Tag: Population

I.V.F. Offers Hope in China, Even to the Government

Chin@Strategy

It was a cold and overcast morning in November, but one full of promise for Guo Meiyan and her husband: They would finally get a chance to start a family. As Ms. Guo, 39, was wheeled on a gurney into a hospital room where a doctor transferred her eggs, which had been harvested and fertilized, back into her uterus, she also felt a sense of dread. “If the transplant is not successful, all the money we spent will be wasted, all the pain I endured will be wasted, and we…

Ageing planet: the new demographic timebomb

Chin@Strategy

In Japan even criminals are getting old. In the country’s notorious yakuza crime syndicates, more than half of members are now over 50, according to the national police agency. Veterans who have passed 70 outnumber those under 20 by two to one, even though teenagers are the groups’ traditional source of “muscle”. Japan is a pioneer in adjusting to the skewed demographics of an ageing society, with the impact of its low birthrates exacerbated by a fierce resistance to immigration. But its dilemmas are increasingly shared around the world. India…

‘The last generation’: the young Chinese people vowing not to have children

Chin@Strategy

Talk to any young woman in urban China about the prospects of having children and the chances are, they are not keen. “It costs too much to give kids a decent life. The stuff they teach at school is propaganda, so I’d want to send them to an international school or abroad. But I can’t afford that,” said Kongkong, a 26-year-old researcher who swears she will not have children. This week, the Chinese government announced the country has entered an “era of negative population growth”, after figures showed a historic…

A Shrinking, Aging China May Have Backed Itself Into a Corner

Chin@Strategy

China’s leaders have long known that the country is nearing a demographic crossroads. Policymakers have warned that China must prepare for a slowly shrinking population and an era of fewer workers and more retirees. State media have urged young couples to seize the opportunity to have two or three children under relaxed family-size rules, to soften the looming economic crunch. And yet the sense of incipient crisis grew on Tuesday, when the government confirmed that the nation’s population shrank last year for the first time in six decades, sooner and…

Why China’s Shrinking Population Is Cause for Alarm

Chin@Strategy

New data released this week by the Chinese government revealed that China’s population has begun to shrink, a momentous shift that will have broad ripple effects both domestically and globally. The government said on Tuesday that deaths last year in China had outnumbered births for the first time in decades. This could spell the end of China’s position as the world’s most populous country, a transition that could profoundly reshape the global economy in the long run. India’s total population is expected to surpass China’s later this year, according to…

The Problem(s) With China’s Population Drop

Chin@Strategy

China’s population declined last year, for the first time since the mass deaths associated with Mao Zedong’s disastrous Great Leap Forward in the 1960s. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say that China has announced that its population declined. Many observers are skeptical about Chinese data; I’ve been at conferences when China released, say, new data on economic growth, and many people responded by asking not “Why was growth 7.3 percent?” but rather “Why did the Chinese government decide to say that it was 7.3 percent?” In any…

Davos Worries About a ‘Polycrisis’

Chin@Strategy

Hand-wringing in Davos Andrew here. I’m attending the World Economic Forum with DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch and a team from The Times to capture the mood and behind-the-scenes action among the world leaders and the C.E.O.s who’ve made their annual pilgrimage to the Swiss Alps. Speaking of which: Davos is normally full of hand-wringing over the state of the world, but it feels especially pronounced this year. (That isn’t necessarily reflected in the crowd of corporate pop-ups on the Promenade, one of the town’s main thoroughfares, nor in the cocktail party…

China’s Population Falls, Heralding a Demographic Crisis

Chin@Strategy

The world’s most populous country has reached a pivotal moment: China’s population has begun to shrink, after a steady, yearslong decline in its birthrate that experts say will be irreversible. The government said on Tuesday that 9.56 million people were born in China in 2022, while 10.41 million people died. It was the first time deaths had outnumbered births in China since the early 1960s, when the Great Leap Forward, Mao Zedong’s failed economic experiment, led to widespread famine and death. Births were down from 10.6 million in 2021, the…

As Asian Societies Age, ‘Retirement’ Just Means More Work

Chin@Strategy

To cope with what demographers call “super aging societies,” policymakers in East Asia initially focused on trying to spur births and tinkering with immigration laws to shore up work forces. Such measures have done little to alter the aging trend line, as fertility rates have plunged and many countries have resisted large-scale immigration plans. That has left employers desperate for workers. In Japan, for example, surveys show that as many as half of companies report shortages of full-time workers. Older workers have stepped in to fill the gaps. “We have…

China’s Grandparents Are Done Babysitting and Ready to Go Viral

Chin@Strategy

HONG KONG — The 65-year-old woman crouches in a field and holds up a head of cabbage. Behind her, two friends sway back and forth, cucumber and radish in their hands. “This rotten cabbage, let’s pull it out, eat it, achieve some foodie freedom,” Guo Yifen, the woman with the cabbage, raps in a low and creaky voice in the song “Spicy Hot Pot Real Rap.” The trio, known as Sister Wang Is Coming, is known for sharing playful videos on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. Ms. Guo and…