Editing One-child policy (section)

=== "Virtual" population crisis ===
Despite the legitimate ongoing rapid growth of China's population and the evident effects it brought to society, using the term "population crisis" to describe the situation is disputed. Scholars including Susan Greenhalgh argue that the state intentionally created a virtual population crisis in order to serve political ends.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Greenhalgh |first=Susan |title="Science, Modernity, and the Making of China's One-Child Policy". |journal=Population and Development Review |volume=29 |pages=172–175}}</ref> According to state promotions, the looming overpopulation crisis would ruin the national agenda of achieving "China's socialist modernization", which includes industry, agriculture, national defense, and technology.<ref name=":4" />

China's attitude towards population control on the global stage in international forums evidenced an ambiguous stance on the nature of the crisis. In the mid-1960s, when global movements for birth control emerged, Chinese delegates expressed their opposition toward population control. In the first UN-organized [[United Nations world population conferences|World Population Conference]] held in [[Bucharest]] in 1974, they claimed that it was an imperialist agenda that Western countries imposed on Third World countries, and that population was not a determining factor of [[economic growth]] and a country's well-being.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal |last=Feng |first=Wang |date=19 February 2013 |title=Population, Policy, and Politics: How Will History Judge China's One-Child Policy? |journal=[[Population and Development Review]] |volume=38 |pages=115–129 |doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2013.00555.x |doi-access=free}}</ref> Yet, in the domestic setting the state leaders were already wary of the perceived "population crisis" that was thought to endanger the modernization of China.<ref name=":6" />

It is also suggested that mathematical terms, graphs, and tables were utilized to form a convincing [[narrative]] that presents the urgency of the population problem as well as justifies the necessity of mandatory birth control across the nation.<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal |last=Greenhalgh |first=Susan |title=Science, Modernity, and the Making of China's One-Child Policy |journal=[[Population and Development Review]] |volume=29 |pages=171–172}}</ref> Due to the previous traumas of the Cultural Revolution, public and top state leaders turned to the charisma of science, and sometimes blindly worshipped it as the solution to every problem. As a result, any proposal that was veiled and decorated by the so-called scientific back-ups would be highly considered by both the people and the state.<ref name=":11" />

Arguments started to come out in 1979 suggesting that the excessively rapid population growth was sabotaging the economy and destroying the environment, and essentially preventing China from being a rightful member of the global world. Skillful and deliberate comparisons were made with developed and industrialized countries such as the United States, Japan, and France.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Greenhalgh |first=Susan |title=Science, Modernity, and the Making of China's One-Child Policy |journal=Population and Development Review |volume=29 |pages=172–176}}</ref> Under such a comparison, China's relatively low income per capita was attributed directly to population growth and no other factors. Though the data is truthful, its arrangement and presentation to readers gave a single message determined by the state: that the population problem is a national catastrophe and immediate remedy is desperately needed.<ref name=":12" />