Demographic challenge calls for serious response

Buried deep in the latest official statistics about China's economic and social development in 2015 is the fact that the number of the country's newborns decreased to 16.55 million last year, 320,000 fewer than 2014.

That dip may look trivial in a country of 1.37 billion people. But it contrasts sharply with the general belief that the effect of the change to the family planning policy in 2013, that allowed couples with either the husband or the wife being an only child to have a second child, should have kicked in by now to alleviate the downward trend of the population.

The unexpected dip should, at least, warrant an immediate and careful review of the implemented policy because the stakes cannot be higher given the rapidly aging Chinese population.