“Having a second child is like buying a sports car… It’s a lot of capital with very low returns.” For Shanghai residents ‘Ren’ and ”Fu’, both in their 30s, having two or more children doesn’t make financial or practical sense, And they are not alone. In 2020, 12 million babies were born in China - the lowest official number of births since 1961. Experts worry that the population is on a decline, in large part the impact of 35 years of a “one-child” policy that was introduced in the 1970s to address an exploding population. This was enforced with heavy financial penalties and forced contraception, abortion and sterilisation in some cases -- and led to a severe gender imbalance in the country (China’s leftover men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4orQ0p788k) By 2016, with slowing demographic growth and a rapidly ageing population threatening continued high economic growth, China made the momentous switch to a two-child policy - and then in May 2021, a three-child policy was adopted. But these days, it’s hard to convince millennial Chinese couples like Ren and Fu to have more children. With stable careers, one child, long work hours, and the expenses of living in a big city, they just don’t see the point. Their reasoning: 00:00 Providing the best for a child is expensive. 01:54 Living space in cities like Shanghai and Beijing is tight. 02:38 The ‘996’ culture means that one parent has to sacrifice his or her career. 03:16 Raising children requires a lot of capital and has low returns. It’s not a good financial model. Watch the full #MoneyMind episode of Demographic Timebomb: How Will China's Ageing Population Impact Asia? https://youtu.be/1-IKbHn9ZdI ALSO WATCH: China's Leftover Men: Desperately Seeking Wives: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4orQ0p788k Bring My Child Home: China's Lost Children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1wZPD9Pq4g Digital Yuan Explained: What It Will Mean To You? https://youtu.be/s4tSP9-o7ZQ For more, SUBSCRIBE to CNA INSIDER! https://cna.asia/insideryoutubesub Follow CNA INSIDER on: Instagram: https://ift.tt/2C3sZiR Facebook: https://ift.tt/2PPEuNA Website: https://cna.asia/cnainsider
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