China paying the price for its failed anti-human one-child policy
Story by Tom Joyce, 10/6/22, Washington Examiner
Communist China tried for decades to curb its population growth. The results have been disastrous.
From 1979 to 2015, China had a one-child policy that carried stiff penalties such as fines and forced abortions. This horrible eugenics policy has helped create a demographic catastrophe.
Consider that one of China’s major economic advantages is its people. One of just two countries with over 1 billion citizens, China has plenty of cheap labor available for its mining and manufacturing industries. Yet the country deliberately stunted the growth of its most valuable commodity through brutal measures. Since families could only have one child, sex-selective abortion became practiced, killing about 11.9 million unborn children because they were girls. Along with the infanticide of young girls, it has led to a societal gender imbalance.
Gender imbalance has created social instability in the country, including violent and antisocial behavior from men, according to Scientific American. It has not only increased the number of bachelor men who cannot find a wife but also sex trafficking. The policy has also been an economic disaster, shrinking China’s labor pool. China’s population is now set to start declining within the next 10 years. It will decrease by more than 200 million people by 2060, according to the United Nations.
President Xi Jinping’s regime is trying to fix the demographic problem by encouraging local governments to increase childcare subsidies. Early results do not seem encouraging. Put simply, too many Chinese see having children as an expensive luxury that comes at the expense of career development and personal happiness. It’s unclear if new government policies can undo decades of population control and the culture it helped create surrounding childbearing.
If China had respected the sanctity of life, it would have had a better chance to achieve its global aspirations. If China cannot correct its population crisis, its stronger future looks very much in doubt.