As you argue, China’s new census shows that the country is “suffering” from a low birth rate (“The Most Surprising Demographic Crisis,” May 7, 2011). This raises questions about its one-child policy, which was introduced in 1980. China’s rapid economic development started a decade earlier, though. Its first effects were “discovered” in the early 1990s, when China became a country to “watch.” But it was clear even then that it will face demographic problems several decades into the new millennium. However, this was not associated with the one-child policy; rather, it was expected in connection with economic development as such. Across the globe, industrialization and urbanization pull the birth rate down. Rapid ageing of the population first in Japan and then in South Korea were sufficient pointers to the future in China, as well. Its window of development was between fifty years in length, and that was that. In short, the only surprising thing about China’s demography is your own surprise.