If you think the cratering fertility rates of Western Europe and North America are bad, well, they are — but I'm not sure any of us have gotten this desperate yet:
Here's one of those accounts:
'I got a call from a grassroots (worker) this morning, asking if I was pregnant,' reads a viral post on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu.
It was liked more than 11,000 times and received thousands of comments - and was just one out of multiple accounts describing similar experiences.
Chinese women shared that they received bizarre phone calls from supposed government workers, asking about family planning and pregnancy.
Folks, there's only one kind of response when a government worker calls you up and asks that kind of question:
You may recall that China has been trying to reverse its grim birth numbers for a few years now (after decades of violently enforcing single-child policies):
You can hardly blame them! Like most other countries in the world, China is facing a bleak future in which there are simply not enough human beings around to sustain high standards of living, functioning civilization, etc.
Not good!
Still, this sort of gambit is, well, it's on another level:
A Xiaohongshu user by the username Guo Guo, said she received a phone call which was uncomfortably personal and invasive. The working mother of two shared that she was asked when she would be conceiving a third child.
Although shocked, she still responded that she simply 'did not have the time' as she was busy working. To which the caller replied: 'You can get pregnant first. If your mother-in-law can't take care of (your children), you can ask your mum.'
You: "Hey, mom, a government worker told me to get pregnant and I just went ahead and did it. He also said you'd take care of the baby for me. So can you do that?"
Your mom:
Yeah, good luck with those phone calls, China!
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