China’s three-child policy is not too little, too late, but a call to action

The announcement of the policy reflects an awareness of the seriousness of the problem

Addressing it comprehensively will require reforming the social security system, tackling soaring housing prices and improving access to basic public services

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Children learn how to care for infants in Hangzhou, the capital of east China’s Zhejiang province, in October 2017. The latest population census found that Chinese mothers gave birth to 12 million babies last year, down from 14.65 million in 2019. Photo: Xinhua

Hu Shuli

Hu Shuli is the publisher of Caixin Media and Caixin Global.

Published: 3:30am, 6 Jun 2021Updated: 3:34am, 6 Jun 2021

China has just unveiled its new policy to encourage married couples to have up to three children. This policy alone won’t be enough to boost population growth, and more supportive measures and structural changes will also be needed.

The alarm bell was sounded by the results of China’s latest national census released last month. The long-awaited headcount conducted in 2020 is crucial for government planners and enterprises to plot a course for the future. The result shows that China, with 1.41 billion people, is still the most populous country in the world.

But the data also exposes alarming trends: low fertility rates, an expanding ageing population and a significant reduction in the working-age population.

As population is a vitally important “long-term variable” in socioeconomic development, once such trends are established, they are extremely difficult to reverse. On the heels of the census came the new policy announcement on couples being allowed to have three children, as if underscoring the urgent need to take action.