- cross-posted to:
- longreads@sh.itjust.works
- cross-posted to:
- longreads@sh.itjust.works
Chinese women have had it. Their response to Beijing’s demands for more children? No.
Fed up with government harassment and wary of the sacrifices of child-rearing, many young women are putting themselves ahead of what Beijing and their families want. Their refusal has set off a crisis for the Communist Party, which desperately needs more babies to rejuvenate China’s aging population.
With the number of babies in free fall—fewer than 10 million were born in 2022, compared with around 16 million in 2012—China is headed toward a demographic collapse. China’s population, now around 1.4 billion, is likely to drop to just around half a billion by 2100, according to some projections. Women are taking the blame.
In October, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping urged the state-backed All-China Women’s Federation to “prevent and resolve risks in the women’s field,” according to an official account of the speech.
“It’s clear that he was not talking about risks faced by women but considering women as a major threat to social stability,” said Clyde Yicheng Wang, an assistant professor of politics at Washington and Lee University who studies Chinese government propaganda.
The State Council, China’s top government body, didn’t respond to questions about Beijing’s population policies.
From the 1 child policy to this?
I’d imagine a lot of people who were affected negatively by 1 child policy being absolutely pissed at seeing the government suddenly go “we miscalculated, pls start breeding like rabbits”
Yeah there’s an example in the article
There’s a lot of crazy things in China that are related to this. Not just one child policy. There’s a whole crisis of sexuality in China.
Do you have an article on that? I always think of Japan with that issue, or do I have that mixed up?
I think a lot of countries are having similar issues. I think South Korea is another one.
Hell, even most western countries have the same issues
But many of those same western countries level out the population decay with immigration. To my knowledge South Korea, Japan, and China don’t have as much immigration.
Well there aren’t enough women because men are obsessed with family lines. Having one child. A male child was the preference, and in China older women are undesirable so I can see why there is a problem.