ABSTRACT
Chapter 16 revisits the population issues from the perspective of globalization. While there was unprecedented population growth in the twentieth century, the twenty-first century is faced with the new challenge of unprecedented and persistent population decrease and aging. The late twentieth century saw economic globalization as well as a worldwide trend of low fertility. Economic globalization means that the low fertility trend will not be reversed any time soon. Population aging and changes in family patterns pose an extremely serious challenge for China, whose fertility rate has turned from high to low levels in a very short period of time. The combination of economic globalization and the low fertility trend demands a new understanding of the changes in population pattern and their consequences.
