During the last century, China introduced a strict family planning policy of one couple/one child in an attempt to reduce the population from 1.3 billion to 700 million. The policy was designed to increase the wealth and modernization of the country, as the government believed that citizens, particularly peasants, became more and more poor the more children they had and it cost the Communist state more to support them. However, in practice, this resulted in the brutality of forced abortions (even late on in pregnancy) and sterilization, as well as the compulsory insertion of a 'birth control ring' to prevent further pregnancies after the first child. If a couple did have a second child without a 'birth permit' they were persecuted and shunned from society. Peasants were particularly penalised whilst there was widespread corruption and hypocrisy amongst senior officials where bribery could be used to buy anything, including extra 'birth permits'. The family planning policy has filled Chinese society with hatred, as people blame the relatively surplus population for their poverty and the country's poverty.