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.
Overpopulation isn’t the problem they want to solve. The problem they want to solve is “there are too many of us old people and not enough young people to take care of us”. Since the old people with money aren’t being taken care of, now it’s a problem worth addressing.
This is of course oversimplified, but I don’t think I’m on the wrong track.
Oh you’re bang on, but in my mind I’ve always just kinda “known” I don’t want kids, there’s already too many of us. Obviously that’s since been heavily reinforced based on the science 🔥