AFP China will record its first population decline since the disastrous Great Leap Forward policies of late supreme leader Mao Zedong brought widespread famine to the country, killing tens of millions of people, according to a report in the Financial Times. The report cited people familiar with the results of the latest Chinese census, which has yet to be made public despite being completed in December 2020, as saying that the overall population has fallen below the 1.4 billion mark, after exceeding it in 2019. The report prompted calls from Chinese social media users for the government to remove restrictions on single parenting, while feminists pointed to a growing unwillingness among women to comply with patriotic demands that they marry and have families.