Why China's one-child policy is now backfiring

Despite the suffering that accompanied the policy, it was hugely successful. Too successful. China this week confirmed its population declined last year for the first time since famine killed millions under Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward in the 1960s. Sceptics of Chinese data, and there are many, say the population has been falling for several years. Failing to predict the demographic crisis that would hit China in the 21st century, the Chinese government took too long to abolish the one-child policy. By the time it did in 2016, Chinese society was conditioned to having one child. The Chinese parents I…