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China’s population has fallen for the second year in a row as its birth rate hit a record low.
The government has tried to solve the problem by reversing old measures and providing incentives.
But one expert said new measures would do little to solve a deep-rooted problem in Chinese society.
For the second year in a row, China’s population has fallen.
Data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics shows that China’s population fell by two million people in 2023. Meanwhile, the birth rate fell from 6.77 births to 6.39 births per 1,000 people — a record low.
China has made efforts to get this problem under control. The government reversed the country’s one-child policy in 2015. It has also offered financial incentives to parents while extolling the virtues of marriage and childbearing.
But what if the problem lies with China’s government itself?
Wang Feng is a sociology professor at the University of California, Irvine. His research areas include modern Chinese society. Feng says authorities have long known that China’s demographic crisis was coming — although not as quickly as now — and that the government has been slow to move toward a solution.
Now Communist Party officials must deal with the consequences of measures like the one-child policy.
“I think that as outsiders we tend to think that these regimes are able to collect national resources and use them for large projects and deliver them quickly,” Wang told Business Insider. He added that this may be the case with infrastructure projects such as China’s high-speed railway. “But when it comes to policy decisions, it’s very easy to see that these regimes are passing laws that are disastrous and too slow to end these policies because they don’t really want to take on the political baggage.”
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In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party and local governments have moved to pass laws and programs designed to encourage young women to have children and marry.
Hangzhou, a populous city in eastern China, offered new parents 20,000 Chinese yuan, the equivalent of about $2,800 (or about 2,500 euros), for a third child. In Wenzhou, southeast China, the government offered up to 3,000 yuan (almost 400 euros) per child, BI’s Huileng Tan reported.
China’s ruling party introduced a “three-child policy” in 2021, allowing families to have more than two children. But young people in particular didn’t take the bait.
“Young people laugh at the government because it thinks it can tell people what to do and what not to do,” Wang said, citing the failure of the country’s one-child policy.
Wang argued that a solution to China’s demographic crisis is unlikely to be achieved through a few policy initiatives. He said the country was dealing with a deep-rooted and highly complex problem that reflected the general despair and pessimism with which young people view their future in the face of rapid economic growth and changes in the country.
This is an issue China will deal with in the “long term,” Wang said.
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China’s 30-day “cooling off period” before divorce has been heavily criticized
The government has also passed laws that some citizens say represent a step backwards in its efforts to encourage more people to start families.
In 2021, the government introduced a 30-day “cooling off period” for married couples to curb impulsive divorces. The law was introduced in part as an attempt to increase the country’s birth rate.
But online, some Chinese have argued that it discourages marriage, while experts say it could make it harder for women to break free from abusive relationships.
Ethan Michelson is chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University Bloomington and author of the book “Decoupling,” which examines divorce cases in China. Michaelson told Business Insider that the law is probably not the main reason for the country’s declining birth or marriage rates. But it probably won’t help either.
“When I present my research, I hear this again and again from Chinese women,” he said. “They say, ‘Why on earth would anyone get married? Why should they take the risk?’”
There is no political magic wand
Even democratic societies have experimented with financial incentives and family-friendly policies and are still struggling with declining birth rates, Wang and Michelson tell BI.
The South Korean capital Seoul offered parents 1,650 US dollars (almost 1,500 euros) in the form of cash vouchers for every child born in 2022. In Italy, the birth of a child is free and the country offers a so-called baby bonus, which serves as an allowance for families with newborns. One Message According to the Los Angeles Times last year, Taiwan has invested $3 billion (2.7 billion euros) in implementing programs to encourage more citizens to have children.
Every country has experienced record low birth rates in recent years.
“There is a global shift in the meaning of family and the importance of marriage and having children in people’s lives,” Wang said.
Read the original text Business Insider.
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