ABSTRACT
The Chinese government maintains that abuses are the exception, not the rule, and constitute deviations—local aberrations—from national policy. The principal modification of the one-child policy occurred in the midto late-1980s when, in response to rising rates of female infanticide, the government relaxed the policy in the countryside for couples whose first child was a girl. Exporting the Chinese model in its entirety has proven difficult, since most governments are either unwilling or unable to bring all the child-bearing in their countries under state control. Governments have been encouraged by the UN Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and other population control organizations to adopt Chinese-style: targets and quotas, bribes and punishments, organizational structures, and promotional propaganda. The most curious development occurred in 1998, when the UNFPA announced that it had been invited by the Chinese government to set up "model family planning programs" in 32 of China's counties, or county-level municipalities.
