But Chang thinks that "child's slave" exaggerates the reality, saying that after all, the blood bond between mother and child could not only be measured by money.

"Nothing could compare with the happiness a mother gets from witnessing her child grow up," Chang said.

Zhang Yi, research fellow of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics, of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) thinks that the term "child's slave" could, in some sense, reflect that Chinese are facing a variety of pressures as the country modernizes.

"To relieve individual's burden of raising a child, the most important job for government is to pour more investment into education and promote education equity," he said in a Xinhua interview.

The Chinese government released a national education plan for the next decade, saying that the country's fiscal education expenditure should be increased to be four percent of GDP in 2012 and the preschool education should be basically universal by 2020.

(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2010)