China Is Having Fewer Babies Than It Did 300 Years Ago

All right, well, I recently discussed China's population, and guess what? China's National Bureau of Statistics just released the number of new births in 2025, and it fell to 7.92 million, a record low. So how low is that number? Well, the last time China had this level of new birth was almost 300 years ago, in 1738, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor in the Qing dynasty. Back then, China's total population was only about 150 million. Yes, 150 million people produced roughly 7.9 million babies. Today, China officially claims a population of 1.4 billion, almost 10 times the population of 1738, yet it produced the same number of newborns. Something's clearly wrong. Either China's total population is not actually 1.4 billion, or the number of people willing to have children is collapsing, or both. Last week, we already discussed why China's real population is far lower than the official 1.4 billion. Today, I want to explore the other reason behind China's birth collapse, why Chinese people no longer want to have children. Now, before we get there, let me walk you through the latest birth data so you can see how brutal the reality really is. So 13 years after the CCP relaxed one-child policy, which was in 2013, and then 10 years after introducing the two-child policy, which was in 2016, and four years into the so-called three-child policy, that's in 2021, China's birth rate has continued to tank. Just to give you some reference points, in 2016, that was three years after China relaxed the single-child policy, the country recorded 20 million birth. And in 2021, the year after COVID, that number was cut in half and collapsed to 10.6 million. And in 2022, birth fell below 10 million for the first time to 9.56 million. And then in 2023, 2024, it continued to fall, to drop to 9 million and 9.54 million, respectively. So in 2024, there was a slight rebound. And now in 2025, new births plunged again, down 17% in just one year to 7.9 million. To put this in historical perspective, in 1964, more than one out of every four babies born on earth was Chinese. China accounted for 27% of global newborns. That's according to the official number. Now by 1976, that share had already fallen below 20%. Fast forward to 2020, China's share dropped to under 10%. And now, looking back at 2025, it's under 6%. It was actually 5.8%. Now think about it. In two generations, China went from producing one in four babies on earth to fewer than one in 17. And yet China still officially claims nearly 18% of the world's population, while contributing under 6% of new births. And by the way, that's assuming the official demographic data is accurate. The reality can be worse. So this is not a gradual demographic transition. It's a birth collapse. So why are new births collapsing so fast? Well, because Chinese people don't want to have children anymore, other than the fact that China doesn't have that many people left. So not only it's extremely costly to raise a kid, but more importantly, they don't feel safe. Chinese parents have an existential anxiety about their children becoming walking spare parts for someone else. And to address that, I need to bring you three recent death cases to help explain this anxiety. The first case is the death of a five-month-old infant girl, Luo Xi. And by the way, these cases are all viral events in China. So this one involves the death of a five-month-old infant girl called Luo Xi in Ningbo, Zhejiang. She underwent a cardiac surgery described by the hospital as technically mature with controllable risk and a high success rate. Yet this baby, who had barely begun to understand the world, died during the operation. Her mother was devastated. As you can see, that's the picture of the mother with her baby. The mother was devastated when she saw the body. According to accounts circulating online, the surgeon had not even stitched her up. Later, other pediatricians publicly commented that her condition did not require surgery at all and could have healed naturally as she grew. What truly shocked the was not only the many unanswered questions surrounding the surgery itself, but also the contradictions in key medical information before and after the incident, the family's extreme difficulty in obtaining complete medical records, imaging data, and surveillance footage, and the repeated revisions and even removal of official statements issued by the hospital. The highly defensive posture adopted by the hospital and the authorities only deepened suspicion and quickly ignited online outrage. Many people began to suspect that the infant had become a victim of organ harvesting, as infant organs and stem cells are highly coveted in regenerative medicine. So this case broke out to become national. It got national attention in late December, or in the second half of December. Then on January came the death of a 13-year-old boy in Xincai, Henan. I've covered this a week ago. His death triggered a local protest and ended with a large police deployment and a soft lockdown. The boy was reportedly healthy, had a rare blood type, and had just undergone a routine physical exam at school, yet he mysteriously died in his dormitory. His body was rushed away by what witnesses described as a fake ambulance, only to be physically blocked by the boy's uncle, who used his truck to stop it, as you can see in the picture. Now after hours of confrontation, the parents were finally allowed to see their son's body. They discovered a puncture near his heart, and experts in organ transplantation later explained that such a puncture is medically necessary to inject organ preservation solution, allowing the heart to remain viable for hours before transplantation. These two cases serve as a brutal wake-up call for Chinese parents. Both victims were children. They both died in places people trusted the most—a hospital and a school. And both cases were handled in the same heavy-handed way—information control, public opinion manipulation, large-scale security deployment, and intimidation of grieving families. When viewed within a broader reality—namely, the CCP's longstanding and internationally accused but consistently denied system of illegal organ harvesting—the explanations of accident or coincidence become increasingly difficult to accept by the Chinese public. Now this is not a conspiracy theory. It's a systemic structure built on power monopoly, information suppression, and the commodification of human life. Then came the third death, which just happened a couple of days ago, and this sent an even deeper chill through the public. And this time, it involved a Hong Kong celebrity known for his strong sense of justice and chivalry. His name is Liang Xiaolong. He is a famous Hong Kong kung fu star, widely respected for his martial arts and acting career. As a young man, he learned martial arts to protect his grandmother, and he was known as a real-life good Samaritan on screen and off. Just one month earlier, he had spoken out publicly in support of little Luo Xi, the five-month-old baby girl who died during surgery. He posted more than 20 videos about her case and urged people to pay attention to that case. And in one post, he wrote that he would not remain a bystander this time, and that post received 500,000 likes. Then on January 14th, he suddenly died of what was officially described as sudden cardiac death. Now many people questioned the timing, because the day before his death, Liang had openly called for public attention on missing children and forced organ harvesting. And he stated on record that those involved in child trafficking and the crime of harvesting these children's organs should receive the death penalty. Shortly after that post, the video post in which he made that statement, someone commented, you are in danger. The next day, the actor was dead. Now Liang was 77 years old. So people say, people could die from sudden heart attack. But he was a lifelong martial artist and known to be very physically fit. And he was looking fine the day before. So what raised even more suspicion was that it took his agent four days to announce his death. And during those four days, his social media accounts continued to be updated as if he were still alive. Now think about that. If a loved one, especially a public figure, suddenly passed away, would you stay silent for four days and continue posting as if nothing had happened? Most people wouldn't. It was only after news of his death leaked that his agent finally confirmed it. How do we know that? Because his agent said it. His agent said that they wanted to keep it private. So these unusual circumstances combined with the fact that Liang was living in mainland China when he died, have fueled widespread suspicion of foul play. Online, a strong consensus has emerged suggesting that the actor was murdered because of his outspokenness opposing organ harvesting, particularly the ones involving children. So this is the theory circulating online, that Liang used his celebrity status to raise public awareness and he was very effective. But this crossed a red line and that his death was meant as a warning to other celebrities to stay silent. People was only suspicious until another Hong Kong actor is actually very pro-Beijing. I think you know this guy, Jackie Chan. He wrote a post about, he said he was very shocked to hear that brother Liang passed away. He said he was very shocked. And then he wrote a post that ended with a cryptic line. It said, brother Liang, it's snowing in Beijing. The sky is heavy and overcast and we miss you. Now people say he's hinting something because the Chinese came right through. If you read his entire message, the last line in Chinese is just very obvious. It's hinting something like, I know something's wrong. I cannot say it, but the atmosphere here in Beijing is very dark. That's what's hinting in Chinese. So actor Liang's death is chilling. Whether or not this theory can ever be proven, the fear it reflects is very real. And it explains why so many Chinese families no longer believe it is safe to bring children into the world.