As the number of newborn babies in China declines, writer Leta Hong Fincher fears a corresponding rise in pressure on women to have more children.

Key points: China recorded its lowest birth rate in almost 60 years

China recorded its lowest birth rate in almost 60 years There's increasing propaganda and pressure on women to get pregnant

There's increasing propaganda and pressure on women to get pregnant Feminists are using emojis to circumvent censorship

"The [Chinese] Government very much regards women as reproductive tools of the state," she told the ABC's The World program.

"We have seen that in the past with the so called one-child policy, there were so many human rights abuses, like forced abortions for example, and I do worry that the future of population planning in China could be coercive as well."

The author and academic has written a book called Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China.

The book and its focus on feminism in China are timely.

Statistics show the number of newborns in China dropped to 15.23 million in 2018. ( Reuters: Jason Lee )

New data released by last month from China's National Bureau of Statistics shows the number of newborns in China dropped to 15.23 million in 2018 after also decreasing in 2017.

The drop comes despite China scrapping its one-child policy and passing a law in 2016 allowing couples to have two children.

It's reported to be the lowest official birth rate since 1961, when millions died in China's great famine.

Leta Hong Fincher says those statistics are an "alarming development" for the Chinese Government.

"It does show more and more young women, especially women who have gone to college, just have no interest in marrying and having babies very early in life anymore."

The statistics also show there are more than 31 million more men than women in China.

The 'feminist five' and #MeToo in China

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It's been nearly four years since the Chinese Government arrested and detained five female activists in Beijing on the eve of International Women's Day in March 2015. They became known as the "feminist five".

"Because they caused such a huge global outcry the government ended up releasing them after just 37 days, but the government has been persecuting a lot of individual feminist activists pretty severely," Ms Hong Fincher said.

"[China] also has very heavy internet censorship, so hashtags like MeToo are very heavily censored."

"There is also no press freedom so it is difficult for young women to get their message out, but what is really extraordinary is that a lot of these women rights activists are very creative and resilient."

Ms Hong Fincher says activists are trying to get around internet censorship by using emojis to communicate feminist messages.

Meg Jing Zeng, a senior research associate at the University of Zurich, explained how social media users used the rice bowl emoji alongside a rabbit emoji to signal "rice bunny", pronounced "mi tu".

"For the ruling party, online campaigns that seek to mobilise large swathes of the population are like wildfire that can easily spread out of control," she wrote in The Conversation.

Speaking to the ABC, she said those who attempted to mount large-scale collective action were considered "troublemakers", and that this was not just limited to women's rights activists.

"MeToo got censored, not because [of] its cause, but because of the fact that it can potentially develop into a nationwide movement," she said.

"Rice bunny" is pronounced as "mi tu" in Chinese — and it has become a nickname for the #MeToo campaign. ( Supplied: The Conversation/Marcella Cheng )

Ms Jing Heng said she would not go so far as to claim women's bodies were seen as state property — while the Government was under lots of pressure to encourage women to have children, she said it was "neither desirable nor feasible" for authorities to force the issue.

She said the most vocal and visible feminists were well-educated, tech savvy, and based in big cities should "help their less privileged counterparts to be heard", such as those in rural or low-income areas.

"Activists for women's rights are very resilient … but feminists from home should not blindly endorse and promote a western definition of 'feminism'," she said.

Leta Hong Fincher will visit Australia in March and will speaking several events including All About Women at the Sydney Opera House and at Adelaide Writers' Week.