The U.S. Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 2nd (local time) that while the government is pressuring women to have more children as China’s fertility rate falls sharply, women are turning a blind eye to these demands.
The WSJ pointed out that Chinese society is blaming women for the low birth rate amid a population estimate that China’s population, which currently has about 1.4 billion people, will plunge to 500 million by 2100.
According to reports, the number of newborns in China in 2022 was 9.56 million, less than 10 million annually for the first time in 73 years since 1949, when “New China” was built.
In 2012 alone, the number of newborns reached 16.35 million, a sharp drop in the number of newborns in just 10 years.
China’s total fertility rate has fallen from 1.30 in 2020 to 1.09 in 2022.
The WSJ also introduced the results of a joint research team led by Feng Xuan, a senior researcher at Victoria University in Australia, that the population would plunge to 587 million by 2100 as China’s population decline accelerates.
Chinese authorities have offered a variety of childbirth incentives, including childbirth incentives, child care allowances, and preferential housing purchase benefits, but they have not received much response from young people who avoid marriage and childbirth.
In particular, the campaign for a “birth-friendly culture” has become an urgent national task, but it seems that it is only raising women’s resistance.
In the case of a Chinese woman surnamed Jang, when she gave birth to her second child in 2014, she was fined for the government’s “one-child policy” and had to have her intrauterine contraceptive device examined every three months to prevent further pregnancy.
Even after abolishing the one-child policy in 2015, authorities, who had been checking contraceptives for a while, have recently sent her a text message asking her to give birth to more children, she said.
Jang, who is angry and deletes every time he sees a text message to encourage childbirth, complained to WSJ, saying, “I wish the government would leave ordinary people like us alone.”
The WSJ found the cause of the decline in fertility rates in young women’s prioritization of themselves over government or relatives’ wishes.
They are avoiding childbirth because they feel tired of the Chinese government’s bullying and are concerned about the sacrifices caused by child-rearing.
The WSJ analyzed, “Chinese women’s refusal to give birth is causing a crisis in the Chinese Communist Party government, which desperately needs more newborns to increase China’s aging population.”
The WSJ pointed out that women are responsible for the low birth rate.
At the end of October last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed the National Federation of Women of China at an event, saying, “Let’s prevent and address risks in the women’s sector,” the media pointed out.
Wang Yi-cheng, an assistant professor of political science at Washington & Lee University, said in response to Xi’s remarks, “It is clear that we did not talk about the risks women are facing, but considered women as a major threat to social stability.”
SALLY
AISA JOURNAL
