China’s 2020 newborn baby count hits another record low
According to data released by the Ministry of Public Security, China will register 10.035 million newborns in 2020, compared to 11.79 million in 2019, a 15 percent drop in the number of newborns in 2020 compared to 2019. Some scholars say that China has fallen into a “low fertility trap”. In response, an official media article analyzed that the main reason for the low fertility rate is the “inability to give birth”. But a Chinese netizen angrily choked, “A group of fools are analyzing why China’s fertility rate is low? One sentence tells you the answer: Has China ever treated Chinese women and children like human beings?”
According to the “National Name Report for 2020” released by the Chinese Communist Party‘s Ministry of Public Security on Feb. 8, of the 10.035 million newborns registered in 2020, 5.290 million, or 52.7 percent, were boys and 4.745 million, or 47.3 percent, were girls. This is a significant drop of 15% from the 11.79 million newborns registered in 2019. China’s declining birth rate has become increasingly critical. Liang Jianzhang, a professor of applied economics at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, also said that China has fallen into a “low fertility trap”.
The official media Sanlian Life Weekly recently published an article saying that before the 1970s, China’s fertility rate once exceeded 6, but now the fertility rate is only about 1.5.
As for why this low fertility phenomenon has emerged, the article analyzed that the main reason is that they cannot afford to give birth: many young people are already under great pressure to feed themselves, plus buying and renting a house has emptied most of their income. Even for some middle-class families with high incomes, the cost of raising children is also a very large expense; and those born after the 90s have a significantly lower “relative income” compared to the 70s and 80s. Relative income is the ratio of expected income to living expenses, and the higher the ratio, the stronger the ability to raise children.
The article further explains that because China’s economy is currently in a slowdown, the future growth of personal income for the post-90s and post-00s is not optimistic. In addition, those born in the post-90s have no more sense of frugality due to their relatively privileged living conditions since childhood, which, coupled with the current high housing prices and prices, also results in much higher living expenses than the previous generation. This low relative income ratio will also lead to a further decline in the fertility and willingness of this group of people who are the main force of childbirth.
In addition, the decline in young people is leading to increasing pressure on China’s pension system. China’s pension system is such that the current working generation pays for the pensions of the previous generation who have retired. In order to ease the pressure on pensions, the authorities have started to study the policy of delaying retirement, but this in turn will further reduce the fertility rate.
Since there are almost no childcare facilities for 0-3 year olds in China, it is almost impossible for many dual-income families to raise children on their own without the help of their Parents. If the elderly delay retirement, they will lose this support and many will have to give up having children.
Chinese netizens have an alternative view of China’s increasingly low fertility rate.
A netizen posted an angry article on Weibo saying, “Chinese people at the bottom, especially Chinese women, have always been the tools of childbirth, and if they have Time to advise women to have children, they should study artificial wombs. The Chinese women have never been treated as human beings, and now the low fertility rate is anxious. The disadvantaged groups have been losing in the game program, now the disadvantaged groups do not play with you, let the old man who made the rules of the game slowly play it by themselves.
The old people of China have no thoughts no running! China does not allow the truth! China’s laws are not sound! There is no security in China! This is why Chinese people don’t give birth anymore! This is why Chinese people don’t give birth!
The netizen also accompanied by a picture, the text on the picture shows, “A group of fools in the analysis of why China’s fertility rate is low? One sentence tells you the answer, China has ever treated Chinese women and children as human beings? Vaccine to disability is not guaranteed, whoever is shot is finished; buying commercial property is not guaranteed, whoever buys is a big fool …… Chinese women do not have a low desire to have children, but Chinese people and women have a low desire to get married.”
Chinese netizens angrily choked, not ever treating Chinese women as human beings, and now low fertility rate and anxious (Photo source: Weibo)
Another netizen counted the population data of single-day births in Shanghai in the past 30 years, showing that the fertility rate in Shanghai is obviously declining more and more. For example, the population data of 2,784 people born on the day of January 1, 1990, 1,148 people born in Shanghai on January 1, 2000, 380 people born in Shanghai on January 1, 2010, 156 people born in Shanghai on January 1, 2020, and only 27 newborns in Shanghai by January 1, 2021. At this rate of decline, China’s population will drop from the current 1.4 billion to 5 billion by the year 2100.
From a friend via email:
On January 1, 1990, there were 2,784 births in Shanghai that day.
On January 1, 2000, there were 1148 births in Shanghai that day.
On January 1, 2010, there were 380 births in Shanghai.
January 1, 2020, 156 births in Shanghai on the same day
On January 1, 2021, there will be only 27 newborns in Shanghai that day
China’s current fertility rate is about 1.4, and by 2100, China’s population will be reduced from 1.4 billion to 500 million.
Netizens followed up with a message saying.
“The leeks are cut so hard that it hurts the root of life. But there are many ways for the Communist Party to blow up the leeks, such as a Cultural Revolution-style childbirth campaign.”
“No one wants to be born in China anymore.”
“It’s not 1.4 billion now either, there’s a lot of water.”
“The mainland’s fertility rate is definitely less than 1.4, and it won’t take 80 years for the population to drop to 500 million, and the CCP will definitely reemphasize its Family planning policy, only with the opposite goal of turning it into forcing the people to have more children.”
However, some netizens mocked that the family planning policy has been a great success, too good to be true, housing prices are a little higher, the fertility rate will be even more impressive, angry praise, do not worry, there are African friends to replenish it, leek stock crisis, the Chinese Communist Party will have to introduce foreign leeks.
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