https://www.scmp.com/rss/508512/feed Mengni Chen is a research scientist in the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology at Cologne University in Germany. She is also a research officer in the Centre of Demographic Research at the University of Louvain and National Fund Institute of Scientific Research in Belgium. Her interests include marriage and family in East Asia, population dynamics and economic development, and social policies. She obtained her PhD from the University of Hong Kong in 2017. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com China’s shrinking, ageing population has become a social problem. Although the government began to relax the decades-old one-child policy in 2014 (by allowing couples to have a second child if either spouse is an only child), and adopted a universal two-child policy in 2016, the fertility rate has not improved as expected. China’s total fertility rate remains well below the replacement level, especially in urban regions. The one-child policy, which was introduced in 1979, did not immediately... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3124139/chinas-population-crisis-country-might-grow-old-it-grows-rich?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3124139/chinas-population-crisis-country-might-grow-old-it-grows-rich?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 05 Mar 2021 20:00:13 +0000 The Covid-19 pandemic, which shows no sign of abating, made 2020 a landmark year. But it was also a milestone year from a demographic perspective. From January to November 2020, there were some 39,900 births and 45,400 deaths in Hong Kong, a natural decrease of 5,500 people. Births fell sharply, by 17 per cent, while deaths rose by 4 per cent during the first 11 months of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. It is very likely that the annual number of deaths will exceed that of births for... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3117183/how-hong-kong-singapore-and-other-high-income-asian-societies-can?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3117183/how-hong-kong-singapore-and-other-high-income-asian-societies-can?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Jan 2021 01:15:13 +0000