After imposing the one-child policy from 1980 to 2016, China is taking the opposite path. The shift in demographics is worrying politicians. With only 10.62 million births in 2021 compared to 12 million in 2020 and even 17.86 million in 2016, the country is facing both a slowdown and an aging population.
Although, officially, the population continues to increase slightly, the birth rate – 7.52 per 1,000 inhabitants – is the lowest recorded since the Communist Party (CCP) came to power in 1949. At the end of 2021, we officially recorded 1.4126 billion Chinese, an increase of 480,000 (+ 0.034%) compared to 2020. The smallest percentage increase since the great famine of 1958-1961.
If the curves are prolonged, the Middle Kingdom will drop, from 2022, below the symbolic bar of 10 million births. As early as 2020, the World Economic Forum predicted that in 2100 China, with 732 million inhabitants, would be less populated than India (1.09 billion) but also than Nigeria (791 million).
“Improve reproductive health”
To stem this decline, the country has allowed Chinese couples to have three children since the end of May 2021. While many couples highlight the cost of living and housing to justify their reservations about this policy, the provinces are increasing the incentives, for example increasing maternity leave to 350 days in the event of a third child.
Lately, however, it is above all the measures restricting abortion that are attracting attention. The same association for family planning which, for years, interfered in the intimacy of couples and forced many women to abort, will now lead the opposite policy. She goes ” to intervene “she indicated at the beginning of February, to help reduce the number of abortions, by advocating respect for “traditional values” for unmarried women and adolescent girls wishing to terminate a pregnancy.
According to the national health commission, there were nearly 9 million abortions performed in China in 2020, 40% of them on teenagers
“We want to further shape the way young people view marriage and family, relearn how to raise multiple children in a family, promote a new positive culture of marriage and parenthood,” explains Family Planning. According to the national health commission, there would have been nearly 9 million abortions performed in China in 2020, 40% of which were for teenagers, expert Wang Pei’an indicated in May 2021, in a committee of the Chinese Parliament. . He lamented that“due to sexual liberalization from the West, 70% of teenage girls [avaient] a positive image of premarital sex”.
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