China’s overall population continued to grow in 2020, but Chinese mothers gave birth to just 12 million babies – the lowest total since 11.87 million in 1961 amid the Great Chinese Famine.

China’s three northeastern rust belt provinces – Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning – lost more than 30 per cent of their population between 2010 and 2020.

Xinjiang has one of the fastest growing populations in China, jumping 18.3 per cent between 2010 and 2020, despite data showing plummeting birth rates among its minority groups.

Mainland China’s overall population continued to grow last year, up from 1.4 billion a year earlier, but the number of new births fell for a fourth consecutive year.

Enumerators open up about collecting census data for the world’s most populous nation, and the difficulties they faced along the way.

China’s national population census is conducted once a decade and is crucial to future economic and social planning, with the seventh conducted in November and December 2020 and released in May 2021. 

Although much attention is being paid to China’s falling fertility rate, one demographer says that is unlikely to be the biggest reason behind the delayed release of 2020 census data.

The number of migrant workers in China declined last year due largely to the coronavirus pandemic, but the nation is also contending with an ageing workforce.

The Financial Times reported earlier this week that the latest census figures were expected to show nation’s population slipping to fewer than 1.4 billion.

More than three weeks after the skyscraper-sized Ever Given was freed from the Suez Canal, major ports are struggling with a backlog of vessels, forcing some carriers to skip port calls and contributing to container shortages worldwide.

Consumption set to slump after population tops out in 2025, says Cai Fang, a member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee.

China’s official surveyed unemployment rate was 5.4 per cent in the first quarter, down 0.4 percentage points from a year earlier, but young people are still having a hard time finding jobs.

The People’s Bank of China has recommended Beijing completely abandon birth control policies or lose its economic edge over the United States.

Beijing gathered executives from dozens of American multinational firms for meetings this week, briefing them on issues ranging from investment to the US-China relationship.

Wholesale price of pork has fallen for nine straight weeks, approaching the level from August 2019, but remains twice as high as it was in mid-2018 before the virus hit.

China will end tax exemptions on expat allowances next year, a move that has caused more than a third of foreign companies in Shanghai to consider relocation, a new survey shows.

The blockage of the Suez Canal by the Ever Given ultra-large container ship has created a backlog of hundreds of vessels, which is set to further exacerbate global container shortages.

China outlined a comprehensive plan to upgrade its manufacturing capabilities by 2025 as part of the latest five-year plan via eight priority areas, including robotics, aircraft engines, new energy vehicles and smart cars.

Career coaching consultancies charge up to 50,000 yuan (US$7,700) to help jobseekers in China gain an edge in an increasingly competitive market, but the industry has become a hotbed for complaints and controversies.

Deep-seated workplace bias in China’s labour market – on the basis of gender, age and education – has led many to believe that postponing retirement could make finding and keeping a job even more difficult.

The pandemic forced about 32 million people out of India’s middle class and increased its poverty total by 75 million last year – both figures account for the majority of the global totals.

‘Results will be of great significance for disinfecting imported cold food and preventing virus infections during big international sports events,’ China National Nuclear Corporation says.

China is in need of new sources of growth after the old growth model propelled by investment began running out of steam, and laid out its plans in the draft of its 14th five-year plan for 2021-25 last week.

Premier Li Keqiang said that China would ‘work to achieve an appropriate’ fertility level while delivering the government work report at the National People’s Congress on Friday in Beijing.

The plight of some six million migrant workers in China currently suffering from black lung disease is set to be discussed at the ‘two sessions’ meetings in Beijing.

China’s population could be surpassed by India’s as early as 2027 due to a declining birth rate, while Beijing is also increasingly concerned about its level of debt after it fought to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus.

China is studying the feasibility of allowing individual investors to buy overseas financial assets, according to an official from the foreign exchange regulator

China has suggested three northeast provinces can experiment with lifting birth restrictions, but critics say this does not get to the root of the region’s demographic crisis.