Will Deatherage: Hello everybody, welcome to another episode of the Barefoot Lawyer Reports on China. My name is Will Deatherage, the producer, and joining me, as always, is Chen Guangcheng.
Chen Guangcheng: Hello, everyone! I’m glad to see you here again.
W: Yeah, and today we have some ongoing news from China. There’s been an interesting trend that could spell for some hardship for the Chinese economy. Guangcheng, what’s happening right now?
G: Yeah, there is a big problem for China now, you know, because the population — birth rate — is getting lower and lower. In Mainland China, there are a lot of empty villages; a lot of abandoned houses in China.
W: Why is that, Guangcheng? What’s going on?
G: There are three reasons. One is because of the CCP’s evil one child policy. You know, since 40 years ago, the Communist Party killed a lot of babies.
W: Through abortions, right?
G: Yeah, yeah, the forced abortions. So now, in China, the population, birth rate, lowers by 20% every year. Last year, just around 8 million babies were born. So I think that is the first reason, and another thing is because a lot of people, maybe five years ago, had to go to a city to find a job.
W: Okay, so this is mostly happening in the rural areas of China?
G: Yes, yes.
W: Okay.
G: So every year, maybe they just came back for traditional New Year two or three days, [something] like that. The rest of the year, the villages are almost empty. Yeah, because, you know, maybe the worker’s father or mother [is] getting old, maybe died. Most villagers are elderly and dying.
W: Okay. Why are the young people going to the city?
G: Because if they live in the village, they have no opportunity to get money. So, yeah, the problem is, even in the city, some areas are empty, too, because the CCP keeps building a lot of buildings in the city, right? But the people have no money to buy the apartments. So a lot of areas are almost empty. At night, it is very dark in the cities, in those areas. This information told me China’s population is getting lower and lower.
W: Okay.
G: Yeah, that is a big problem. This is why, several years ago, the CCP tried to stop the one child policy, and now they try to force the people to have more babies.
W: Oh, yeah, so how are they doing that?
G: For example, before, the CCP asked all the hospitals, if the women don’t have permission, you cannot help the women to give birth. But now, the doctors cannot perform abortions without permission.
W: Gotcha, okay, so it’s a complete reversal of the last policy, right, Guangcheng?
G: Yeah, yeah.
W: So, do you think it’s working, or are people…?
G: No, no, it isn’t working. When the CCP published an article about this, more than 93% of the people commented on the website, they said, “Okay, if you want more babies, just go ahead. Don’t try to request us to do that. Before, you killed our babies. Now you ask us, you request us to have more babies. What is wrong? What is right?
W: Right, so people are angry about it.
G: Yeah, yeah, Chinese people are angry now. Now you can see the problem more and more clearly.
W: What do you think that the CCP will do next, or what else are they trying to solve the population crisis?
G: It looks like the CCP does not have good ideas. Before, the CCP tried to ask the leader to do [it] first, then to influence the people.
W: Oh, to have kids, you mean? Or to do what?
G: Yeah, to have more kids. If you are the leader, you have to have the third kid first. Then, they ask you to influence your neighbors to have more kids, but it looks like it doesn’t work.
W: Yeah, are the leaders having any more kids, Guangcheng?
G: I think that doesn’t work. Of course, if the leader is so young, maybe, maybe they have to listen to the CCP, right? Because they want to keep the power. But, if the CCP hopes the officials can influence the people… I think it doesn’t work.
W: Yeah, would you say most of the CCP leaders are older?
G: You know, yeah. In the villages, usually, I think the leaders are more than 40 years old.
W: Yeah, so can they even have kids?
G: Yeah, even more than 50, 60 [years old]. So if [you’re] more than 50, 60, of course the CCP cannot ask them to do that.
W: What do you think will happen, then? If China can’t increase its population, what do you think will happen?
G: That will become a big problem. You know, almost 300 million people are getting elderly. You know, usually, maybe after three or five years they will die, right? I think after ten years, maybe, the Chinese population will fall to 900 million or 1 billion, meaning in the future, maybe five years, China’s population will drop 30%.
W: Yeah, what do you think the Communist Party will do in response to that? If people aren’t having more kids, what do you think the Communist Party will do next?
G: I think the Communist Party will try to do some benefit. For example, if you have a baby, we will give some money, like that. I think that doesn’t work because, the family… if the family has more babies, you know, you have to pay a lot of money for the education or on other things.
W: Right, it’s expensive to have kids.
G: Right, very expensive. So if the Communist Party just gives them a little benefit, they will ignore that. Another important thing is, you know, in Mainland China, there are more than 111 million unmarried old women. So, you know, usually they should have a baby, right? But now, they’re more than 30 years old, more than 40 years old, but they are unmarried. So no babies. Because they are old, so [it’s] very difficult to find a husband.
W: How will this impact relationships between China and the United States? Can you talk about how this might make China more dependent on other governments and other economies? Can you talk about that?
G: Yes, I believe that. They don’t have enough young workers. In fact now, some women come Vietnam.
W: From Vietnam?
G: Yes, they found their wives from Vietnam.
W: Right. Well, we’ll keep updating this situation, and we encourage all our listeners to like this podcast, subscribe and share, it really helps us. And follow us on our media including Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, and YouTube, and go to our website: humanrights.catholic.edu. Thank you, Guangcheng, for all of this information on this story today.
G: Yeah, thank you, Will. Thank you, my friends. See you next time.
W: The Catholic University’s Center for Human Rights has published a documentary on the United Nations’ universal declaration on human rights. The documentary features world-class human rights experts, from former State Department officials to ambassadors and human rights activists. It can be found on our website at humanrights.catholic.edu.