Keith Bradsher

They wanted to make the best things, the most advanced technology products.

China was starting to realize that its so-called one-child policy had produced an unintended result.

China had been restricting families from having more than one child.

for several decades by then, and the policy had gone too far.

The birth rate was collapsing.

So much of a drop they began worrying, are we going to have enough young people coming into the workforce?

And so that put a lot of pressure on China to find ways to get the same work done, particularly at the factories, without having nearly remotely as many workers.

In the United States, immigration has offset a falling birth rate, but China allows almost no immigration whatsoever.

In the US, it's over a million green cards a year.

In China, it's several thousand 10-year residency cards, which isn't even a full green card, it's just 10 years.

In a vast country, China has fewer foreigners per capita living in it than even North Korea.

China doesn't have enough workers unless it does an extraordinary amount of automation.

Because this is not just about a declining number of workers.

This is also about fewer and fewer workers who are willing to work

And why?

People don't want these jobs because they are much, much better educated than the previous generation.

With the one-child policy, couples put everything they had into making sure that child has the best possible education.

Families like one that I know in Northwestern China.

The father is an illiterate coal miner working for almost nothing in illegal coal mines.

The mother, also illiterate,