I’ve been telling you for years that China — the big one, Red China — is not far behind Japan and South Korea on the way to the demographic cliff edge. Here is a related story from Bloomberg.
And no, it’s not really the one-child policy that’s driving the issue any more. East Asian young women just don’t seem much interested in childbearing. In urban regions, the one-child policy isn’t needed. They don’t even want to have the one. The joke I’ve heard from Chinese friends is that the one-child policy slogan “Have one child!” has been changed to “Have one child . . . please!“
Current TFRs from the CIA World Factbook are as follows.
Japan: 1.21
South Korea: 1.21
China: 1.79
Taiwan: 1.14
Hong Kong: 1.02
Macau: 0.91
Singapore: 1.09
U.S.A.: 2.05
I’d even take that published Chinese figure — which squinches China in between Norway (1.78) and Iceland (1.9) — with a grain of monosodium glutamate. Nobody really knows how reliable Chinese statistics are. The number could be higher or lower. On anecdotal evidence, I’d bet it’s lower if anything.