CHINA

CHINA | Are we running towards a future where abortion becomes increasingly difficult? (The F Word Podcast)

Translated from Chinese

Xiao Lei: This is the next stage of our life, because the fertility rate is actually decreasing in all countries. In this environment, encouraging childbearing will become mainstream, and this is also the case in China. The direction of our fertility is no longer one child at a time, but more in the direction of encouraging two or three children. In China's relatively free abortion environment, such policy was actually complementary to the one-child policy. But when we stop encouraging one child, I believe that even in China, abortion is going to be more and more difficult. I think it's not impossible that one day a bill will be introduced that says abortion is illegal in China.

Lao Zheng: Well, has it occurred to anyone that abortion is actually closely related to the population issue, which is a very straightforward logic. Why is it increasingly difficult to legalize abortion? One of the biggest obstacles is its impact on demographic relations.

Xiao Lei: Well, it's funny because my dad is a very solid father who wants to encourage me to have children.

Lao Zheng: I'm not really surprised.

Xiao Lei: Yours isn't?

Lao Zheng: Mine is as well.

Xiao Lei: Did he speak very clearly?

Lao Zheng: Yes, their thinking is to say that if you don't give birth, this is totally incomprehensible. He didn't say anything about encouraging birth, it's not a choice, it's something that has to be done. If you don't do it, you're very strange.

Xiao Lei: My dad has a very northern mentality of worrying about the country and the people at this point, but I will think back to the role of Wang Leehom in “Forever Young”, and wow, I didn't realize that Wang Leehom's name had come up again. In “Forever Young”, Wang Leehom acted the role of a rich kid, and then it was his mother to persuade him not to participate in the Air Force hoping that he can go home to have children. She admonished him by saying that this is a life experience, I hope you can experience it. And then I thought at the time that this way of admonishing, or this way of trying to get him to come around was very humane.

“This is a life experience that I hope you can experience.” But you know how my dad came to admonish me? My dad said that you should take on the responsibility of revitalizing the human race, that is, perpetuating the human race. This is my dad's real argument, okay? I do have screenshots to prove it.

Lao Zheng: The great bloodline of the Chinese race. Ah, I believe you.

Xiao Lei: Then I replied that you overestimated my family's genes. The continuation of the race doesn't concern your family's genes, does it? We are not geniuses, so there is no need.

Lao Zheng: My father would say that if everyone thinks like you, China will be finished.

Xiao Lei: Yes, those were his words.

Lao Zheng: I can think of all of them, because my dad would definitely say the same thing.

Xiao Lei: Right, right, right, but there is a rip between the meaning of reproduction for individuals and its macro meaning. You know? Just from my personal point of view I would never do it out of a desire to...

Lao Zheng: Passing on human bloodline.

Xiao Lei: ...or for the continuation of this country to consider whether I want to do this personally. Because from my personal point of view, this is a very personal thing. My father was right when he said that if f people don't do this thing, the decrease of the population is then not a false statement. We have already seen in Europe, we have already seen in Japan, we have already seen in South Korea, and many countries now with this phenomenon. The United Nations has predicted that in 2050, Japan's population will have shrunk to half of what it is today. What does 2050 mean? It means that if we will retire in 2050, if...

Lao Zheng: It’s a very good analogy.

Xiao Lei: If we continue the current situation, at that time, I believe our retirement age will not be 60 years old.

Lao Zheng: Yes, it will definitely be pushed back.