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China’s population policy

China’s population policy
The latest news, analysis and opinion on China’s population policy. In-depth analysis, industry insights and expert opinion.
last updated:
9 September, 2024
China's population

China’s birth rate falls to record low

China's population

In a China first, province subsidises maternity leave for second, third child

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China society

‘How bad is he?’: father gives desperate son almost 20 properties to lure wife

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China's ageing population

China unveils private pension plan as ageing-population challenges mount

For the first time ever, tax deductions will be available on personal pension contributions, but can people be convinced to carve out a piece of their savings to participate in the coming system?

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Beijing has unveiled a private pension scheme that will let employees save funds in pension accounts and invest in financial products. Photo: Getty Images
Coronavirus China

As I see it | China’s child separation Covid-19 rules damaging bid to boost birth rate

Hong Kong and Shanghai have both reversed policies where Covid-positive youngsters were kept apart from their parents, but there will still be a negative impact on fertility, and human rights record.

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China's population

China can boost births by improving living standards, demographer says

Cai Fang, with the CASS, also points to an ‘urgent need’ to make basic public services widely available.

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Weddings

‘To have more children, we are asking Chinese women to get married early’

In China, men can get married at 22 and women can wed at 20 – a policy in place since 1980, shortly after Beijing implemented its decades-long one-child policy.

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Roughly half as many Chinese couples are getting married every year compared with the record high set in 2013. Photo: AFP
China's population

See ya, Shanghai? China’s top-tier cities lose out as others lure talent

Beijing’s population of 21.89 million decreased by about 4,000 last year, while places such as Chengdu added nearly a quarter-million residents – a trend some attribute to rising costs and job uncertainties.

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China's population

The great population debate: China and India ponder if size really matters

China’s overall population only increased by less than half a million last year to 1.4126 billion, with a social media post earlier this month claiming India’s population had hit 1.415 billion to become the world’s most populous country.

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China society

‘Baby tailor-making’: hospital offering illegal gender selection to prospective parents ordered to stop

A hospital in China ordered to stop offering gender selection services for would-be parents as gender selection is illegal in China unless there is a medical reason.

Chinese health authority orders hospital to end baby gender choice service. Photo: Baidu
China's population

‘Entirely possible’ China’s population will peak in 2022 as declines continue

Cai Fang, a member of the People’s Bank of China’s monetary policy committee, said it is ‘entirely possible’ that the world’s largest population will peak in 2022.

China had a population of 1.4126 billion at the end of last year, with the growth rate rising at the slowest pace since the 1950s. Photo: Bloomberg
China's population

Marriage on the rocks in China, total hits record low

A range of factors at play, from coronavirus restrictions to the legacy of the one-child policy, observers say.

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Women and gender

Despite China’s push to lift births, single mothers must fight for rights

Benefits such as several months of paid maternity leave and medical coverage are still reserved only for married women.

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Two Sessions 2022

‘Are women just machines?’ Chinese web users left cold by birth rate solutions

China’s steep decline in birth rates has sparked growing alarm among officials, but social media users have slammed some solutions offered.

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China’s birth rate hit a record low in 2021. Photo: Reuters
China society

China’s low birth rate: call to allow single women to have one baby

A delegate at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has called for Beijing to extend the support given to married couples having children to single women for their first child.

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A woman carries a baby through a busy intersection in Beijing on June 2, 2021, days after China announced it would allow couples to have three children. Photo: AFP
China's population

From AI to tax cuts, China grasps for solutions to population crisis

Delegates at China’s ‘two sessions’ have raised pronatalist proposals to boost births such as encouraging postgraduate students to get married and greater use of artificial intelligence in education to reduce costs.

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Two Sessions 2022

China must lift all birth restrictions amid demographic crisis, delegates urge

China’s rapidly slowing population growth and dwindling fertility rate have set off alarms for urgent measures to be laid out in Beijing’s annual ‘two-sessions’ parliamentary gatherings.

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China's population

China vows to tackle ‘insufficient’ elderly care as ageing crisis worsens

China’s 14th five-year plan on elderly care has highlighted a dire need to improve services for people above 65, while promising to build more facilities for people at the end of their lives and with chronic illness.

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Chinese health authorities say elderly care facilities need to be improved to support the nation’s fast ageing population. Photo: Simon Song
Migrant workers in China

China’s urbanisation growth rate slows to quarter-century low

Downward trend could continue this year as the pandemic endures, experts say, while broader concerns stretch to the impact of urbanisation on China’s birth rate.

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Two Sessions 2022

Explainer | What can we expect from China’s 2022 ‘two sessions’ as Beijing plots course?

China’s ‘two sessions’ meetings of top leaders begins this year on March 4 in Beijing, and will lay out major policies involving the economy, trade, diplomacy, the environment and more.

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China's population

Hiring 3 million foreign nannies could boost China births by 200,000 a year

Report by YuWa Population Research encourages China to allow foreign nannies as they could reduce costs for a family by 60 per cent, boosting an ailing population by 200,000 births a year.

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China is in the midst of a population crisis due to a low birth rate and a rapidly ageing society and it has encouraged parents to have up to three children. Photo: Getty Images
China food security

Are farming subsidies the answer to China’s grain security woes?

With an eye on increasing China’s self-sufficiency in grain production, its minister of agriculture and rural affairs has sounded the alarm on risks to its wheat output while calling for greater soybean harvests.

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China is taking steps to ensure it has abundant arable land to grow enough food for its 1.4 billion people. Photo: Xinhua
China's population

Facing economic decline, Chinese rust-belt province unveils population plan

Heilongjiang’s population has plummeted by 16 per cent, or 6.46 million, from a decade ago, according to data from China’s 2020 census. Though severe, the decline is indicative of broader demographic challenges facing the nation.

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China's ageing population

As population ages, China nears national pension with ‘balancing’ of main fund

Balancing for China’s national pension system started on January 1 for the corporate employees pension fund to ‘allow shortfalls to be compensated by surpluses nationwide’, deputy finance minister Yu Weiping said.

China's ageing population

After seven decades, China will ‘gradually’ delay retirement ages by 2025

The State Council’s decision is the latest move by Beijing to cope with a population crisis fuelled by the nation’s falling birth rate, rapidly greying population and dwindling workforce.

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China’s State Council says the nation will “perfect the support system for the health of the elderly” in the coming years. Photo: AFP
China's population

Beijing adds fertility services to insurance to aid China’s slowing birth rate

A total of 16 medical services using assisted reproductive technologies will be covered by Beijing’s state insurance from next month after China’s birth rate dropped to a record low in 2021.

Official data showed China’s birth rate dropped to a record low in 2021, extending a downward trend that led the national government last year to begin allowing couples to have up to three children. Photo: Xinhua
China's population

It’s now more ‘I’ll wait’ rather than ‘I do’ in China as marriages drop

Falling numbers of marriage registrations in several provinces further complicate China’s plans to encourage more couples to have children amid its ongoing population crisis.

China's population

China’s population crisis could give women greater reproductive rights

Some say institutional changes to controversial policies are long overdue, as China looks to adapt to the reproductive needs and rights of its people, but ethical concerns remain.

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