China is upping the pressure on its population, pushing families to start having children, according to several reports on Tuesday, Oct. 8. The country introduced a new policy in 2021 aimed at addressing China’s rapidly declining birth rate.
However, new revelations about the reportedly heavy-handed tactics the government is using to achieve results are emerging.
Chinese women are reporting family planning officials going door-to-door and getting very personal, with some asking about women’s menstrual cycles and their plans for children.
The effort is to embrace a “fertility culture” while abandoning a culture that once restricted childbirth.
Some fear the new approach will lead to tougher restrictions on abortion. Those concerns have grown as some cities require any woman who is 14 or more weeks pregnant to get permission from the local family planning department before having the procedure done.
The requirement dates back to the early 2000s to stop parents from aborting female fetuses, a common practice in the one-child era.
However, in at least one city with the rule, officials at two family planning offices reportedly are trying to discourage women from seeking abortions. The firms weren’t ordered to do so but mentioned the government’s three-child policy and less young people having children as an influence.
There’s also more visible artwork in the country, with subliminal messages to encourage childbirth and marriage. China’s new strategy appears to be spurred by fears of a shrinking population as it looks to surpass the United States as a world power.
That goal may prove difficult with China’s population expected to fall by 109 million people by 2050, according to the United Nations, which more than tripled those numbers from a 2019 forecast.
Numbers for the future look even worse for the country, with some reports saying China could lose over 60% of its population, dropping to 525 million residents, by 2100.
