China has fulfilled its initial commitment to buy 12 million metric tons of soybeans from the U.S., but it's not clear if the trade agreement announced in October can withstand President Donald Trump's ever-shifting trade policy as American farmers are still dealing with high production costs.

Countries all over the world are seeing birth and fertility rates fall, but China remains an outlier as having one of the lowest on the planet. Its 2025 projected fertility rate, the average number of children born per woman, is 1.02, according to the U.N. Population Division, lower than the United States, Europe, Asia and Africa.