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Last year China's population fell for the first time in 60 years with the national birth rate hitting a record low. \n \nChina's birth rate has in fact been declining for years but an older population will pose a real challenge for China economically, politically and strategically. So, what will the consequences be for China and the rest of the world if this vast economy - the second largest in the world \u2013 of a waning workforce and an ageing population?\n \nThe ruling Communist Party is introducing a range of policies to try to encourage couples to have more babies. But it was only seven years ago that the Chinese government scrapped the controversial one-child policy, replacing it with the two-child policy in 2016 and the three-child policy in 2021. The government is also offering tax breaks and better maternal healthcare, among other incentives, in an effort to reverse, or at least slow, the falling birth rate. \n \nNothing so far has worked.\n \nSo how concerning is population decline for China and the rest of the world? How much of an issue is gender inequality and the cost of raising a child? What will an older, frailer population do to the Chinese economy? And, as climate change intensifies, is population decline really a problem?\n \nChris Morris is joined by:\n \nYun Zhou - a social demographer, family sociologist and an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. \n \nIsabel Hilton \u2013 a journalist and founder of the bilingual website China Dialogue - an organisation dedicated to promoting a common understanding of China\u2019s environmental challenges.\n \nYasheng Huang - professor of global economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of the forthcoming book on China, The Rise and the Fall of the EAST.\n \nAlso featuring:\n \nVictor Gao - Vice President of the Beijing-based Centre for China and Globalisation, a think tank with links to the Chinese Communist Party.

Producer: Pandita Lorenz and Ellen Otzen

(Photo: China's Sichuan province shifts birth control policies, Shanghai, 31 Jan 2023. Credit: Alex Plavevski/EPA-EFE/Rex/Shutterstock)