Be Careful What You Wish For: China Confronts Population Decline
Schedule
Thu Mar 05 2026 at 12:30 pm to 02:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
Room 505 | Washington, DC
About this Event
About the Event
When China launched its draconian one-child policy nationally in 1980, the goal was not simply to slow population growth, but actually to initiate an eventual decline in China’s total population. The history of that campaign is full of paradoxes and lessons about bad national social policies. As of 2022, China’s population began to decline, and India has become the most populous country in the world. However, the decline in China’s fertility rate was not mainly the result of enforcement of the one-child policy, and since that policy was ended (on January 1, 2016), the annual number of births has continued to decline rather sharply, so that China today has one of the lowest total fertility rates in the world. Since 2016 CCP policy has reversed 180 degrees, with families encouraged to have two children, and since 2021 to have three. Xi Jinping wants to promote a “marriage and childbirth culture” in China, but so far pro-natal propaganda and new incentives are not boosting birth rates. Should China’s success in slowing and then reversing population growth be regarded as an accomplishment, or as a looming national crisis?
About the Speaker
Martin King Whyte is John Zwaanstra Professor of International Studies and Sociology, Emeritus, at Harvard University, and a Non-Resident Visiting Scholar at the George Washington University's Sigur Center for Asian Studies. He specializes in the study of grass roots social organization and social change in the People’s Republic of China in both the Mao and reform eras. Since 2000 he has been directing survey projects in China to examine how ordinary citizens view the very high levels of income inequality in that society, with the first of three national surveys (conducted in 2004) summarized in his book, Myth of the Social Volcano, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010. His most recent book is Remembering Ezra Vogel (co-edited with Mary Brinton), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2022.
About the Moderator
Professor Bruce Dickson received his B.A. in political science and English literature, his M.A. in Chinese Studies, and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan. He joined the faculty of The George Washington University and the Elliott School in 1993.
Professor Dickson's research and teaching focus on political dynamics in China, especially the adaptability of the Chinese Communist Party and the regime it governs. In addition to courses on China, he also teaches on comparative politics and authoritarianism.
His current research examines the political consequences of economic reform in China, the Chinese Communist Party’s evolving strategy for survival, and the changing relationship between state and society. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Where is it happening?
Room 505, 1957 E Street NW, Washington, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
