SHANGHAI: China's spoilt generation of single children is rapidly becoming overweight, a report shows, while their parents are also growing obese faster than any other country apart from Mexico.

There has been a 25 per cent rise in obesity in Shanghai's primary school children over the past decade, with 13 per cent overweight and almost half of those also obese, said the report from Jiao Tong University.

Epidemic ... obesity has risen in the past decade. Credit:AP

Officials have blamed China's rush to emulate Western culture, the plethora of fast food outlets and the tendency of parents in one-child families to express their affection through food.

''The kids have a bad diet, a sedentary lifestyle and very little knowledge about sports,'' said Paul French, the author of Fat China, a book about China's changing diet.