other news. beijing has become the first chinese city to offer to pay towards fertility treatments in an attempt to boost falling birthrates. the government will contribute more than $4,000 towards procedures from next month. china has long abandoned its one child policy as its fertility rates have fallen to levels seen across most developed countries. as you can see in this graph, china, the united states, the uk and sweden have all ended up in the same place of having about 11 live births per 1000 people — despite widely different policies towards families. victoria, is spending money on fertility the way to reverse the downward trend, because all countries are suffering the same thing?