‘Pedophobia’: China Shames the Childless as Birth Rates Collapse

China’s state-run Global Times on Sunday claimed birth rates have collapsed, putting China into a demographic death spiral, because “pedophobia” has been spread across the Internet in a sinister conspiracy to make young couples afraid of having children.

The Global Times implied pedophobia is a mind virus that spread into China from South Korea, another country grappling with demographic collapse:

Lately, “No Kids Zone” signs, which are prevalent in South Korea, have unsurprisingly resonated with Chinese netizens, with similar signs making an appearance in hotels and other establishments in some tourist cities in China, once again stirring up a wave of online debate about whether the signs are an overreaction.

According to media report, in South Korea, there are already over 500 cafés and restaurants that have established child-free zones, prohibiting children under 12 from entering. A local survey also found that 73 percent of Korean adults agreed with the establishment of “No Kids Zone,” with only 18 percent opposing it.

While denouncing “naughty children” has become a public opinion paradigm, more and more people have begun to worry that behind the aversion is an element of pedophobia.

“Chinese experts” have decided “online celebrities and influencers” are spreading “pedophobia” for easy clicks, creating a “carnival of hatred” by peddling “stories of thinly veiled anger toward children and disdain for fertility.”

A woman rides her scooter with two children in Huaxian county in China’s central Henan province. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

In other words, China’s demographic collapse is not due to the hangover from decades of brutal Communist “One Child” population control policies, which were not lifted until after China drifted onto the same population-decline off-ramp that many industrialized nations are taking, but because a bunch of social media influencers are using videos of unruly children running amok in train cars and restaurants for clickbait.

“In the clips trending online, there are an entire train carriage filled with children from a summer camp who could not stop yelling; there is a man who met a boy pulling his hairs, and when he protested, half dozens of the boy’s adult relatives stood up, ready to attack the man; there is also a young woman who was trying to stop noisy children but was slapped by their parents,” the Global Times moaned.

The article played up the growing conflict between “young and unmarried” people whose social-media-driven pedophobia makes them reluctant to have children, and the “intense backlash” from older Chinese who cannot believe the kids are not doing their patriotic duty by giving birth to the workforce of the future.

The Global Times warned that an “increasing number of news reports of incidents involving naughty children” is creating a “feedback loop aimed at child-averse social media users,” and also emboldening “both the pro- and anti-child sides to be increasingly confrontational.”

This is all terribly disappointing to the Chinese Communist Party mandarins who were, only a few years ago, forcing women to have abortions and throwing people in jail for having two children. The Global Times saluted the regime in Beijing for working hard to “build a child-friendly environment,” only to see its efforts sabotaged by click-hungry influencers spreading videos of bratty children through social media.

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Near the end of its screed against irrational “pedophobia,” the Global Times touched on the core problem: the “lifestyles of young people have undergone significant changes” which “prioritize personal-oriented goals rather than focusing on having children.”

The far-left New York Times (NYT) — which touted the alleged “miracle of female emancipation” under mass murderer Mao Zedong in 2017 — glumly noted in April that China’s demographic crisis will soon become everyone’s problem:

In the long run, a shortage of factory workers in China — driven by a better-educated work force and a shrinking population of young people — could raise costs for consumers outside China, potentially exacerbating inflation in countries like the United States that rely heavily on imported Chinese products. Facing rising labor costs in China, many companies have already begun shifting their manufacturing operations to lower-paying countries like Vietnam and Mexico.

A shrinking population could also mean a decline in spending by Chinese consumers, threatening global brands dependent on sales of products to China, from Apple smartphones to Nike sneakers.

AFP Photo/STR

Economists cited by the NYT argued the Chinese government is panicking because population decline is already destroying the real-estate sector, which comprises almost a quarter of the Chinese economy. Families that are not having children do not need large houses and the children who are not being born today will not be shopping for homes of their own in the future.

Another reason why the Chinese Communist government is nervous enough to try shaming young couples into having children by calling them “pedophobes” is that China has a relatively low retirement age, which means a huge cohort of aging retirees will soon be demanding pension benefits that Beijing cannot afford to pay.

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“The government’s efforts to start a baby boom to solve the demographic crisis – including offering cash handouts and easing the one-child policy to allow for three – have failed to stabilize falling birthrates. Educated Chinese women are increasingly delaying marriage and choosing not to have children, deterred by the high costs of housing and education,” the NYT pointed out.

Chinese state media’s sudden enthusiasm for lecturing young people about pedophobia might have cause and effect backwards: the reason social media videos of holy-terror children have become so popular is that a large number of young people are looking for reasons to feel better about a decision to avoid having children which they have already made.