China population: birth control policies should be scrapped to retain economic edge over US, says central bank
- The People’s Bank of China has recommended Beijing completely abandon birth control policies or lose its economic edge over the United States
- Under current scenarios, China’s population could lose 32 million between 2019 and 2050, whereas the US will add 50 million, the central bank says
China should immediately liberalise its birth policies or face a scenario in which it has a lower share of workers and higher burden of elderly care than the United States by 2050, China’s central bank has said.
In an unusually direct and frank tone, four researchers from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said the country should not interfere with people’s ability to have children or it will be too late to reverse the economic impact of a declining population. Since 2016, Chinese couples have been allowed to have two children.
“We should not hesitate and wait for the effects of existing birth policies,” the researchers said in a working paper dated late March and published on the bank’s website on Wednesday.
“The birth liberalisation should happen now when there are some residents who still want to have children but can’t. It’s useless to liberalise it when no one wants to have children.
“On the other hand, we need to create a birth friendly environment and solve the problems that women encounter during pregnancy, childbirth, nursery and school enrolment.”
