The attached paper has provided a perfect account on why there is a #ThreeNosCampaign in China: It is a protest, not only against a specific policy, e.g., child birth policy, but it is also a form of "plebiscite on social conditions" of #China
A few lines are quoted from the paper:
“A chive’s awakening; we are the last generation.(一个韭菜的觉醒：我们是最后一代）” Instead of allowing themselves to be cut and regrow, many young Chinese are opting out of the system altogether. By not reproducing, as the government would wish, they feel as if they are taking back a sense of agency. Instead of an endless cycle of being cut and regrowing, they are choosing to let the next chop be the last. To refrain from having children is a form of rupture, an admission that enough is enough.
It is in this wider context of protest that the phrase “the last generation” should be understood. Protest is incredibly dangerous in China: protest leaders regularly disappear, and the sentences for prominent activists are long. Under Xi Jinping, the crackdown on civil society has been severe. Just before the 20th Party Congress in late 2022, a lone protester hung a banner on Sitong Bridge in Beijing calling for an end to lockdowns and the removal of “dictator” Xi Jinping. No one has been able to verify the identity of the protester, who has since disappeared into the maw of the government’s security apparatus. Protests were also seen in many cities after a building caught fire in Urumqi, Xinjiang Province, in late November, killing 10 people. The “white paper” protest that followed saw demonstrations across the country, with thousands amassing on Urumqi Road in Shanghai and some calling for Xi Jinping to step down. However, these protests were quickly shut down by the security forces. Reports alleged that the police were stopping people and inspecting their mobile phones for foreign apps such as Instagram or Twitter, forcing users to delete content related to the protests.
“The last generation” is a much more subtle and resigned form of protest. Rather than take to the streets to rail against the state of affairs and risk losing their precarious social position, many young Chinese are instead marking their unease by refusing to participate in the nation’s future.
“China’s zero-COVID policy has led to a zero economy, zero marriages, zero fertility,” said leading Chinese demographer Yi Fuxian. Considering that China’s governing system does not allow much in the way of political participation and strays far from the Western understanding of democracy — despite the claim of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that it is, in fact, very much a Chinese-style democracy — the choice by young Chinese to not have children can be seen as a kind of plebiscite on social conditions.
Asia Society
The Last Generation: Why China’s Youth Are Deciding Against Having Children
In his third paper of The 19 Percent paper series, Barclay Bram traces the reasons and repercussions behind Chinese individuals' reluctance to...
#the-last-generation--14852
