There's the problem.

Some band of merry idiots 50 years ago were sitting in their offices, deciding which politicians to have lunch with, when they decided they had to produce "big" concepts and solutions, since they were so important.

They looked at the population of China vs other countries, factored in political considerations, and the youngest and stupidest among them said "why don't we convince China to limit their families to one child per".

They called their friends in government "Hey, brunch this afternoon, don't forget. And by the way, do you think we could convince the Chinese to limit their children? It would solve overcrowding and starvation preemptively. I want to do a Master's thesis on it. Can you research if it would be a good idea?"