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The death of a former architect of China’s one-child policy has reopened one of the country’s most painful chapters. Instead of mourning, many Chinese citizens are using social media to confront the human cost of a policy that reshaped families, demographics, and the nation’s future.

As China now faces rapid population decline and aging, public anger underscores how unresolved the policy’s legacy remains.

A State Tribute Meets Public Backlash

Chinese state media this week praised Peng Peiyun, the former head of the National Family Planning Commission, as an “outstanding leader” following her death in Beijing at age 95.

Peng oversaw the country’s population control system from 1988 to 1998, a period when the one-child policy was strictly enforced nationwide. Official tributes highlighted her work on women’s and children’s issues, portraying her as a dedicated public servant.

On social media, however, the response was starkly different.

On Weibo, China’s largest microblogging platform, many users rejected the official narrative, directing their anger not just at Peng but at the policy she helped implement.

“Those Children Are Waiting for You”

One widely shared post read: “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there.” Others echoed similar sentiments, condemning the forced abortions, sterilisations, and family separations carried out under state mandates.

These reactions reflect deep, unresolved trauma linked to the one-child policy, which governed Chinese family life from 1980 until its formal end in 2015.

While Beijing justified the policy as necessary to prevent unchecked population growth, enforcement often fell to local officials who used coercive measures to meet birth quotas.

How the One-Child Policy Was Enforced

At its peak, the policy applied to nearly all urban couples and many rural families. Women were compelled to undergo abortions late into pregnancy, while millions more were sterilised, sometimes without consent.

Financial penalties, job loss, and social ostracism were common for those who violated birth limits.

Peng Peiyun’s commission played a key role in coordinating these efforts, particularly in rural China, where resistance was more common and enforcement more aggressive.

Rural Families and the Gender Imbalance

In the countryside, having multiple children, especially sons had long been seen as essential for economic security and elder care.

This cultural preference collided with population controls, leading to a surge in sex-selective abortions, abandoned baby girls, and long-term gender imbalance.

One Weibo user reflected bitterly: “Those children, if they were born, would be almost 40 years old now, in the prime of their lives.”

That lost generation remains central to today’s demographic crisis.

From Population Control to Population Crisis

Ironically, the very fears that prompted the one-child policy have now reversed.

China’s population, once the world’s largest, fell behind India’s in 2023. By 2024, it had declined for the third consecutive year, dropping to 1.39 billion.

Official data for 2025 is expected next month, with demographers widely expecting further declines.

One viral post summed up the frustration: “If the one-child policy had ended ten years earlier, China wouldn’t be collapsing like this now.”

Peng’s Later Shift in Position

By the 2010s, Peng herself acknowledged that the policy had outlived its usefulness.

She publicly supported easing birth restrictions, aligning with broader policy shifts that eventually allowed two children in 2016 and three children in 2021.

For many critics, however, this reversal came far too late.

The damage demographic, emotional, and social, had already been done.

Beijing’s New Push to Boost Birth Rates

Today, China’s leadership is scrambling to reverse decades of population suppression.

The government has rolled out a range of incentives, including:

• Childcare subsidies
  

• Extended maternity and paternity leave
  

• Tax breaks for families with children
  

• Housing and education incentives
  

Despite these measures, birth rates continue to fall as young couples cite high living costs, job insecurity, and lingering mistrust of state family policies.

Economic Risks of a Shrinking Population

Experts warn that China’s aging and shrinking population poses serious economic risks.

As the workforce contracts, productivity growth may slow, threatening the country’s long-term competitiveness. At the same time, rising pension and healthcare costs for the elderly are placing mounting pressure on local governments already burdened by debt.

The demographic imbalance created by decades of low birth rates and skewed gender ratios has also complicated marriage markets and social stability in some regions.

Public Memory Versus Official History

The backlash following Peng Peiyun’s death highlights a widening gap between official historical narratives and public memory.

While state media continues to frame the one-child policy as a necessary sacrifice for national development, many citizens see it as a cautionary tale of unchecked state power over private life.

Social media has become one of the few spaces where that anger can be openly expressed, even as censorship limits broader debate.

A Reckoning That Isn’t Over

China’s demographic challenges are no longer abstract projections, they are unfolding in real time.

The anger directed at a former population official is less about one individual and more about a generation seeking acknowledgment of loss.

As China tries to encourage births after decades of discouraging them, the public response suggests that trust, once broken, is difficult to rebuild.

The ghosts of the one-child era, many believe, will continue to shape the country’s future long after the policy itself has ended.

 

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