Birth or population planning in China did not begin with the One-Child Policy, OCP, of 1979, which was officially established in 1980; instead, the OCP was the culmination of a series of policies begun in the 1950s aimed at reducing the rate of population growth. The policies had this goal in common, but varied in the methods by which they proposed to achieve this goal and in the degree of severity with which they were enforced. In the 1950s, policies focused on economic development by improving maternal and child health. From 1962 to 1966, educational campaigns urged families to plan later births, space births further, reduce family size, and increase women's access to contraceptives and abortion. The third phase, from 1971 to 1979, emphasized education. The difficulties in implementing and enforcing birth and planning policies are indicative of how the centralized planning system tends to break down at the local level and how policies and outcomes are very different in urban and rural areas in China. . Local governments have tried to use incentives to comply, such as preference in educational opportunities, health care, housing, and work assignments, and disincentives for non-compliance. -compliance, such as fines and loss of access to education and other privileges. “Before 1984, the official goal was to keep China's population below 1.2 billion, and local cadres were expected to enforce this policy in order to achieve this goal. The main methods of achieving this were the promotion of contraception (mainly intrauterine devices or IUDs) and forced sterilizations. It is hard to imagine that after working so hard to control population growth, China must now relax the policy...... middle of paper ...... "China's orphaned parents". AsiaOne. Singapore Press Holdings Ltd (SPH)/The New Paper, January 3, 2014. Web. April 29, 2014.Lam Law, Nicola Yuen. “Culture Change Through the One-Child Policy – ​​Disadvantages.” Locations at Penn State. WorldPress.Org, November 25, 2013. Web. April 29, 2014. LeggeAce Learning Company, Inc, Jerome S., Jr. and Zhirong Zhao. “Moral Policy and Unintended Consequences of China’s One-Child Policy.” - Learn the Ace. China Public Administration Review, December 2004. Web. April 29, 2014. Phillips, Tom. “New Zealand Herald.” The New Zealand Herald. Np, March 26, 2014. Web. April 12, 2014. Sandler, Lauren. "Chinese parents can now have more than one child. Why many say they won't." Washington Post. The Washington Post, January 12, 2014. Web. April 18, 2014. Xuefeng, Chen. "Harvard Asia-Pacific Review." Harvard Asia Pacific Review 7.1 (Summer 2003): 74-76. Internet. April 29. 2014.