BEIJING – A 13-month-old child was fatally crushed by a car containing Chinese officials after they went to collect a fine from the parents for breaching the country’s one-child policy, according to Chinese state media.

The incident reportedly occurred Monday in Dongshantou village near Wenzhou city in the eastern province of Zhejiang, after a delegation of 11 officials from the Ruian Town birth control office drove out to get the unspecified fine.

This did not go down well with the father, Chen Liandi, 39, and the conversation got heated.

According to a briefing given by the Ruian Municipal Propaganda Department and reported by state media, the officials convinced Chen’s wife, Li Yuhong, to accompany them back to Ruian to talk over the couple’s options.

The baby was reportedly left in the hands of his father and the group got back into their cars to leave.

What happened next remains unclear – perhaps due to the politically sensitive nature of this story – but the boy was then found crushed underneath a car.      

He was rushed to the Third People’s Hospital in Ruian, but could not be saved.

'You were too careless'
On China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, users expressed frustration over the vague account given by Ruian officials and demanded more information, but no other Chinese press have printed much beyond the official government account.

For many in China, the story brings back uncomfortable memories of Feng Jiemei, who last June posted gruesome photographs of her lying in a hospital bed next to her 7-month-old aborted fetus.

Feng’s story created a social firestorm for Beijing when word got out that the 22-year-old mother had been forced to have the abortion because she did not have enough money to pay the $6,400 fine for having a second child.

“I told you, $6,400, not even a penny less. I told your dad that and he said he has no money,” a family planning official wrote to Deng in a blunt text message that quickly went viral. “You were too careless, you didn’t think this was a big deal.”

Feng was grabbed from her home and taken to a local hospital in her native Shaanxi province where she was blindfolded, thrown on a bed and forced to a sign a document she couldn’t read. Thirty hours later, her baby girl was aborted.

China has long defended its one-child policy as a way to prevent overpopulation and to help raise living standards across the country.

However, some experts in China and abroad argue that the policy has outlived its usefulness and may instead be a detriment to future growth.

Others in China have pointed out the abuses meted out in cases like Feng Jiemei’s show that it causes more social harm and have called on Beijing to remove it.

However Beijing just last month reaffirmed its support for the policy.

NBC News’ Le Li contributed to this report.

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North Korea vowed to boost its nuclear capabilities on Wednesday after the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning its controversial rocket launch last December.

“The present situation clearly proves that (North Korea) should counter the U.S. hostile policy with strength, not with words,” the country’s foreign ministry warned in a statement.

North Korea pledged in the statement to bolster its military capabilities and to build up what it called a “nuclear deterrence." 

It also defended its “independent and legitimate right” to launch satellites and condemned the U.N. resolution as a “wanton violation of the inviolable sovereignty of (North Korea).”

The U.N. resolution passed on Tuesday called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and cease rocket launches, and came a month after the country, officially known as Democratic People's Republic of Korea, successfully conducted a rocket launch that put a satellite into orbit.

Pyongyang maintains that the test was purely “for peaceful purposes.”

U.S. officials disagree, saying the test was the latest attempt to develop multistage ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Washington hopes the newest U.N. resolution will help bind world opinion against North Korea’s opaque nuclear program.

"This resolution demonstrates to North Korea that there are unanimous and significant consequences for its flagrant violation of its obligations under previous resolutions," American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told reporters after the vote.

China’s unusual support for the resolution, the first in four years to expand sanctions against North Korea, suggests Beijing’s patience with its troublesome neighbor may be fraying. 

But in comments made after the vote, Li Baodong, China's ambassador to the U.N., warned sanctions alone would not resolve the impasse.

“The policy of the sanction does not work,” he said. “The resolution must be accompanied, supplemented by diplomatic efforts.”

The new sanctions were categorized under the scope of existing ones, which were expanded to include North Korean government agencies -- most notably the North Korean Space Agency -- and companies.

In addition, a list of nuclear and ballistic missile technology banned for export to North Korea has been updated.

Despite the resolution and international concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, leading North Korea expert Wang Junsheng said it was unlikely that Pyongyang would conduct a nuclear test anytime soon.

“(North Korea) uses nuclear tests to negotiate with foreign countries but mainly to establish the Kim family's stature within the country,” he said, referring to the country’s ruling family.

“By successfully launching the satellite last month, there is no need for Kim Jong Un to conduct a nuclear test at this time,” he said. 

Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s supreme leader, is the son of Kim Jong Il and grandson of Kim Il Sung, who founded the communist state.

NBC News' Li Le contributed to this report.

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China Daily via Reuters

Wang Xianxiang carries two buckets of water with his eyelids during a provincial festival for migrant workers in Shaodong County, Hunan province, Saturday.

BEIJING – Wang Xianxiang’s talent is an eyeful.

The 42-year-old fireworks maker from the central Chinese province of Hunan was photographed last weekend performing his signature trick: Suspending two water buckets with a combined weight of 9 pounds on plastic hangers hooked to his eyelids for a minute.

China Daily via Reuters

Wang says he is hoping to increase the amount of weight he can carry with his eyelids.

Wang entertained local migrant workers at a provincial festival near his hometown of Liuyang Saturday.

“When I first started it was extremely painful,” Wang told NBC News about his unique talent, “but after a lot of practice it’s just uncomfortable today.”

Among other talents he’s developed for the show? Having two men wrap a metal wire tightly around his neck while he talks to the audience, which he says has been in the thousands.

Wang, who is married with two children, said he has been doing his eyelid trick for five to six years and started doing it purely out of boredom. 

But as he increased the weight on his eyelids, he started to train – practicing for 30 minutes each morning and two hours at night. 

Wang’s family initially frowned upon his hobby, but slowly came around as his stature grew within the community.

When asked what his aspirations for the future were, Wang kept it simple. “I can currently hold 4.5 pounds on each eyelid, I’d like to push that to 11 pounds per eyelid.”

He was optimistic that he could accomplish that eye-popping feat by the end of the year.

NBC News’ Le Li contributed to this report.

Adrian Bradshaw / EPA

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt (l) and former governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson speak to reporters as they arrive at Beijing Capital Airport on Thursday. Schmidt and Richardson had flown from Pyongyang, North Korea where had been on a three day unofficial visit.

BEIJING – American detainee Kenneth Bae remained in North Korea Thursday after a controversial visit by Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson failed to secure his release.

The pair told reporters at a media briefing at Beijing's airport that they had not been able to meet Korean-American Bae, who is charged with unspecified crimes against the secretive state.

However, they were confident their calls for greater Internet freedom for ordinary citizens had been “well received” by the Pyongyang regime.

“As the world becomes increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world," said Schmidt, who added that not opening up would "make it harder for them to catch up economically. We made that alternative very, very clear."

Richardson said the four-day visit had three central themes: a call for North Korea to embrace a moratorium on ballistic missiles and nuclear tests, the release of Bae and a call for the isolated country to increase their usage of the Internet.

During the visit, Schmidt and Google Ideas think tank director Jared Cohen met with North Korean scientists and software engineers who reportedly peppered the two with questions about the Internet and technology development.

“Once the Internet starts, citizens in a country can certainly build on top of it, but the government has to do something,” said Schmidt. “They have to make it possible for people to use the Internet, which the government in North Korea has not yet done.”

“It’s their choice now and time in my view to start or they’ll remain behind,” he said.

The purpose of the Google Chairman’s visit had been speculated on by North Korea watchers in recent weeks, but Richardson was quick to credit Schmidt with the biggest success of the trip: the opening of a new level of unilateral dialogue between scientists in the two countries.

“A new dialogue on technology with scientists and software engineers is very important and that was started,” said Richardson of Google’s influence on the trip. “There was a very positive reaction to Dr. Schmidt and his team in North Korea.”

Missile dialogue
Richardson was also confident that progress had been made in improving dialogue on tensions on the Korean peninsula over North Korea’s recent missile launches and rumored nuclear test.

“The delegation had a series of very frank discussions with North Korean officials,” said Richardson. “We’re concerned with the current level of tension in the Peninsula.”

The former governor was heartened to hear that the North Koreans were “anxious to improve their relationship with the United States” and also noted that they “were encouraged by the recent statements of the new South Korean president.”

Still, Richardson was quick to challenge North Korea’s contention that last year’s missile tests were science-based and peaceful in purpose. “I must say, I personally disagree, I don’t think it's science-based and it is a violation of the United Nations moratorium on missiles,” he said.

Richardson’s nine-person delegation had been planning to travel to the reclusive state last month, but postponed the trip to January after North Korea announced its intentions to conduct a controversial rocket test.

The United States and its regional allies in Asia have been pushing for some sort of combination of economic and political sanctions against North Korea for these continued long-range missile tests and viewed the Richardson visit as unproductive toward that.

On Monday State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reaffirmed the administrations’ disapproval of the trip, telling reporters that, “the trip is ill-advised.”

“We think that both sides need to move in new directions,” Richardson told reporters today. “We think that it’s important that the North-South dialogue be revived. We think that it’s important that the United States and North Korea start having some positive bilateral discussions. We need dialogue, not confrontation on the peninsula.”

Bae still in detention
Despite the delegation’s success in improving dialogue, Richardson was unsuccessful in securing the release of American, Kenneth Bae, who remains in North Korean prison after he was arrested in the northeastern city of Rajin last November.

Asked by NBC News on Bae’s current status, Richardson said that while he was unable to visit the 44-year old tourist, he had been assured by North Korean officials that his legal rights and personal well-being would be protected.

"We pushed to make sure that there were strong protections for Kenneth

Bae both in the judicial process and personally,” said Richardson, “another encouraging development was that they told me the judicial precedence would happen soon."

Richardson also said that a letter from Bae’s son would be passed on to him in prison.

Related stories:
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Slideshow: Rare journey into North Korea

KCNA, KNS via AFP - Getty Images

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il (center) wears his famous parka while inspecting the Pyongyang Silk Mill factory on January 17, 2009.

Updated at 12:04 p.m. ET: BEIJING – Only days before the first anniversary of Kim Jong Il's death, the stirring tributes to North Korea's late strongman referred to reverently there as "The Dear Leader" have begun in earnest.

North Korean state media, KCNA, posted a stirring celebration of Kim on Monday which included a video tribute entitled "Kim Jong Il is immortal as sun" as well as an opinion piece that fondly remembered him as a "peerless sage of mankind, possessed with warm humanity, broad magnanimity and noble sense of moral obligation."

As kind as that line was, state media saved its warmest words not for Kim, but for his jacket. And not just any jacket: his "threadbare and discolored" parka.

In a radio essay entitled "Parka of Kim Jong Il during his field guidance" on North Korean broadcasting service, Voice of Korea, the former leader's weathered jacket is hailed time and again as a "symbol of the Songun revolution," or the North Korean principle championed throughout the Kim dynasty of "military first revolutionary leadership."

Set to swelling nationalist music, the reader's voice rises and falls lyrically for nearly four glorious minutes, opening the piece with a verbose expression of national grief over the passing of Kim.

"One year has passed since everything writhed in agony and the people's wailing swept the whole country at the thunderbolt-like news that Kim Jong Il on the forced march of high intensity for the people had passed away on the running train in December last year."

Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong ll

Kcna / AFP - Getty Images

A pictorial look at the North Korean leader through the years

Launch slideshow

The reader continues by telling the emotional story behind the great parka -- which is described as an "incredible witness of history." 

"With ardent yearning for Kim Jong Il .... the Korean people warmly look back again upon his noble life," the reader says. "They are reminded of the parka worn by him until the last period of his life.

"One day great Kim Jong Il, while giving important instructions to officials, referred to his parka," the reader breathlessly recounts, "He [Kim] earnestly said: 'I began to wear this parka from the arduous march after the demise of President Kim Il Sung. I am still wearing this, unable to forget the grim history.'"

Kim Jong Il look-alike admits it may be time to hang up his dark glasses

As the story goes, Kim Jong Il wore the jacket for more than 10 years -- or for "so long that it became threadbare and discolored."

The reader added: "His parka was that of a great father, with which he kept all the people on this land from snow, rain and cold."

North Korean eyes today might be on the parka but they will be trained towards the skies later this month as the reclusive nation attempts to launch another rocket into space.

The launch will be North Korea's second this year after a failed launch in April of a Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket.

The announced launch has brought international condemnation from the United States as well as regional neighbors like South Korea, Russia and Japan, the latter of which has threatened to shoot down the rocket.

Even traditional ally China has voiced its concern about the launch, worried that the rocket could heighten tensions in the region.

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RAJA AMPAT, Indonesia – The remote Indonesian archipelago of Raja Ampat is home to an underwater treasure trove of coral reefs and tremendous biodiversity, miles away from polluted urban centers and human encroachment.

The faraway islands in Western Papua, regarded by many marine experts as having the potential to help restore the world's ailing coral reefs, are vulnerable to the unchecked exploitation of a lucrative treasure that is rapidly disappearing from Indonesia's waters: sharks.

China's growing appetite for the de rigueur shark fin soup has attracted fishermen from elsewhere in Indonesia and Southeast Asia to the waters around Raja Ampat's 1,500 islands.

Alarmed, conservationists and local villagers worked together to create the Misool Eco Resort and Conservation Center in 2005, establishing a 165-square-mile "No-Take Zone" that banned fishing.

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When a neighboring village requested to take part, the area was expanded to 472 square miles, roughly the size of the city of Los Angeles.

The Misool team also recruited a group of rangers to help patrol the waters for illegal fishermen. Earlier this year, NBC News had an opportunity to go on patrol with Abdul Razak Tamher, 31, one of the first rangers.

Q: Before 2005, what were shark and fish stocks like in this area of Raja Ampat?

A: Before 2005, one of the main occupations of the people of my village was fishing. That's what we did every day and one of the big things fished were sharks. By the 2000s there were very few sharks left in the area, but in the 1980s and 90s when I was fishing there were lots of sharks. A lot of people used dynamite and potassium cyanide for fishing.

Q: So did villagers in Misool know they had to change the way things were done?

A: At that time, people here really didn't think much about shark or marine conservation. We didn't know shark fishing was illegal (prior to the formation of the No-Take Zone in 2005, the local governor had actually signed a law against shark fishing) because nobody from the government came out here to tell or educate us that it was illegal and bad for the ecology to fish sharks.

It was really through the efforts of the resort to educate the village about the importance of sharks and protecting the marine environment that we saw the importance of it and began to appreciate the natural beauty ourselves. Now if people from my village hear of a shark fishing boat coming into this area, they get really upset.

Q: Is conservation a completely foreign idea here? Isn't there a long tradition of seasonal fishing and spiritual beliefs around protecting certain animals?

A: We've embraced principles of conservation since the beginning of our culture. They were simple ideas, but they still worked for us. For example, we would harvest clams from the ocean for six months, then depending on the ocean conditions, we would close that area for sometimes up to a year before harvesting again.

Many of the original families in this area are forbidden to eat different sea creatures like sharks or turtles or other kinds of fish. In each case, there is a reason why each family respects and protects a certain animal. It could be that a family member or fisherman generations ago was rescued by that species or guided to land at a time of need. Many still believe that if someone in the family breaks this taboo, they will get sick or something bad will happen.

Q: In 2006, the rangers were formed with just five of you and a few of you were actually former shark fishermen. What made you make such a dramatic change in your life?

 A: I personally wasn't involved in shark fishing, but other original rangers that were here in the beginning and their village elders were shark fishermen. Even though they were shark fishermen and lived off the harvest of the ocean, they realized that they needed to preserve this area and the marine life for future generations to come.

Many of us felt – and still feel today – that if we told our children or grandchildren that there were lots of fish and sharks in the sea around these islands and they went there and saw none they would think that we were liars and we just couldn't allow that to happen.

Q: What was it like in the early days with the rangers?

A: The rangers weren't really effective until 2009 because at that time there was only one speed boat that was always busy getting lumber for the construction of the resort. So we would only go out if we saw an illegal boat go past the resort. From 2006-2009, we went out almost every day. In the months of June and July, the area was choked with shark finning boats from as far away as Java that cast long lines with sometimes 1,000 or 2,000 hooks to catch sharks.

To expel the foreign boats, it wasn't a problem. We would just go up to the boats and tell them leave and they would go. Local fishermen were tougher. Most of the problems had to do with local fishermen not agreeing with the contract we signed with Misool Eco Reserve to create the no-take zones or claiming they were not around when the contract had been reached. They would also say we have it easy since we work as rangers and make a lot of money, so we don't need to fish like they did.

Q: How soon after the reserve formed did you start to see results from the sanctuary?

A: After two or three years, I started to see a lot of sharks in the lagoons and my friends who went diving began to see more fish. There were just some researchers here in Misool who were shocked by the amount of fish who were in the protected areas. The results have just been amazing.

Q: How have the villages in the area adapted to the sanctuary?

A: In the beginning, there were a lot of problems with the villagers not understanding the rangers' mission. The most important thing we did to get people behind us was to use Adat, or traditional Papuan village law. This was done by developing a close relationship with the ancestral village head, as he holds the power of the village and so people will listen to what he says. If we didn't have the village head, then it would have been difficult to enforce the rules of the sanctuary.

Q: What's next for the rangers in the coming years?

A: We all hope the ranger patrol can continue forever and that we have the resources to keep recruiting young people from the villages to the patrol. We now have three ranger stations built and we hope to have three rangers in every station with small, fuel-efficient boats that can be used to spot illegal fishermen and intercept them until support can show up.

The other big problem we'd like to fix is communication. Radio communication in this region of Raja Ampat is difficult because all the radios we have now are line-of-sight and the islands interfere with signal within short distances. The plan is to build a main radio/repeater station that will cover the entire area so that there is clear contact throughout the sanctuary.

To donate to the Misool ranger patrols, click here.

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BEIJING – China’s ruling Communist Party on Thursday selected a new seven-person leadership group fronted by Xi Jinping that will lead the world’s second largest economy for at least the next five years.

Xi, the newly selected party secretary, and his deputy, Li Keqiang -- the new members of the all-important Politburo Standing Committee -- take over a nation whose economy has quadrupled under the leadership of outgoing leader, Hu Jintao, but now faces serious environmental, political and social questions in the near future.

For Xi though, this Standing Committee appears better poised to bring about much-needed reforms than that of his predecessor, Hu.

China’s Communist Party of today governs by consensus. Long gone are the days of “Strong Man” politics where one man – a Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaoping – dictates policy for the country.

This political evolution helped produce the stability that has ushered in unprecedented economic growth.

Remarkably this week saw only the second peaceful leadership transition since the communists took power in 1949.

David Gray / Reuters

A customer stands with restaurant workers underneath a painting of Chinese characters that read "Long-lasting Prosperity", as they watch television showing the new leadership of China's ruling Communist Party.

The new leadership committee announced Thursday represents a rare balance of differing political agendas and alliances.

Men like Li Keqiang – probably the party’s best educated leader – and Wang Qishan – a strong voice for the opening up of China’s economy – are likely to be liberal voices for reform.

Communist Party's Congress grinds on amid widespread indifference in China

Meanwhile Zhang Dejiang – the faithful party stalwart who took over for the deposed Bo Xilai – and Liu Yunshan – the long-time czar of the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department – represent strong conservative voices.

The other two members, Zhang Gaoli and Yu Zhengsheng, both come from postings in Tianjin and Shanghai respectively and have shown signs of being centrists on issues.

Ironically, it is the new Party Secretary and soon-to-be President, Xi Jinping, who is the greatest mystery – a veritable political cipher.

Yawns and other expressions of boredom as China's Communist Party Congress begins

But that now seems to be the path to the top position in China: The less known about you politically, the greater the chance of promotion.

There have been some questions raised about the various appointments that came out Thursday.

Outgoing President Hu Jintao’s decision to give up his seat on the important Central Military Commission was either a magnanimous demonstration of statesmanship on the part of Hu -- who had to wait two years until his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, gave up the post -- or a resounding defeat as Hu's important political allies did not appear to have made the final seven of the standing committee.

Embassy ballots give Chinese a glimpse of democracy ahead of power transfer

Another intriguing development was the appointment of Wang Qishan to the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Wang has garnered a reputation as an effective “fireman” on sensitive issues affecting the party and in recent years has served as a capable counterpart to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

But, at a time when serious economic concerns regarding the stalling of market reforms and the rise again of centrally planned, state-owned enterprises in China have plagued Beijing, it is a curious move to shift Wang, the strongest voice for economic reform in the party.

His shift to the top disciplinary position in the party means Wang will be able to bring about positive economic development by attacking a larger issue plaguing both party and country: corruption.

As China’s economy continues to develop in size and sophistication, the need for better standards of practice economically and politically have slowly started to manifest itself.

There is some optimism now that with a reformer like Wang in place, there will eventually be the political will at the highest levels to bring about a serious reckoning on systemic corruption at both national and local levels across the country. 

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Slideshow: The dance of two giants

AFP - Getty Images

A click-through history of modern relations between the United States and China.

Launch slideshow

News analysis

BEIJING – It isn't only the U.S. presidential candidates who have had to withstand a verbal pummeling during the race -- China has been the subject of some of the most sustained attacks from Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, both of whom seem to be competing for who can be toughest on the world’s second-largest economy.

Romney has called China "a currency manipulator" and pledged to "crack down" on the country. Obama, meanwhile, has described China as an adversary, and said his administration was sending "a very clear message that America is a Pacific power and we are going to have a presence there."

China was mentioned 32 times during the last presidential debate. This appeared to have prompted China's netizens, who tend to be younger and better educated than average, to take to online feeds in droves to watch Obama and Romney fight it out.

With its own seismic political transition in-the-works, reaction to American fighting talk has ranged from the philosophical to the plainly disinterested, a mood of suspicion replacing the euphoria that infected many young Chinese after Obama's election in 2008. 

An October 17 editorial published by state-run news agency Xinhua called Obama and Romney’s China-bashing "a ritual" that "leaves Americans with the impression that China is responsible for their country’s decline."

"There are plenty of other U.S. politicians who have built their political popularity and career by chastising the Chinese government and its policies," another Xinhua editorial said. "U.S. politicians have a notorious record of rounding on China during election seasons and then quickly changing their course of action after taking office."

Full coverage: NBCNews.com's The World is Watching series

Despite the official and semi-official take on the race, many regular Chinese approached by NBC News said they weren't following the U.S. election --  an indication that issues like high inflation, rising property prices and a slowing economy have a more immediate impact on people's lives. 

"I have no idea. It has nothing to do with me," 22-year old Liu Ziyu, a recent college graduate, told NBC News when asked who he would like to see win the race.  

Luan Ke, 23, an editor and journalist at a Beijing newspaper echoed a popularly held opinion when he said neither candidate would really change the relationship between the world's remaining superpower and an emerging power.   

"I don't think there is any essential difference between the two," he said. 

Much at stake for US as tensions rise in troubled China Seas

Luan and others pointed to a growing list of issues plaguing the Sino-U.S. relationship. The United States has accused China of undercutting American competitiveness and jobs by circumventing trade laws and undervaluing the yuan to help its exporters. 

China has indeed kept its currency cheap by indirectly pegging the yuan to the dollar through the purchase of $1.15 trillion in U.S. bonds, making it the second largest holder of American debt after the Federal Reserve.

Also in this series: Israel, Iran name checks illustrate America's twin obsessions

But while this issue is frequently used to show Beijing's inordinate power over the American economy, most experts acknowledge that the risks go both ways: A unloading of U.S. bonds would likely cause the dollar to plummet in value, but at the same time send the yuan soaring, dramatically raising the price of its products internationally and possibly sparking skyrocketing inflation due to runaway commodity prices.

The Obama administrations' three rounds of quantitative easing -- the act of injecting currency into the money supply – has angered Chinese policy makers because it devalues the dollar and makes its products more expensive internationally. 

Also in this series: Should next US president treat Russia as friend or foe?

The two countries have also been involved in a tit-for-tat trade spat. The Obama administration has won international rulings on trade issues ranging from the dumping of Chinese tires to cheap steel on the American market. In return, China has countered with its own protective tariffs on American auto parts and chicken feet.

Meanwhile, the United States' re-engagement with the Asia-Pacific region – dubbed a "pivot" by the White House – comes as China transforms itself into a modern and confident fighting force. Territorial regional disputes have become hot-button issues for China, which Beijing is increasingly unafraid to push back on. 

China brings its 1st aircraft carrier into service, joining 9-nation club

Throughout the campaign, Chinese state media has reminded viewers and readers of the chasm that often exists between American candidates' rhetoric and their policies once in office. For example, in 1992, candidate Bill Clinton pummeled President George H.W. Bush for dealing with China's ruling Communist Party, whom Clinton famously dubbed the "butchers of Beijing."

Just eight years later, candidate George W. Bush accused lame duck president Clinton of being soft on China, slamming him for declaring Beijing "strategic partners."

Despite the knowledge that American campaign rhetoric often doesn't match the reality once a president is in office, observers have been keeping a close eye on the U.S. campaign trail and the changing relationship between the two countries.  

"America's refocus and return to the Asia-Pacific region has brought increased challenges to the Sino-U.S. relationship," Zhang Guoqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of American Studies, told NBC News. In particular, there is growing anger and frustration at what is seen as obstructionism on the part of the Obama administration, which is blocking high-profile industrial firms like Huawei and Sany from investing in strategic industries like energy and telecommunications. 

Also in this series: Despite bloodshed, Mexico is ignored during White House race

Despite American efforts to re-label the pivot as a "rebalancing" of its diplomatic and economic resources as well as its military ones, China’s attention has largely focused on the U.S. shift militarily. So suspicion of the United States’ changing role in the region has run rife on Beijing’s streets.

More China coverage from NBC News' Behind the Wall blog

"(The United States) might suppress China and prevent it from being the boss in Asian-Pacific region," Chen Huaijie, a 32-year old voice-over artist for a Chinese state broadcaster, told NBC News. 

Regardless of who wins next week, expect China to approach the president-elect warily but, given the country’s growing prominence on the world’s stage, confidently.  

NBC News’ Li Le and Yanzhou Liu contributed to this report.

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BEIJING – Liu Jie remembers clearly when her mother violated China's one-child policy and gave birth to her little brother. The family was living in Hunan province, where her mother worked as a teacher, and the illegal addition to the family cost her mother the job.

Now 23 and working as a secretary in Beijing, Liu fully supports doing away with the country's controversial one-child policy – an argument that has been gaining ground thanks to China's increasingly grim population trends.

In a report released this week, the China Development Research Foundation, a high-level government think tank, recommended that a two-child policy be instituted in some provinces this year and a nationwide two-child policy be made law in 2015, with all birth limits eliminated by 2020.

Chinese government think tank urges end to unpopular one-child policy

"It's a great idea," Liu said. "It will help to solve some social problems, cultivate children's character and improve the treatment of the elderly."

But when asked if she would want to have more than one child, Liu quickly responded, "Oh no, I will only have one baby!"

"Raising children isn't easy and I don't think I'll have enough money for two children… if I have two, my quality of life would be worse," Liu said.

Hers is a dilemma confronting many Chinese: even if the government repeals the unpopular policy in order to address an approaching demographic time bomb, there are serious questions about whether Chinese families would even be willing to have more than one child in today's economic and social climate.

The one-child policy has been credited with reducing China's population from anywhere between 100 to 400 million people since its passing in 1979 under then-leader Deng Xiaoping.

At the same time, a gradual increase in life expectancy on the mainland has created a significant age imbalance waiting to play out: China's population over the age of 60 is expected to more than double from 185 million today to 487 million in 2053, or 35 percent of the population.

Meanwhile, the 52 percent of the population that will be of working age by then will be expected to support this swollen elderly group as well as the 16 percent of the population that will be children, raising serious questions on how the country will be able to sustain growth.

Gruesome photos put spotlight on China's one-child policy

These issues are unlike anything China has faced its thousands of years of history, said Gu Baochang, a professor at Beijing's Renmin University.

"China has no experience, no understanding, and no preparation for dealing with the new challenges posed by extremely low fertility, serious aging, speeding urbanization and wide spread of population," Gu warned.

Thinking twice
Amongst China's young population – the group that will be expected to carry this tremendous financial burden – there is general support for the elimination of the draconian policy they grew up with. But it doesn't mean that they are any more willing to have more children.

With soaring inflation on everyday goods and astronomical home prices in many of China's cities, everyday Chinese are taking a closer look at the daunting costs of child-rearing and other modern societal pressures and are thinking twice about having another child.

For Gong Leilei, a 32-year-old from Zhejiang, it's simply a question of money. Gong and his wife want a little sister for their six-year old son but have been reluctant to try.

"I wanted to have a daughter, but my wife does not want her now," Gong said. "She thinks we should wait until we have more money."

Joyce Li, a 38-year old program director at Beijing University, agreed that it's time for the one-child policy to go. "Right now the one-child policy has a lot of problems like the issue of taking care of the elderly… so it's necessary to change the one-child policy," Li said.

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Still, when asked whether she would have two children, she balked. "Right now raising a child in China is very expensive, so I don't think I have enough money for many children," she said.

"There are also other problems, like the issue of education," Li continued, "Right now it is very hard to get children into school."

The growing number of migrants moving into China's cities concerns some. Chen Chi, a 22-year old university student in Beijing, said he actually supported the one-child policy and worried about the burdens of a growing population.

"No, it's not a good idea to remove the one-child policy," Chen told NBC News. "The population is too high and more and more people will move to urban areas to have children, making the urban-rural population balance even worse."

As for children: "I will only have one baby," he said. "It is an economic decision."

New leadership, new policy?
Despite all the hubbub about the report calling for the end of the one-child policy, the odds are deeply stacked against any rapid movement in the direction of an easing of the law. China's ruling Communist Party today is heavily consensus-driven and the report released this week will likely be mediated on for some time before the Party's legislative gears begin moving.

That the report was issued and publicized in local Chinese media at all, however, suggests that Beijing is receptive to the idea of discussing the policy's abolition. Ultimately, if party leaders believe that removing the one-child policy is in the best interest of maintaining social stability, then change will likely be seen under the new leadership of Xi Jinping, the man expected to take power in China next week.

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But in an email interview with NBC News, Mayling Birney, a scholar at the London School of Economics, warned that while a two-child policy may align now with party priorities, that doesn't mean that there won't be complications that give leaders pause.

"People may be relieved that the government is relaxing its invasive family planning policy; they may be less likely to encounter tragic stories of coerced abortions; and the worrisome gender imbalance should improve," Birney said.

"At the same time, more births would create new demands and strain on the education and health systems, well before the new generation could make its contributions to future economic growth," she warned.

NBC News Le Li, Johanna Armstrong, Yanzhou Liu and Eric Baculinao contributed to this report.

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