Unlike its developed counterparts, China is aging before it gets prosperous. Its population structure is like Japan’s of the 1980s, while its per-capita GDP level has only reached that of Japan in the early 1970s. By far the biggest issue is China’s low birth rate, which declined sharply in the 1980s as a result of the one-child policy. In reaction to the problem, China started to relax its family planning policy since 2013, allowing a family to have two, but so far the results have been lukewarm. Is it too late to climb out of the demographic trap?
Out to the World: More Chinese Students Studying Abroad
More Chinese students are studying abroad than ever before, here are the numbers. Chinese students are studying overseas in much greater numbers than ever before. Statistics shows that in 2014 alone, more than 459,800 Chinese students went abroad, heading to mostly the United States, Australia, Canada, the UK and Japan. Two-thirds of 4.5 million chose […]
What Does the End of the One-Child Policy Mean for China?
After 37 long years, China finally abandoned the one-child policy and caught many observers off-guard. The two-child policy, passed by the Chinese legislature in December last year, is according to Chinese authorities, “intended to balance population development and address the challenge of an ageing population”. Their projection that the abolition of the policy would yield a 0.5 percentage point boost in economic growth over the long term, without specifying a time frame, suggests that there were economic motivations behind the end of the one-child policy. But whether it will really deliver a boost in growth for the economy is an open question.
New Youth: Understanding China’s Millennials
China’s millennials are an increasingly complex demographic, who as well as enjoying the fruits of China’s reform and opening up are also beset by all manner of societal and economic pressures, making them arguably much more different from their parents than their Western counterparts are from theirs. From an ever tougher job market to unobtainable home prices, millennials have to navigate a world with less security than was enjoyed by previous generations, all amidst slowing economic growth, to boot. And the many companies looking to sell to this increasingly important generation of consumers will have to grapple with all these issues, too.
Regional Disparities in China: Time For a Lift Up
There are stark regional disparities between the inland and the coastal regions in China. Can the less-developed regions ever catch up with the coast?
Migrant Workers in China: A Tale of Growing Cities
The growing legions of migrant workers in China have had far reaching implications on the process of urbanization in China. For the last two decades, China’s cities have exploded in size, the result of the largest and fastest migration in human history as hundreds of millions of people have moved from rural to urban areas […]
Brave Old World: Managing the Older Workforce
Given the current demographic trends, how companies should gear up to manage an older workforce.
Chinese Social Structure Holds the Key to a Richer Nation
Changing the Chinese social structure may save the country from the proverbial ‘middle-income trap’, says Salvatore Babones, an expert on China’s political economy.
China Plus One: Does it Add Up?
As China changes, companies are being forced to adopt China Plus One strategies and look at other countries for manufacturing.
Leta Hong Fincher on the Pursuit of Marital Property in China
Author and researcher Leta Hong Fincher on the confounding phenomenon of women forfeiting their property wealth in China.
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