Friday, July 03, 2015

Empty Schools Herald China's Future?

Rusty padlocks seal empty classrooms and blank graduation certificates litter a dusty, silent school corridor in Rudong, a haunting glimpse of China's ageing future in a town which pioneered the one-child policy.

Education facilities are being shrunk to cater for dwindling pupil numbers, and the once bustling Technical Secondary School is now a hollow eight-storey shell.

Long before China's Communist rulers rolled out the one-child policy nationwide to halt population growth, Rudong was already carrying out forced sterilisations, abortions and highly personal checks on women on its own initiative.

It was praised by the authorities for its strict enforcement of the rules that became the cornerstone of Beijing's social management.

Now China is facing the consequences of a dwindling workforce and a rapidly ageing population, and Beijing has been loosening the rules to encourage more births.

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