China’s population growth hits a new low as birth rates drop to the lowest level in more than sixty years, official Chinese figures show. “The number of newborns in China fell for a fifth straight year to the lowest in modern Chinese history,” newspaper The Australian reported citing the demographic numbers released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Despite a slight rise in the total population, deaths across China outnumbered the shirking birth rate. “China’s National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2021 in a nation of 1.4 billion people, there was a net population growth of only 480,000 people — against 10.1 million deaths and 10.6 million births,” the Voice of American noted.
The birth rates across the country are in sharp decline despite stringent measures taken by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to boost the population growth. In 2015, China scrapped the harsh one-child mandate, changing it to two-children-for-all policy. In August 2021, the CCP enacted a law allowing couples to have up to three children.
Hong Kong newspaper The South China Morning Post reported the latest demographic figures:
Mainland China’s population increased by less than half a million last year, and the number of births also dropped for the fifth consecutive year in 2021, data released on Monday showed.
China’s overall population increased by about 480,000 people – to 1.4126 billion in 2021, from 1.412 billion a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirmed. The population includes China’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, as well as servicemen, but excludes foreigners. It does not include Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan.
Chinese mothers gave birth to 10.62 million babies last year, an 11.5 per cent drop from 12 million in 2020, the NBS confirmed. The national birth rate fell to a record low of 7.52 births for every 1,000 people in 2021, from 8.52 in 2020.
The national death rate was 7.18 per thousand last year, putting the national growth rate at 0.34 per thousand.
Experts have warned that a demographic turning point may be just around the corner in the world’s most populous nation, and some say it threatens to erode the foundation of China’s booming economic growth over the past 40 years.
Faced with an alarming population decline, the CCP is ordering its 95 million members to have more children. In November 2021, the CCP mouthpiece China Reports Network published an editorial telling party members that they “should shoulder the responsibility and obligation of the country’s population growth and act on the three-child policy.”
“No party member should use any excuse, objective or personal, to not marry or have children, nor can they use any excuse to have only one or two children,” the editorial instructed.
The roots of the Chinese demographic decline lie in its one-child policy enforced in 1980. Fearing overpopulation in the late 1970s, the CCP enforced “family planning” measures, mandating people to marry late, and have fewer and fewer children. This later culminated in the one-child policy that led to tens of millions of illegal abortions, disproportionately targeting the girl child. According to a 2016 estimate, due to this inhumane policy China has 30 million more men that women.
While the CCP has laid out plans for surpassing the U.S. in military might, its aging and declining population will be a great impediment as Beijing tries to project its power in Eurasia and Pacific. The Communist giant is threatening to invade neighboring Taiwan and has repeatedly clashed with India over a 2100-mile long disputed border.
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