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by prewett 1923 days ago
For quite a while, thanks to the One Child Policy. The birth rate has about about 1.6 babies/woman since about 1990. It's been creeping up, but the current generation got used to the idea of one child per family. In addition, living in the cities is really expensive, and the hukou system means your kid is only guaranteed education in your hometown. I think you can often pay a fee, but I'm not sure, and in any case, it living is already expensive enough.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?location...

3 comments

A true story I once read:

An American traveler in rural Sichuan, while on the road, found himself speaking to a local family. A few members of the family were present: A husband and wife, and their youngest child, a daughter.

The couple explained that their house had been torn down as punishment for violating the one child policy. This, evidently, is a real punishment that is used. They said they knew it might happen but intentionally tried to have a child anyway, and were delighted, despite everything, when they learned they were pregnant. That was how badly they wanted a daughter. This was the little girl who was now with them.

The girl was present while they told the story of the demolished house. She heard every word. She had no doubt heard the story before. And she had a striking look on her face.

You might call it pride.

That's...almost the exact same # for women in the US.
I wouldn't necessarily credit (blame?) mainland China's One Child policy for that. Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea have even lower total fertility rates.