Xinhua
Daily Mail: China's population SHRINKS for the first time in 70 years, despite scrapping its one-child policy - leaving the country facing a 'demographic crisis'
* One expert says births fell by 2.5m in 2018 in the country of 1.4bn citizens
* Since 2016 there has been a two-child policy in an attempt to boost growth
* A labour shortage could severely impact the country's fragile welfare system
* China could lose out to India in the race to overcome US economic dominance
China's population has shrunk for the first time in 70 years despite scrapping the controversial one-child policy as experts warn of a 'demographic crisis.'
The number of live births nationwide in 2018 fell by 2.5 million year-on-year, contrary to a predicted increase of 790,000 births, according to analysis by US-based academic Yi Fuxian.
The world's most populous nation of some 1.4 billion for decades limited most families to one child in an attempt to keep population growth sustainable.
But since 2016 it has allowed couples to have two children in response to concerns about an ageing society and shrinking workforce.
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WNU Editor: If the economic slowdown continues in China, and most analysts believe that it will, families in China will not be motivated to have more kids. The culture of having children has changed in China, where now most families prefer having only one child. On a side note, in the 1980s I met one of the economists in China who helped promote the government's one-child policy. In his opinion, he believed that the ideal population number for China that would insure stable growth and prosperity was 600,000,000.
