Significant Shifts on China's Population Trends

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Over the course of human history, a wide range of factors has impacted population growth. Fertility, the number of children women have during their reproductive years, is one of the most important factors. Mortality, or a population's death rate, is another crucial factor. Reduced mortality rates and increased population growth can result from improvements in healthcare, nutrition, and living conditions. Natural disasters, war, and other forms of violence can significantly influence population changes. Migration, in the form of sustained human movement from one area to another equally contributes to population trends. Broadly, these factors and their effect on the population are founded on various theories, including the demographic transition theory, Malthusian theory, and the modernization theories, which attempt to explain population transitions. Indeed, a review of population trends across China's three generational cohorts captures the influence of these theories on population transitions.
First, the boomer generation, born between 1945 and 1964 experienced vast population growth due to influences such as the scientific revolution and industrial development. The traditionalists occupied a period in which China was still largely rural and agricultural. Boomers underwent radical changes, such as the Chinese Civil War and the Cultural Revolution. Despite manifesting these changes later than countries in Europe, China experienced accelerated population growth starting from the 1860s due mainly to the declines in the mortality rate accompanying the scientific revolution that accompanied the industrial revolution. Like most other countries, fewer Chinese people have died than have been born each year.[Yuhua Wang, "The Political Legacy of Violence During China's Cultural Revolution," British Journal of Political Science 51, no. 2 (2019): 464, doi:10.1017/s0007123419000255.]
Despite experiencing robust population growth, the traditionalist generation did not enjoy the wealth that defined industrial growth in other countries. Typically, the effects of economic development and a rise in people's standard of living were the primary drivers of industrialization, as measured by initial mortality reductions. People started to eat better, live in better homes, take more baths, and drink cleaner water. As a result of these advancements in the human condition, both disease exposure and disease resistance were reduced. Improvements in public health and medical technology, including sanitation and especially vaccination against infectious diseases, led to a decline in mortality after the 1800s. However, China in the late 1800s and in the early 1900s China existed as a relatively underdeveloped country. China's poverty was widespread and deeply ingrained in society in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The nation was plagued by war, natural disasters, economic mismanagement, and an ineffective government.
Despite poverty-related challenges, China experienced substantial economic development from industrial development, such as scientific development. For example, it is estimated that China had a low life expectancy estimated at 40 years after the period following the end...