this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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For starters, the article is very anti-China, albeit in a more subtle way than many articles from western sources. The headline itself also grabs in people ostensibly worried about population growth. The facts presented may well be true, but they are missing context which cannot be provided in a bullet points format. The author simply ignores parts of their own sources in order to present their own contradictory point. For example, the line "Wedding registrations in 2022: 6.83 million, the lowest since the 1970s." links to an article from Tsinghua University, which only mentions the declining marriage rate in the last paragraph of the article. It's primarily about how China is well positioned to manage their demographic changes.
Another example: the author quotes from the Global Times article that quotes Qiao Jie. What the Stop Population Decline author fails to note is that their source explains some of what China is doing to raise its fertility rate.
The author also projects problems onto China which are only inherent to declining populations in neoliberal countries. In a people's state such as China these same topics are essentially irrelevant, as quoted above for example. An ageing population certainly is a challenge in terms of healthcare demands, but none that cannot be solved by a nation that prioritizes the well being of its people over arbitrary economic indicators or the further enrichment of its capitalist class.
You pointed out how well China will be able to combat their declining birth rates and what they are doing to raise fertility rates. That's great. You disliked the format of the article and didn't feel it expressed their point adequately. Awesome. But you're coming at the comments section with an intensity that seems disproportionate to how banal the article is. Birth rates are plummeting across the world, and every other country has their turn to have attention drawn to it, complete with their own set of uninvited suggestions regarding potential impact and what to do about it. It's okay for people to disagree on the impact of stats like this. It's normal and healthy when done in good faith.
Regarding your other post: "Anti-CCP is anti-China" is a tactic to try to deflect away criticism entirely. It is dangerous for a population to be stripped of the right to criticize their government. I criticize my own government all the time, and others as well when I think they're making poor decisions. The CCP doesn't get to be above this on an international scale because racism. The old stigmatizing the critic into silence approach is not conducive to open dialogue, and it's ultimately a way of shooting yourself in the foot. 欲蓋彌彰
Sorry I just can't with the hypocrisy here. Maybe I am shooting myself in the foot, but I just can't with this kind of western bullshit. All for open dialog until someone challenges their worldview.
欲蓋彌彰
I'm sure if someone remarked about "eastern bullshit" that you would cry racism, and you wouldn't be wrong. Thanks for at least being amusing by calling me a racist and then immediately acting like one yourself. Don't feel too bad about it, you're one of countless to prove that wise saying which predates the CCP by 1400 years.