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Editor's Note
Judged by its plunging birthrate, China seems to be caught in a demographic doom loop. As its population began to shrink in 2022, China’s leaders—whose infamous one-child policy bears much of the responsibility—adopted pro-nationalist policies in an attempt to reverse the trend. However, as Patricia Thornton’s research shows, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is unlikely to make much progress in dealing with China’s fertility crisis because of the unforeseen consequences of t
Minxin Pei
May 313 min read
Why Xi’s Pro-Natalist Turn is Failing: Legibility, Marketized Neo-Familism, and Micropolitical Refusal in China
Perhaps no state in modern history has intervened in human reproduction as extensively as the People’s Republic of China, yet few reversals of reproductive policy have been as visibly ineffective as Xi Jinping’s pro-natalist turn. The country’s population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025 as the birthrate plunged to another record low despite the introduction of a raft of birth- and family-friendly subsidies and measures since the one-child policy officially ended in
Patricia Thornton
May 3135 min read
Trump 2.0: Is China Filling the Void?
Despite the perception that China is actively exploiting the perceived missteps by the Trump administration and filling the void that Washington has left in the world, the actual picture is more complicated, and it defies a singular generalization. U.S. allies and partners might have more questions regarding the U.S. But such questions have not translated into a genuine swing toward China. In functional areas, China’s bilateral aid budget has seen only marginal growth and its
Yun Sun
May 3125 min read
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