Chinese one-child policy 'has prevented 400m births'

China’s population would have risen by another 400 million people if not for a controversial birth control policy that limits most families to only one child, state media reported today.

The one-child policy has slowed population growth and contributed positively to the country’s socio-economic development, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing a family planning official.

China now needs to address related problems of the ageing population and the imbalance in the sex ratio, said Zhang Weiqing, the minister in charge of the State Population and Family Planning Commission.

The communist government has limited most urban couples to one child and rural couples to two since the 1970s in an effort to restrain the growth of China’s population of 1.3 billion people and conserve resources.