China needs a population boom

[Barun Mitra]

China family planning: decades of putting all eggs in one basket

Experts say China urgently needs a baby boom to help replenish its workforce and shoulder the costs of an aging population

Carlos Barria, Mint, October 6, 2014

China’s Communist Party leaders have praised their one-child policy for preventing the population from spiralling out of control, but critics say it has spawned decades of forced abortions, infanticide and child trafficking.

But late last year, China changed tack and said it would allow millions of families to have two children, part of a plan to raise fertility rates and ease the financial burden on a rapidly aging population.

The working-age population has shrunk by almost six million over the past two years to 920 million, National Bureau of Statistics data show. China’s elderly population, meanwhile, is projected to hit 360 million by 2030, from about 200 million today.

Many experts say China urgently needs a baby boom to help replenish its workforce and shoulder the costs of an aging population. But even with the rule changes, family planners say, some couples may find urban life too expensive to support a second child. Reuters

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