EXTREME PARENTING: China's 'Eagle Dad' trains five-year-old son to fly solo

A father in China has sparked controversy after training his five-year-old son to fly a plane. Liesheng calls himself "Eagle Dad" and adopts a brand of discipline called "Eagle Education". It involves him training Duoduo in potentially dangerous public stunts. The latest saw the boy flying in a microlight plane at 1,000 ft solo, in an attempt to break a world record.

However, Liesheng has a record of tough parenting. Last year he forced Duoduo to sail a dinghy single-handed; had to be rescued from taking him on a climb up Mount Fuji; and before that, made the youngster exercise in snowy conditions where temperatures had dropped to 13C...in his underpants.

Liesheng says he is just preparing his son for what he calls a cruel world but critics claim it is his actions that are cruel.

The director of the Beijing Youth League and Psychological Counselling Centre, Zong Chunshan, says his parenting style risks leaving lasting scars.

"At different ages, a child's development and physical characteristics have their own laws of maturity and what they can withstand. So people should respect these laws of development, and they should not say 'I think (the child) should be like this and therefore I will educator him or her accordingly'. Doing this is very likely to harm the child in the name of love," he said.

Nonetheless, 'Eagle Dad' has won praise from some in China who feel that only children created by the one-child policy are being spoilt and given little independence. Report by Ashley Fudge.

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