilisations during the policy’s near-universal enforcement from 1980 to 2015. “Those children who were lost are waiting for you in the afterlife,” one widely shared comment read. Another post argued that had the policy ended earlier, China’s population decline would not be as severe today.

Introduced to curb rapid population growth, the policy later contributed to a sharp demographic slowdown. China’s population, once the world’s largest, fell behind India’s in 2023 and declined for a third consecutive year in 2024 to about 1.39 billion. Experts warn the downward trend will accelerate, with fresh population data for 2025 due next month.

As population czar, Peng focused heavily on rural areas, where large families were traditionally seen as a form of old-age security and sons were preferred to carry on family names. Critics say this contributed to gender imbalances, abandoned infant girls and sex-selective abortions. “Those children, if born, would now be nearly 40 and in the prime of their lives,” one Weibo user wrote.

By the 2010s, Peng had publicly acknowledged that the one-child policy should be relaxed. Today, Beijing is scrambling to reverse the demographic slide through childcare subsidies, longer maternity leave and tax incentives. Still, analysts warn that China’s shrinking and ageing population could strain the world’s second-largest economy, as a smaller workforce and rising elderly-care costs put pressure on already indebted local governments.

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