GoKawiilStudy: China's one-child policy only became effective after cadre evaluation reform
Researchers trace how China's one-child policy, introduced in 1979-1980, initially produced little drop in fertility rates despite fines and penalties for violators. They find the real enforcement shift came with the 'one-vote veto' (OVV) system, which barred local officials from career promotion if their district missed birth-quota targets, a measure first piloted in Hunan's Changde prefecture in 1982 before spreading nationally by the early 1990s.