Welcome back. I’m Adeline Atlas, 11-time published author, and this is the Depopulation Series — Are We the Last Biological Humans?

Of all the countries experiencing a fertility collapse, none stands out like China. The world’s most populous nation for most of modern history is now facing a demographic cliff so severe that no amount of political power, economic wealth, or propaganda can save it. This isn’t just a national crisis—it’s an existential one. And for the Chinese Communist Party, it may be the single greatest threat to their long-term survival.

Let’s start with the math. China is missing an estimated 400 million people. That number is not from war, famine, or disease. It’s the long-term result of a social experiment: the One-Child Policy.

Introduced in 1980, the One-Child Policy was meant to curb population growth. The Chinese government feared that an exploding population would hinder economic development. For nearly four decades, couples were legally restricted to having just one child. Violators faced fines, forced sterilizations, and in some cases, forced abortions. And while the policy may have stabilized short-term growth, it did something else in the background—something irreversible.

It decimated generational continuity.

China now has one of the fastest-aging populations in the world. The country’s median age has skyrocketed. By 2050, more than one-third of Chinese citizens will be over the age of 60. At the same time, the birth rate is collapsing. In 2022, China recorded its first population decline in six decades. By 2023, the fertility rate had dropped to 1.09 children per woman—far below the replacement rate of 2.1.

This is not a dip. It’s a plunge. And what’s worse? The collapse continues despite the One-Child Policy being lifted.

In 2015, the government shifted to a two-child policy. In 2021, it became a three-child policy. But none of it has worked. In fact, births have continued to decline. Why? Because the damage was already done—not just to the demographics, but to the culture.

Generations were raised believing that having one child was not only normal, but patriotic. Women who desired more were seen as selfish or irresponsible. Families were socially engineered to expect a specific structure: one child, two parents, four grandparents. Now, those same families are being told to reverse course. To have more children. To embrace a lifestyle that was criminalized for forty years.

But changing policy doesn’t change mindset. And it certainly doesn’t change economics.

Modern China is an expensive place to raise a child—especially in urban centers. Housing costs are extreme. Education is cutthroat. Work hours are brutal. Childcare support is minimal. And women who choose motherhood often find their careers penalized. In this environment, young couples are opting out. Many women, in particular, are refusing to have more children—not out of defiance, but out of realism.

They see motherhood as a trap. A career-ending sacrifice. A financial burden. And the CCP, despite its authoritarian power, cannot legislate desire. It can’t force people to want children. And so it turns to other strategies.

First, financial incentives. Local governments now offer cash bonuses to couples who have second or third children. Some regions provide housing subsidies, tax breaks, and even extended maternity leave. But the results have been negligible. The incentives are too small, too late, and too inconsistent.

Second, propaganda. State media now glorifies motherhood. Films, commercials, and textbooks frame childbearing as a national duty. Celebrities are recruited to promote marriage and family. But again, the messaging clashes with reality. The same state that once celebrated the child-free woman now demands her fertility as a patriotic offering.

Third, forced patriotism. In some provinces, public servants are required to sign pledges committing to multiple children. Employers are encouraged to monitor the reproductive choices of female employees. Some social benefits are being tied to family size. It’s coercion masquerading as encouragement. And it’s not working.

Because the root of the crisis is deeper than policy.

It’s biological. Social. Philosophical.

The decades-long suppression of natural reproduction has produced generational trauma. Millions of women endured forced sterilizations. Millions of children grew up as only children, carrying the burden of elder care without siblings. And perhaps most disturbingly, millions of girls were never born.

The One-Child Policy created a massive gender imbalance. Through selective abortions, female infanticide, and child abandonment, China now has 30 million more men than women. These “bare branches”—as they are sometimes called—will never marry, never father children, and never participate in the reproductive future of the nation. They are casualties of population engineering.

And now, that engineering is imploding.

The CCP’s worst nightmare is not rebellion. It’s not invasion. It’s irrelevance. A shrinking population means a shrinking economy, a shrinking military, and a shrinking workforce. The very pillars of Chinese global dominance are built on the assumption of growth. Factories, cities, infrastructure, trade—all depend on a stable and growing population.

Without it, the machine stalls.

And there is no easy fix.

Automation won’t replace children. Immigration is politically and culturally complicated. And artificial reproduction is still decades away from becoming scalable or affordable.

China’s population could fall from 1.4 billion today to under 800 million by 2100. That’s a loss of over half a billion people. And those who remain will be older, more dependent, and less productive. It’s not just a demographic shift—it’s a national contraction.

Some analysts have even suggested that this collapse could destabilize the CCP. Because social control requires more than surveillance. It requires belief in a shared future. If the people lose faith in that future, the legitimacy of the state erodes. And if the population continues to shrink, the empire shrinks with it.

China is not the only country facing depopulation. But it is the most symbolic. The country that once tried to stop birth now can’t start it again. The government that once punished large families now begs for them. The culture that once devalued women now depends on them to save the nation—without giving them the structural support they need.

And perhaps most ironically, in its effort to control nature, the CCP may have triggered its own extinction curve.

This is why we say depopulation isn’t just a Western crisis. It’s global. And it’s not about ideology—it’s about biology. When a nation suppresses natural reproduction long enough, it doesn’t just change population numbers. It changes how people think, how they love, how they plan their futures.

China’s population collapse is not a fluke. It’s the logical outcome of long-term social engineering. And it serves as a warning to the rest of the world.

Because what starts as policy ends as culture.

What starts as regulation ends as hesitation.

And once a generation internalizes the idea that birth is a burden, that childbearing is backward, or that families are optional—reversing that idea becomes nearly impossible.

This is not just a Chinese story.

It’s a human one.

Because what’s happening in China today may happen elsewhere tomorrow. And the question every society must now ask is simple:

Can you build a future without children?

Or is that the very definition of collapse?

In China, the answer is unfolding right now—in shrinking classrooms, abandoned towns, and a generation that no longer believes in itself.

And no government, no matter how powerful, can rewrite that story once it’s begun.