Pregnancies are sometimes aborted when a girl is expected because parents want their child to be a boy, someone who can continue their family name. But a disproportionate number of boys to girls in the population means that later on it will be hard for men to find wives. This will result in an increasing proportion of older people and a smaller workforce to look after them.

The one-child policy also leads parents to pamper their child by buying them whatever they want and allowing them to do whatever they want. Spoiling children makes them lazy, reducing the overall productivity of the country.

Children may feel lonely without siblings, especially if their parents are out working all day. A child will be happier with someone of their own age. It's hard for an only child to learn to co-operate with people. If they have siblings, they will learn to love and care for each other, and they will be able to use this later in life.

In a dwindling population, Chinese knowledge and values may not be passed on to younger generations, or exchanged with other cultures.

Fewer people will work in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors as everybody will want their only child take on white-collar jobs.

Controlling the population now will have consequences later. The population will decrease and China will have to bring in people from other parts of the world. Over time, immigrants may outnumber locals, and China's culture may be eroded. A greying population means fewer young people paying taxes and caring for the elderly.

Jansico Chu Man-fai , 17, Queen's College

I don't think so. Although Chief Executive Donald Tsang is advocating that Hong Kong citizens have more babies to alleviate the problem of our ageing population, the situation on the mainland is totally different.

Many developed countries are trying to increase their birth rate but China is still under tremendous pressure from its large population, and some of its problems are at a critical point.

The food supply cannot keep up with increasing demand and starvation has become a problem in many places. Because of abnormal weather the situation is predicted to worsen. Fertile land is limited and even improved agricultural techniques will not increase the food supply enough to feed a larger population.

The crime rate would also rise with an increasing population, as the poor and unemployed would commit crimes to survive.

The people of Africa thought that their poverty would be alleviated if they had more children to create a larger workforce. However, poverty became a vicious circle and wars were even triggered.

China's central authorities are planning for a population below 1.4 billion by the end of 2010, with an average birth rate of 1.5 per cent. This will enable better health care and education systems to be developed, and the lives of people to be improved. One child is enough for each family as the country is not suffering from an ageing population. To maintain competitiveness and to become a great power in Asia, the mainland should not abolish this policy yet.