EP 76: China's One Child Policy w/ Pulitzer-winning Journalist Mei Fong

On today’s episode, I talk about China's One Child Policy with Mei Fong, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who served as the China correspondent for the Wall Street Journal. She has a new book called ONE CHILD: THE STORY OF CHINA’S MOST RADICAL EXPERIMENT.

We’ll talk about how the One Child policy started as a “quick fix” to China’s overpopulation problem and how it suddenly came to an end 35 years later in October 2015. We’ll talk about the many people who were collateral damage in China’s attempt to socially engineer families including China’s rural poor who suffered forced abortions and sterilization. Finally, we’ll examine the many unintended consequences of the One Child Policy including a rapidly growing elderly population with no one to care for them, a massive gender imbalance and a whole lot of lonely men, and a shrinking workforce that is threatening to undermine the bedrock of the Chinese economy - manufacturing.

If you enjoyed today’s episode, order ONE CHILD: THE STORY OF CHINA'S MOST RADICAL EXPERIMENT on Amazon or download the audiobook for free through a special trial offer just for our listeners at www.audibletrial.com/kickasspolitics.com. You can follow Mei Fong at www.meifong.com or on Twitter at @meifongwriter.

Click here to download this episode on iTunes.