Wang Yasong has zero plans to have children even after getting married last July.

She prefers her two adopted cats over crying babies, and spends days and dimes on treats for the black-and-white fluffballs, rather than diapers for an infant.

“It’s okay to have kids if I find them cute while looking at them, but I don’t,” she said. “Cats are way cuter than kids.”

Ms Wang, 28, is among a growing group of women in China whose personal choices are contributing to a record-low birth rate, as the country grapples with fallout from the one-child policy – even after it was scrapped five years ago.

China posted 10.48 births per thousand people last year, the lowest rate ever since the Communist Party took power in 1949. The number of live births fell for the third consecutive year, declining four per cent to 14.65 million, or 580,000 fewer babies in 2019 than the previous year.

Imposed in the late 1970s, the one-child policy was aimed at combating concerns over whether the economy could support a rapidly growing population.