China’s aging population

An elderly man pushes his grandson on a street in Beijing on April 30, 2009.  (Peter Parks / AFP/Getty Images)

An elderly man plays diabolo at the Temple of Heaven park in Beijing on April 30, 2009.  (Liu Jin / AFP/Getty Images)

Children visit Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 3, 2009. For three decades China‘s one-child policy helped to power this nation’s economic rise. With fewer mouths to feed, families saved. Poverty fell. Living standards improved. But the social experiment that worked so well in some respects is now threatening the country’s hard-won gains. China’s working-age population - the engine behind its prolific growth - is expected to start shrinking within a few years.  (Peter Parks / AFP/Getty Images)