China’s baby bust is happening faster than many expected, raising fears of a demographic collapse. And coping with the fallout may now be complicated by miscalculations made more than 40 years ago.
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Once a generation of young people has made up their minds, it’s hard to change them, said Yong Cai, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
It’s possible fertility rates could now increase with official messages and policies promoting bigger families to a newer generation, said Cai, but “if it’s going to happen, it’s not going to happen in the short term.”