It’s hilarious that capitalist rags like the economist want their lib readers to fear Xi by making him out to be some authoritarian conservative.
Also funny: central government wants local governments to invest in good toilets, the gall! How dare they support improving public services! 
Also, “we should actively foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture” actually doesn’t sound regressive or conservative, at least that little quote on its own. It sounds like Xi wants society to support pregnant people and people with children in new and better ways. Of course, we simply don’t have the context of this quote, so it’s hard to actually draw any conclusions from it. My guess, though, is that The Economist wrote this trying to make China look as terrible as possible, so my guess is that in context, this quote sounds even better and The Economist stripped the relevant context to attempt to make China sound scary and anti-feminist. Never mind that the US (and the UK) are actually in the midst of an extremely anti-feminist moment, China is scary and bad, don’t you know?
The Economist’s articles are the liberal worldview distilled in a way I don’t think other propaganda outlets capture in the same manner. I think it’s rooted in its origins as a lobbying platform for the bourgeoisie way back in the 1840s
I agree with you. The Economist is its own particular kind of terrible. I think it’s the media outlet I hate the most, actually. I also hate, hate, hate that Economist articles don’t have bylines. We don’t get to know which particular ghoul wrote this particular reactionary nonsense article, so it’s just “The Economist” having terrible opinions, as usual. Fucking cowards. Put your names to your articles so I can make fun of you personally.
It doesn’t have bylines because many of them are teenagers plucked from conservative societies at universities rather than actual experts or even staff writers. It’s a cheap content mill with set stories basically.
you’ll probably enjoy this: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2017/05/how-the-economist-thinks
Maybe my view is marred by my US experience but it also could be related to how anti kid so many people are. Don’t have kids if you don’t want them but also people should and need to be accepting and supportive of them existing in society.