Has our country fallen into the "low fertility trap"? Population experts responded

Song Jian, deputy director of the Population and Development Research Center of Chinese Min University, China Net Li Jia

China's network live broadcast on January 20, the National Health Commission held a regular press conference this morning. Responsible comrades and experts in the field of population will attend the meeting to introduce the progress and experience of implementing the "Decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Optimizing The Birth Policy and Promoting the Long-term Balanced Development of the Population" and answer reporters' questions. The following is a transcript of the relevant content:

Xinhua News Agency:

Many developed countries, including Europe, Japan and South Korea, have already encountered this problem, and the experience of these countries in dealing with low fertility rates is worth learning from? Are these experiences in line with the national conditions of the mainland? In addition, has the mainland fallen into the "low fertility trap"? Thank you.

Song Jian:

Thank you for your question. From the perspective of the world, Europe first experienced the fertility transition, fertility from high to low, but unlike what people originally expected, the fertility rate did not stabilize at the replacement level of 2.1 after falling to a low level, but continued to decline, when the fertility rate fell to 1.5, or even lower, European scholars also proposed the so-called low fertility trap. For China, whether we can learn from the experience of other countries needs to see how other countries do it. At present, most countries and regions in the world are facing the challenge of low fertility rates, and various measures have been taken to deal with low fertility rates. When we summarize the measures of all countries, they can be roughly divided into three categories: the first is the measures supported by time, including maternity leave, parental leave, paternity leave and other related leave systems. The second category is financial support, which includes allowances for children, allowances for families and various care allowances for parents, as well as policies for tax breaks. The third category is service support. Service support policies include community childcare, public childcare institutions, home help, after-school care, and more. Although these measures have been taken in different countries and the degree of combination, we have seen that the focus of policies is different and the effects are different due to the different economic, political and cultural backgrounds of each country. If we learn from China, we can find that policies that promote gender equality, balance working-family conflicts, and promote family development are all helpful for raising fertility levels.

At present, the mainland is deeply studying and drawing on the successful experience of the world, because China's fertility rate has also dropped below the replacement level since 1992, and the policy of developing inclusive childcare that we are now adopting, just now the comrades in Suzhou also introduced that in the revised population and family planning regulations in various places, extending maternity leave, setting up parental leave, etc., this is a reference to the experience of other countries. However, China's population is a very large volume, China also has its own unique national conditions, some experience can not be copied, so we must take measures in line with the national conditions, especially from the local to explore their own experience. Thank you.