China: Births Collapse To Lowest Point in 70 Years In Wake of One-Child Policy

For several years, the birth rate in China has continued to decline: it is the result of the "one-child policy" introduced in 1979 by the Beijing authorities with the aim of containing the demographic boom. Applied severely especially in the countryside, where there have been numerous cases of forced termination of pregnancy, the policy has led to a consistent demographic imbalance in favor of boys through the selective abortions of girls. 

The law was "lightened" in 2013, allowing couples to have two children in which at least one of the spouses was "an only child by law", and completely abolished in 2016. Despite the cancellation of the rule, the consequences are still visible today. 

According to Dr. Wang Feng, professor of sociology at the University of California in Irvine, “the low birth rate partly reflects the decline of newborn babies since the 1990s, but also reveals something far more profound about the ongoing social transformations, which are even more worrying. " Among these, he suggests, “internal migration, rapid urbanization, a ruthless work culture, high costs for housing and education and unbridled gender discrimination. All this contributes to the low birth rate and could continue to do so for decades. "

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