Preschools Close as China’s Family Crisis Deepens

China, ,

A recent article at The American Spectator highlights how anti-family policies have contributed to China’s looming population crisis.

Ellie Gardey Holmes writes,

Data released by China’s Ministry of Education last month revealed an astonishing reality: In the past two years alone, 36,000 preschools across China have shuttered their doors.

This is not due to a decline in the popularity of preschool or consolidation on the part of the Chinese government. Rather, these preschools have closed simply because not enough children to attend them were born.

The article notes that births in China have dropped by nearly half since 2016, and there are some 12 million fewer preschoolers in China today than in 2020. Many of these problems seem to trace back to China’s communist government enforcing a strict “one-child” policy for many years. Even though the government has abandoned that policy, fewer families are forming in China.

This is not the first time pundits have expressed concern over China’s declining population. In 2020, officials from the Chinese Communist Party said China’s fertility rate had fallen to dangerously low levels, with fewer couples marrying and starting families. In early 2023, China’s National Bureau of Statistics released data showing the country’s population had begun plummeting. And last year The Guardian reported that several kindergartens in China had been converted into elderly care facilities as a result of the country’s falling birthrate and aging population.

Most developed nations are dealing with declining birthrates — including countries like Japan and the U.S. — but not to the same degree as China.

Without a growing population, it’s difficult for countries to maintain strong communities, a vibrant workforce, or a healthy economy. The Chinese Communist Party spent decades promoting the idea that having fewer children would be good for China, but that simply is not how society works.

Societies thrive off healthy, stable families. That’s part of the reason Family Council has spent more than 35 years promoting, protecting, and strengthening traditional family values in Arkansas. When families succeed, everyone benefits.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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China’s Anti-Family Policies Contribute to Population Crisis

China, , ,

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal highlights how anti-family policies have contributed to China’s looming population crisis.

After decades of communist population control measures — including China’s “one-child policy” — the country now faces declining birthrates and an aging workforce.

Writing of one prominent city in China, The Wall Street Journal notes,

Once vibrating with energy, Fushun is a city slowly going to sleep. Most of its coal mines and refineries have closed. Half its young people have left. Its pension coffers are heavily in the red, with roughly a third of its population 60 or above.

Last year, only 5,541 babies were born in the city of 1.7 million. By comparison, Michigan’s Wayne County, which includes Detroit and has a similar-size population, logged more than 20,000 births.

Signs of aging are everywhere. Bus stops carry cemetery ads. Taxis advertise dental implants—$200 a tooth or $1,680 for “half a mouth.” . . .

In another decade, all of China will look more like this.

China’s population started shrinking in 2022 and births have been nosediving for several years. By 2035, China will mirror Fushun’s present, with 30% of Chinese 60 or older, based on U.N. population estimates. 

Fushun’s rise was built around a Communist Party growth playbook for state-led investment and a lid on births. Fushun was a star performer in both. Now, it epitomizes the economic and demographic strain all of China will confront. 

This is not the first time pundits have expressed concern over China’s declining population. In 2020, officials from the Chinese Communist Party said the China’s fertility rate was getting dangerously low, fewer couples marrying and starting families. Nearly two years ago, China’s National Bureau of Statistics released reports showing the country’s population had begun plummeting.

China is not the only country facing a population crisis. Most developed nations are as well — including, to a certain extent, Japan and the U.S. — but not to the same degree as China.

Without a growing population, it’s difficult for countries to maintain strong communities, a vibrant workforce, or a healthy economy. The Chinese Communist Party spent decades promoting the idea that having fewer children would be good for China, but that simply is not how society works.

Societies thrive off healthy, stable families. That’s part of the reason Family Council has spent more than 35 years promoting, protecting, and strengthening traditional family values in Arkansas. When families succeed, everyone benefits.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

READ MORE