He stressed that the pool of China’s workers had shrunk by 60 million over the past 12 years, which had had “a huge impact” on the economy, adding that many cities were struggling to recruit and battling unemployment and rising labour costs.

Ma called for birth policies to promote assisted reproductive technology, registration of children born out of wedlock, improved birth insurance, extended maternity leave and more childcare centres.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that China’s population declined for two consecutive years – 2022 and 2023 – for the first time in six decades, with a record low birth rate. In 2022, the overall population fell by 850,000 and in 2023 by 2.08 million.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post, independent demographer He Yafu said he agreed with Ma’s views and suggested that restrictions should be removed entirely.

“A policy that allows a third child means they don’t encourage more children,” he said. “I also recommend changing the law’s name from Population and Family Planning Law to Population Development Law.”

He, who is based in Guangdong province, southern China, added that Japan and Hungary’s experiences showed subsidies could help to increase birth rates.

“If the birth rate isn’t increasing, it means the money is not enough … We need to structure a birth-friendly society. Subsidies are an essential measure. It’s impossible to raise the birth rate without money,” he said.

But it might take more than money to fix the problem. An unmarried woman in Jiangxi province, southeastern China, told the Post that there was more to consider than childcare, including her own career, whether marriage benefited her, and how to live comfortably, especially in the economic downturn.

Yi Fuxian, a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies Chinese demographics, said the measures suggested by Ma would have limited effects, with most of the population living in high-density cities with low disposable incomes.

“Most families have difficulties raising even one child,” he said.

Average disposable income in China last year was slightly less than 44 per cent of the country’s per capita GDP, according to official data, compared to 73 per cent in the US.

The city of Panzhihua, in the southwestern province of Sichuan, provides an example of how complex the issue can be in China, after becoming the first to offer a financial incentive to encourage more births.

The 2021 scheme offered local families with two or more children a monthly payment of 500 yuan (US$69) per child, up to the age of three.

By the end of 2022, according to Panzhihua’s public statistics, the number of newborns had decreased from 8,432 to 7,629 and the number of marriages also fell, from 6,240 to 5,880.