The population in China was over one point two billion people in the year 2000. That is twenty two percent of the world's population, which means that one in five people in the world lives in China. This large population calls for restrictions. The Chinese government introduced a law that they called the one-child policy. The law allows a married couple whishing to have children to have only one child. The policy has prevented a possible three hundred and twenty million births since it was implemented in 1979. .
It was only in the 1970's that the Chinese government decided the population of their country was growing too big, too fast and that something needed to be done. With twenty two percent of the world's population, only seven percent of China is arable land. Which means that China simply cannot support its population without importing goods from other countries. That costs money and valuable jobs are lost. If the population in China was allowed to keep growing without restrictions, in another hundred years or so the world simply would not be able to feed the people of China.
With so many people living in the one area they are sure to cause a great deal of pollution, so much so that they cannot even see the stars at night. This amount of pollution not only affects the people of China but also the rest of the world including the plants and animals. Human wastes have to be dealt with by treating the sewerage, but in rural and agricultural areas they do not have the money to treat the sewerage and it simply gets poured into the rivers and waterways contaminating the land. .
In modern China it is common for three generations of the one family to live together in the one unit or flat the size of an average Australian house that accommodates only one generation. This causes privacy issues because with so many people living together in a small apartment there will often be no time to ones- self.