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From ancient times to the present, a large population has been the basis for survival. China to project its strength. But the anxiety of managing so much talk is always there. “China With a population of 600 million, we must never forget this fact. ” Mao Zedong said in 1957, shortly before triggering a catastrophic famine.
However, the size of the masses in China is getting smaller and smaller. This is a problem.
The birth rate data released on Monday was the lowest since Mao Zedong’s Communist Party founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the latest development in China’s millennia-old struggle. Having children and renewing the young population has been at the center of national discussions since the founding of the country.
China’s current population is 1.404 billion, a decrease of 3 million from the previous year. And the central government challenge It remains the same as ever: managing a citizenry that both enhances the country’s power and consumes vast resources.
But a variety of factors — policies, generational changes and the general evolution of people’s lifestyles — have officials worried that China won’t have enough young people to build the tomorrow they want. This week’s data illustrates how complex the problem remains.
Urban Chinese in the 1980s might have had a hard time imagining today’s situation, where the government is pushing families to have more children – up to three.
The one-child policy was officially implemented in 1980, four years after Mao Zedong’s death, in an effort to curb population growth. It limits Chinese couples to having only one offspring, and in many cases ends up punishing them if they don’t comply. Reason: At that time, at Deng XiaopingDriven by the “reform and opening up” policy, the country’s funds and resources cannot keep up with the needs of the people.
BeijingThe answer is to slow population growth. Over time, this leads to an overpopulation of older people. “China’s demographic transition, characterized by aging before getting rich, brings challenges and opportunities,” the official newspaper said china daily Say it’s 2024.
In the years after the implementation of the one-child policy, unexpected consequences occurred:
—The desire for a son led to the hiding, abuse, and sometimes outright killing of baby girls, especially in rural areas.
——Among the wealthy urban families targeted by the policy, millions of families have also been born. The only child has become the focus of people’s attention, creating a generation of so-called “little emperors”.
— Coupled with the recent relaxation of the “hukou” or household registration system that restricts Chinese people from living in the country, many only children end up living far away from their parents, contributing to social ills such as loneliness and alienation.
— Population growth has slowly slowed, leading to numbers like Monday’s in recent years.
“China’s one-child policy will be remembered as one of the most devastating lessons in misguided public policymaking,” Brookings Institution he said in a 2016 report shortly after the policy was repealed. It also blamed “a social rhetoric that falsely blames population growth for nearly all of the country’s social and economic problems.”
One of the oldest precepts in China is that there are three ways to disrespect parents and ancestors, and not having offspring is one of them. In this regard, limiting population growth goes against long-established cultural norms and traditions.
As one-child policy recedes, Chinese president Xi Jinping This ancient concept has been given new life. He began to publicly once again compare the people to the power of China, or in his words, “the Great Wall of Steel forged by more than 1.4 billion Chinese people.”
this doesn’t help India By 2023, China’s population will exceed that of China. China, an on-again, off-again rival and neighbor, has recently been vying for leadership in the Southern Hemisphere, a goal it is pursuing and an alternative to what it sees as Western “hegemony.” This factor makes China’s population problem both a domestic issue and an international issue.
Therefore, the country has taken some steps to reduce friction (for lack of a better term). Condoms are no longer taxed. Neither are daycare centers. Even matchmakers, a cornerstone of traditional Chinese culture, now find their work tax-free.
More systematically, the goals of the country’s next five-year development plan, which begins this year, include “encouraging positive views on marriage and parenthood,” in addition to increasing incentives to increase birth rates and reduce the costs of having and raising children. official Xinhua News Agency Last month it said the moves, taken together, represented “a plan to make childbirth essentially free”.
The ultimate question is whether traditional China can endure, or whether decades of Chinese policy and the realities of modern global life will continue to rewrite it. Can the two coexist? It’s hard to say when you’re talking about 1.4 billion people.
Mao Zedong might be able to provide some guidance here. When the great helmsman made this comment in 1957, it appeared in a book whose title succinctly summed up the complex problems China faced then and now. Its name is: “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People.”