
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Worried about a ballooning population, the Chinese government introduced its infamous one-child policy in 1980. At the time it seemed urgent to find ways to reduce the number of babies being born. China today has the opposite problem - too few births. Since the one-child policy was scrapped 10 years ago, there have been increasingly desperate attempts to encourage couples to have more children. But nothing has worked. China’s population has already started to fall. That process will gather pace over the coming decades. The population is on track to halve by the end of the century. Micky Bristow, who has reported on China over more than 20 years, looks at why this is happening, and what the consequences could be.
By BBC World Service4.3
16071,607 ratings
Worried about a ballooning population, the Chinese government introduced its infamous one-child policy in 1980. At the time it seemed urgent to find ways to reduce the number of babies being born. China today has the opposite problem - too few births. Since the one-child policy was scrapped 10 years ago, there have been increasingly desperate attempts to encourage couples to have more children. But nothing has worked. China’s population has already started to fall. That process will gather pace over the coming decades. The population is on track to halve by the end of the century. Micky Bristow, who has reported on China over more than 20 years, looks at why this is happening, and what the consequences could be.

7,639 Listeners

375 Listeners

1,046 Listeners

5,520 Listeners

964 Listeners

584 Listeners

1,763 Listeners

1,049 Listeners

358 Listeners

583 Listeners

965 Listeners

407 Listeners

410 Listeners

731 Listeners

849 Listeners

366 Listeners

986 Listeners

3,177 Listeners

1,003 Listeners

720 Listeners

1,002 Listeners

386 Listeners