SJS 5: China's Population Destiny: A Looming Crisis

SJS 5: China’s Population Destiny: The Looming Crisis

Source:

Feng, Wang. "China's Population Destiny: The Looming Crisis." Current History:

China and East Asia 109.728 (2010): 244-51. Print.

Author:

Wang Feng is the author of this article and he belongs to the Foreign Policy program while also being a professor in California and Shanghai. Feng is known for his knowledge of China’s demographic and social changes. He also has multiple degrees in courses like sociology and economics that give him a better understanding of China’s economy and population. With his knowledge, he is a reliable source on why China’s population growth can cause social and economical challenges. This article hardly has bias because the majority of the article uses statistics and reasoning to make educated predictions for China’s future. In conclusion, Wang Feng is an intellectual individual who uses data to make reasonable predictions on how China’s economy will react if the population were to decline or change.  

Summary:

“China’s Population Destiny: The Looming Crisis” uses statistics to explain how the decreasing population in China will affect their economic and political future while also affecting foreign countries. This article starts off with how China is the most populated country in the world, and how their population is of utmost importance to their economy. Recently, China has had a low fertility rate which makes their population decline more and more. Some historians say that the cause of the low fertility rate was the one child policy, which ironically, is no longer active. China’s depends on its young workers to work and produce goods to help keep their economy alive and well. The issue comes in with if the amount of young workers start to decline, and the older folks maintain their large population, the economy will drop because the older citizens cannot work as efficiently and promptly as the younger individuals. China’s economy is not only important to them, but to the entire world because of their role in the global economy. Trade is a vital aspect for the world, so if China’s trade drops with other countries, those countries will be affected negatively which can cause internal conflicts. Also, the article describes how China’s male to female ratio is getting so extreme that in the coming years, men will not have wives. Feng goes on the say that those unmarried, angry men could resort to criminal intentions that possibly could affect other, surrounding countries. Overall, this article describes how important maintaining population is and how a change in demography in one country can affect the rest of the world.

Analysis:

This article delves into China’s mass population and its economy system that can change if its demography alters enough to less working people in the upcoming era. Historically, China’s working industry has been composed of younger people, but will population declining, there will be less younger people to fulfill those jobs. The amount of older citizens will increase, so China will then have to support the demands and benefits that the aging population demand. This pressure and change in China’s economy can affect its politics and foreign relations because the growth rate of the net producers will increase and the net consumers will decrease, leaving economic unstableness. As for the foreign relations, China was able to get involved in the global factory due to its economy and productive labor force, but if China’s economy becomes less secure, foreign countries, like the United States, will not interact with China as much. China’s population change relates back to class because it describes how countries affect one another, like Kim Jung-Un controlling North Korea and affecting the rest of the world. In addition, this article also provides an example of how population affects policies in China, which was found in the Globalization and Diversity book.