China’s Demographic Decline Exposes the Limits of Authoritarian Social Engineering

China’s relentless demographic collapse is no accident—it’s the predictable outcome of decades-long authoritarian overreach that sought to micromanage family life at the expense of national prosperity and individual freedom. For four years running, the world’s former most populous nation has seen its population decline, now down by three million from just one year earlier. With births falling to their lowest rate since Mao’s rise in 1949, Beijing’s desperate policy fixes—from cash handouts to taxing condoms—are failing miserably. When Government Overreach Backfires: Can China Reverse Its Self-Inflicted Decline? How do you persuade a population to have more children after forcibly limiting...