China Newsbase
Fast, easy search of the China news that matters
The China News Database was last updated at 09:18AM today.
Database searches currently perform best when a tag filter is used. We suggest trying out these tags: Xi Jinping, Russia, Taiwan, COVID-19, climate change, electric vehicles, gaming, IPOs, Belt and Road Initiative.
You may also filter by articles featured in our daily members-only Access newsletter, to get a curated overview of the top news and analysis about Chinese politics, business, and society. Select one option:
- All top news and analysis
- The China Project top news and analysis
- Top news and analysis from elsewhere — Stories in the “News briefing,” previously known as “Recommended links”
This product is in beta testing and development. If you would like to share feedback on the content or user experience, please email editors@thechinaproject.com.
50 articles matching the search query.
Is China’s demography China’s destiny?
Bert Hofman, former World Bank country director for China, talks about China’s shrinking population.
The significance behind China’s population decline | Live with Lizzi Lee
China has rolled out a slew of policies to boost its shrinking population. Yun Zhou, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Department of Sociology, talks about the issues behind the demographic crisis, but also warns of the policies’ impacts on gender inequality and what might come next.
Professor slammed after suggesting social media will make China childless
Young Chinese women don’t want to have babies, and one scholar blames social media. Chinese social media users were not amused.
BlackRock Venture Launches First Pension Product in China
BlackRock’s majority-owned joint venture has launched a pension product as the world’s largest asset manager salivates over “business opportunities among the country’s growing aging population.”
国务院：设立3岁以下婴幼儿照护个人所得税专项附加扣除-36氪
The State Council recently established a special income tax deduction for the care of infants. Taxpayers caring for children under the age of three will get a deduction of 1,000 yuan ($157) per month per infant.
The state of Chinese feminism in 2022 with Leta Hong Fincher
Despite the Chinese Communist Party’s brutal crackdown on online feminist activism in recent months, Dr. Leta Hong Fincher sees a glimmer of hope in the rising public outrage over victims of human trafficking. Even as civil society shrinks, new feminist spaces like bookstores and cafés are emerging.
Union matchmakers a turn-off, say Chinese web users as birth rate debate heats up
No trade union matchmaking, say appalled Chinese netizens, after government officials proposed the idea at a brainstorming session aimed to boost China’s plunging birth rate. The plan, which called for “marriage committees” within trade unions to provide matchmaking services, sparked a wave of public backlash on Weibo.
Women at work in China in 2022
China’s not doing badly by global standards, but women still make less money than their male colleagues and are still underrepresented in the workforce. Here’s a look at women at work in China for International Women’s Day.
Average cost of raising a child in urban China hits almost $100,000
It costs more to raise a kid in China than it does in Japan and the United States.
Reproductive clinics benefit as China incentivizes higher fertility rates
In a bid to boost China’s declining birth rates, Beijing is adding reproductive technologies to public hospitals’ health insurance programs. Fertility firms are cashing in.
China’s Family Planning Body Clarifies Its Abortion Intervention
China clarified its announcement on abortions, saying an earlier statement to “intervene” was intended to help teenagers avoid the risks and challenges associated with unplanned pregnancies. This follows a recent series of moves by authorities that have triggered speculation over the nation’s abortion policies, and whether they are aimed at boosting the country’s slowing birth rates.
China’s social networking platform Hongsong raises US$100 million in a Series A+ funding round | AsiaTechDaily - Asia's Leading Tech and Startup Media Platform
Beijing-based startup HongSong Online Technology, which operates a social media platform designed for the elderly, raised $100 million in funding from Bertelsmann Asia Investments, a division of the German multinational media conglomerate. By 2050, estimates suggest one-third of China’s population will be age 60 or older.
China’s Population Stalls With Births in 2021 the Lowest in Modern History
China’s soon-to-be-shrinking population: The number of births in China in 2021 was 10.62 million, down from 12.02 million in 2020, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. This “barely outnumbered the 10.14 million deaths” recorded last year, the Wall Street Journal notes, “suggesting the day may be near when China’s population starts to shrink.” See also charts and analysis in Caixin: China’s record low birthrate heightens long-term economic challenges.
Can $300 billion stop the shrinking of China’s population by targeting on Gen X and older millennials?
A famous Chinese economist says the answer to China’s demographic crisis is “printing money to encourage births.” He also says the government should give up on Gen Z and instead encourage people born between 1975 and 1985 who “still believe that more children will bring more happiness.”
ByteDance invests in AI-powered female virtual assistants
A story from the The China Project A.M. newsletter. Sign up for free here.
Editor’s note for Thursday, December 9, 2021
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn. Today: An apparent change in Chinese health care policy has made it difficult for men to get vasectomies, while a commentary in state media urges Party members to have three kids.
In China, longer maternity leave is a tough sell
New policies aimed at encouraging childbirth include longer mandated maternity leave, but many women aren’t happy.
China’s birth rate drops to levels not seen since 1978. Experts say the worst is yet to come.
Despite Beijing’s efforts to alleviate a baby bust, Chinese people stubbornly seem to want fewer marriages and fewer babies. The gravity of the situation is starkly illustrated in China’s latest statistical yearbook.
China’s census accuracy faces reality check amid Covid-19 vaccinations, tests
Are COVID-19 testing and vaccine records more accurate than the census? China bluntly denied Financial Times reporting from April this year that the country’s 2020 census was set to show a population decline had already occurred. The actual census results, released in May, showed a population still growing, but at its slowest rate in six decades. At the South China Morning Post, Zhou Xin writes that two cases of COVID-19 mass testing and vaccine campaigns appear to show a smaller, and more accurate “permanent residents” number than the census for those local governments. Zhou writes that this lends “credence to a long-standing suspicion that local governments tend to over-report their populations in censuses by including people who no longer reside there, because certain government subsidies are allocated based on the number of local people.”
Hunan county implores local women to stay and marry as rural bachelor crisis worsens
A rural county in Hunan Province has made a plan to encourage local women to stay in the area and look for love amongst its many bachelors. But commenters are worried that the authorities could eventually restrict women’s ability to move away.
China vows to reduce ‘medically unnecessary’ abortions — allegedly for the benefit of women
China is moving to limit women’s access to abortions conducted for “non-medical reasons.” But as scary as it might sound at first, the reason behind the move may be less sinister than critics think.
Too much work and not enough sex threatens China’s new population plans
The Chinese government wants young people to have more babies. But a scholar suggests they may be too busy working to have time and energy for procreative acts.
China Enshrines Three-Child Policy Into Law
Authorities are encouraging couples to have more children amid low birth rates and an aging population.
End of one-child policy in China linked to rise in birth anomalies
Following China’s switch to a two-child policy, there has been a slight rise in congenital anomalies, perhaps because parents are older on average at conception
China abolishes two-child policy, but very few women want three babies
Facing an aging population and declining birth rates, Beijing has further relaxed family planning policies. However, young Chinese people don’t seem interested.
China’s nursing shortage is easing, but not fast enough to address needs of aging population
Although the number of nurses in China is increasing, the country is facing a severe shortage that will get worse as the population ages. Low salaries, tough working conditions, and a lack of respect for the profession mean the problem is not likely to get better.
China census results show six-decade low in number of births
The 2020 Chinese census showed a population continuing to grow, but at its slowest rate since the People’s Republic of China’s first census in 1953, with the lowest number of new births since 1961. How will China deal with its rapidly worsening demographic crisis?
Another report of reproductive oppression in Xinjiang
For the past year, international alarm over China’s abuse of Uyghurs has been heightened by reports of targeted birth control. A New York Times report confirms that even as birth restrictions have loosened in much of China, they have tightened and become more coercive for Muslims in Xinjiang.
What Should China Do about Its Aging Population?
Though it has yet to be released, China’s latest ten-year census is certain to confirm what demographers have warned of for years: A labor crisis looms as the fertility rate remains low and the
China’s demographic crisis ‘faster and bigger’ than thought, census results to show population peaked: FT
Results from the latest Chinese census, which have not yet been released, will show that China’s population declined for the first time since 1949, according to the Financial Times.
Xinjiang Hospitals Aborted, Killed Babies Outside Family Planning Limits: Uyghur Obstetrician
Sources say family-planning units terminated late-stage pregnancies and even killed newly born infants.
In “One Child Nation,” Nanfu Wang Confronts China’s History, and Her Own
The award-winning director, who was raised in a poor, two-child household in China, aimed to use film to dig deeper into her sense of the injustice permeating her world.
China’s population could start shrinking in 8 years
The warning comes from a prominent state-run think tank, three years after the one-child policy was officially abolished.
China Abandons One-Child Policy
The Communist Party will allow Chinese couples to have two children, ending a notorious 35-year-old limit on reproduction that has created myriad problems and threatened the country’s long-term economic health.
