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China Population: Tumbling Regional Birth Rates Signal Scale of Country's Ageing Crisis
AsiaOne ^ | 2 Feb, 2021 | Sidney Leng

Posted on 02/10/2021 11:41:17 AM PST by nickcarraway

*Population data released by some Chinese provinces and cities has shown dramatic declines in the number of newborns in 2020 compared to a year earlier *Over the next five years, China’s total population will enter the range of zero growth, putting pressure on government plans to boost economic expansion

Despite the delayed publication of national population data, a slew of local birth statistics in China has hinted at a growing population crisis in the world’s most populous country.

Births are steadily falling in China and experts say they will only shrink further, putting pressure on Beijing’s lofty development goals, “unless miraculous achievements” are made in increasing the number of newborns in the future.

Annual population and birth figures for 2020 were not released as part of a series of economic indicators last month, mainly because China finished a once-in-a-decade population census at the end of last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The bureau said preliminary results of the census were expected to be published in April.

But over the course of January, some Chinese provinces and cities have disclosed their own birth data through government and state media reports – and in some cases birth rates declined more than 30 per cent in 2020 from a year earlier.

In the city of Guangzhou, the provincial capital of southern economic powerhouse Guangdong, the number of newborn babies fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade, according to a report in the state-run Guangzhou Daily.

Some 195,500 babies were born in Guangzhou, down about 17 per cent from 2019, and 33 per cent below 2017, the report said. It added that the declining trend in the city broadly mirrored the situation for the whole province, which in 2019 recorded 1.43 million newborns – the most births among all provinces.

In Ningxia Hui autonomous region, a landlocked area in China’s northwest home to the Hui ethnic minority, the number of newborns was slightly above 80,000 last year, a 16 per cent fall from 2019, official data showed.

The capital Yinchuan recorded roughly 24,400 new babies, down by 11.9 per cent from 2019, according to a government report. We can say that even though the number of births in 2020 might be the lowest in recent decades, it is likely to be the highest in the next few decades Huang Wenzhen In eastern China, a number of thriving cities with large inflows of migrants all showed drastic falls in newborns last year. Hefei, the provincial capital of Anhui province, reported 79,300 newborns, down 23 per cent from a year earlier, a report from the city government said.

The cities of Wenzhou and Taizhou, both under the jurisdiction of Zhejiang province – one of China’s wealthiest – saw newborns fall by 19 per cent and 33 per cent respectively last year, according to government reports.

“While we cannot draw a nationwide conclusion based on the declining births in those regions, we believe that there is no doubt that the national births will fall significantly in 2020 from 2019, considering the dwindling number of women of childbearing age and other factors,” said Huang Wenzhen, a senior researcher from the Centre for China and Globalisation, a government-backed think tank.

“We can say that even though the number of births in 2020 might be the lowest in recent decades, it is likely to be the highest in the next few decades, unless miraculous achievements were made via encouraging births in the future.”

This is not so far from the central government’s own estimates. Over the next five years, China’s total population will enter the range of zero growth, meaning the annual gap between births and deaths will shrink to only 1 million, even though the total population will remain above 1.4 billion, according to the China Population and Development Research Centre, an official think tank.

It estimated that India could overtake China as the world’s most populated country in 2027.

Chinese mothers gave birth to 14.65 million babies in 2019, the lowest level since 1961.

China is not the only east Asian country suffering from declining births and an ageing population. Last year, South Korea’s population dropped for the first time on record. Russia’s population also shrank by 500,000 people in 2020, the largest decline in 15 years.

Rapidly ageing populations have put pressure on governments in Asia, as the potential for growth eases amid shrinking labour supply and the burden of caring for the elderly increases.

In theory, countries can offset the impact by improving labour productivity and capital investment, but that is “a gravity defying act,” said economists from French bank Natixis in a note in December.

“With fewer workers and an increased elderly population requiring more savings to sustain spending in retirement, greater pressure on public finances is expected,” the bank said. “As such, the more prepared an economy can be while still youthful, the more likely it is to age gracefully.

“With lower potential output, assuming all else is equal, the goal to rapidly grow GDP per capita or the standard of living, is more difficult. Some Asian economies, such as China and Thailand, will still be in the ‘middle income trap’ when they rapidly age.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: asia; china; population
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1 posted on 02/10/2021 11:41:17 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Gee, maybe they need something like a corona virus to thin the heard. Just a thought.


2 posted on 02/10/2021 11:42:24 AM PST by JoSixChip (2020: The year of unreported truths. )
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To: nickcarraway

Yet they still have enough people to have a minder for each and every one of us, with about a billion spares left over.


3 posted on 02/10/2021 11:43:44 AM PST by EasySt (Say not this is the truth, but so it seems to me to be, as I see this thing I think I see #KAG)
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To: nickcarraway

We can send them everyone who comes to the border.


4 posted on 02/10/2021 11:44:29 AM PST by pas
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To: nickcarraway

Worse yet, men outnumber women in China by 100,000,000, so the demographics are even worse than they seem.


5 posted on 02/10/2021 11:44:31 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (You are in far greater danger from authoritarian government than you are from a seasonal virus.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

At least.


6 posted on 02/10/2021 11:45:42 AM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
So they licked their "population explosion" and now they have an "ageing crisis".

But you don't see the Chinese getting worked up about it for some reason.

7 posted on 02/10/2021 11:48:08 AM PST by Salman (It's not a "slippery slope" if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: EasySt

The Chinese Communist screwed themselves with the “One Child” edict. What happened is that female fetuses were aborted at a much greater rate than male fetuses, leaving a live birth ratio of much more lopsidedly tilted to male births. There were no females for this generation of males to pair up with.

But there were enough males available to fill out the rosters for the People’s Liberation Army. Several times over.

And their military mobilization is on the move.


8 posted on 02/10/2021 11:51:53 AM PST by alloysteel (Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition.)
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To: nickcarraway

China running out of people?
Why, it’s like hearing that KFC is running out of chicken!


9 posted on 02/10/2021 11:56:03 AM PST by lee martell
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To: alloysteel

The One Child policy was ended in 2016. But even now, there 118 males babies born for every 100 female babies. It comes to around a million more boys being born each year than girls.

Do the math. Something’s got to give.


10 posted on 02/10/2021 12:00:34 PM PST by trublu
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To: nickcarraway

Is it aging or ageing? It seems weird to put an “e” next to “ing”. Could we not also put purgeing, plateing, etc?


11 posted on 02/10/2021 12:01:51 PM PST by salmon76 (They call me Big Boomer McKraken. I live at the corner of Breaking Street and Bombshell Avenue.)
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To: nickcarraway

Well they are running out of food and water but NOT US $$$$$ and a wholesaler in the WH!


12 posted on 02/10/2021 12:17:26 PM PST by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than having to WORK like the rest of US:-))
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To: trublu

I read somewhere online that China wants “smarter” babies, too, and is using a program to deliver high IQ babies over ordinary run of the mill, hit or miss babies. How they determine “smarter” babies I don’t know, but maybe those deemed run of the mill babies don’t get to be born???


13 posted on 02/10/2021 12:20:02 PM PST by kiltie65
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To: EasySt
Yet they still have enough people to have a minder for each and every one of us, with about a billion spares left over.

No they don't. That's typical paranoid fantasy Qtard bunk.

Those mooks don't even speak English.

Trust the pran!

14 posted on 02/10/2021 12:28:11 PM PST by humblegunner (Balls To Picasso.)
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To: trublu

The one child policy resulted in many more boys being born, because if limited to one child, big numbers of parents wanted that one child to be a boy.

Would China go in the other direction, and instead of having a one child policy, go to requiring people to have more children? As a totalitarian state, theoretically they could do various things to ensure more babies are born. They could require young women to be married. With the surplus of young men, there is no shortage of marriage partners available. They could ban birth control. They could give incentives for people to have large families. Totalitarian governments can do things which are inconceivable to us Americans.


15 posted on 02/10/2021 12:42:13 PM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: Dilbert San Diego
They could require young women to be married.

Yes, but WILL the women want to marry Chinese men?

The Chinese rural and working class parents are the ones who aborted female babies. Ironically, they are the traditional societies. As upper- or middle-class Chinese women become more Westernized, they will find their traditional men distasteful and seek (white) European or American guys. I already see cultural alienation.

16 posted on 02/10/2021 1:16:06 PM PST by MoochPooch (I'm a compassionate cynic.)
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To: nickcarraway

A generation of only children and a few 2-child families taught that one is best ... are only having one child themselves.


17 posted on 02/10/2021 1:27:27 PM PST by tbw2
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To: Salman

They’re sterilizing Urgyur Muslim women and sending them to camps to be Sinocized, then shipped off to work in the factories. Call it appropriation of the people.


18 posted on 02/10/2021 1:28:12 PM PST by tbw2
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To: MoochPooch

In China, they’re just requiring it to be a guy who owns his own apartment and has a residency permit for a major city.


19 posted on 02/10/2021 1:29:13 PM PST by tbw2
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To: trublu

Their government is reportedly sending Muslim men to live with Urgyur families, and the families risk being labeled Muslim extremists if they refuse a marriage proposal - whether to the widow or their daughter.

And while China says they’re suffering a birth dearth, they’re sterilizing Muslims with three or more kids ... even when the family had permission for three.


20 posted on 02/10/2021 1:30:36 PM PST by tbw2
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