A shrinking, aging China may have backed itself into a corner

The New York Times quoted Yige Dong for a story about how the shrinking, aging population of China is posing challenges for the country. The measures championed by Chinese policymakers often neglect the broader pressures on women, especially those from rural and working-class backgrounds, which put them in a painful bind between family and work, Dong said. “They are caught between the demand to go to work and the demands for intensive parenting,” she said. “China is talking about this as a crisis of a declining fertility rate, and on the other hand, they are cracking down on feminism. With those two things in contradiction, how can you convince the next generation of young women — who have their own aspirations — to go into marriage?”