But in recent years, even the initial beneficiaries of the policy – “little emperor” singleton children, for example – are becoming aware of its shortcomings as they shoulder the burden of an ageing society. “When I was an only kid, I had so much attention from my grandparents. I was so spoilt. But now I have to give back and it is tearing me apart,” confided a friend who is nursing a parent with dementia.

She is not alone. By 2050, one in four people in China will be a retiree, with but a nascent social safety net for support. With fewer workers paying into the system and more pensioners drawing from it, the pension shortfall could reach trillions of dollars by 2050, according to a Deutsche Bank estimate. That is why there’s a popular Chinese saying: “We’ll get old before we get rich.”

The proposed elimination of birth restrictions has prompted a bitter re-examination, writes the Globe and Mail correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe, with a “simmering anger among Chinese citizens over the ways their lives have been forcibly sculpted”.