"Low Birthrate Crisis in China Influenced by Declining Trust in Government"

"Frequent Policy Changes During Pandemic...Loss of Policy Trust"

As China faces a demographic cliff crisis, there are concerns that declining trust in the government has affected the low birthrate.

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 27th, experts at a symposium on solutions to the population crisis hosted by Renmin University on the 25th advised that the Chinese government needs to restore the trust lost during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to address the population crisis.

According to the report, Professor Ma Liang of Renmin University diagnosed that although various birth promotion policies have been proposed across China, the government’s repeated failure to keep promises makes it difficult to regain public trust in the short term. Frequent policy changes during the pandemic have been pointed out as eroding government trust.

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Previously, China implemented the 'One-Child Policy' around 1980. However, as rapid population aging caused imbalances, the policy shifted to the 'Two-Child Policy' after 2016, and in 2021, the two-child policy was abolished and replaced with the 'Three-Child Policy.'

Despite various birth promotion measures, the high cost of child-rearing and employment difficulties due to economic slowdown have overlapped, resulting in little effect.

In fact, last year, the number of newborns in China was 9.56 million, which is about half of the 18.67 million recorded in 2016 when the second child was permitted, marking a drop to half in six years. The decline in newborns is the first since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, spanning 73 years.

Due to the decrease in newborns, China's population last year was 1.41175 billion, down by 850,000 from the previous year, marking the first decline in 61 years since 1961.

Some forecasts suggest that the number of newborns in China this year could drop to between 7 million and 8 million. Professor Li Ting of Renmin University predicted, "Due to women of childbearing age and rapid population aging, China's population will continue to decline until the end of this century."

Experts pointed out that the Chinese government wants a 'role model' that demonstrates exemplary cases of childbirth. However, SCMP noted that given the increasing number of celebrity divorces in recent years, it seems difficult to expect a change in public attitudes toward marriage and family formation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.