Chinese fertility was falling for decades before the one-child policy took effect in 1979.

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"The trend is shifting, because in the 1970s China enacted the one-child policy, " Pao says.

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The last baby boomers of the late 1970s and early 1980s--before the one-child policy took full effect--are having children now, creating another Chinese baby boom.

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They knew that China's fertility rate, or the average number of children born to each woman, was in decline even before the one-child policy began in 1980.

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One of the academics, Wang Feng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Centre for Public Policy, argues that China's demographic pattern had already changed dramatically by the time the one-child policy began in 1980.

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Taking care of parents is part of Chinese tradition but the country's one-child policy and the trend of people moving away for work have put strains on the traditional family structure.

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But while it has so far relied on a low-cost manufacturing strategy for its success, it is shifting gears as a restless work force and the results of its one-child policy threaten its manufacturing advantage.

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By 2050, the employed community in the developing world, not including China with its one-child policy, is projected to increase by 50 percent.

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The first wave of children born under China's one-child policy are now entering their 20s.

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Though the single-child policy is more successful in the cities, one can find similar patterns in rural areas.

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