Specific policies needed to raise birthrate

That the National Health and Family Planning Commission will be transformed into the National Health Commission, by also incorporating the elderly care organizations and some health agencies under other ministries, has sparked heated discussions on its far-reaching impact. The decision to set up a new commission to manage family planning and provide public services is a timely response to the demographic changes in the new era.

There have been concerns on whether the two-child policy, which was implemented in October 2015, will yield the desired results. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the newborn population in China increased by 1.31 million to 17.86 million in 2016. The growth could be attributed to the two-child policy, because the number of women of childbearing age had declined in 2016 compared with that in 2015. But the growth rate lost momentum in 2017, with the newborn population falling by 630,000 compared with 2016, apparently because the number of women in the 20-29 age group decreased by 6 million.

The changing demographic structure is one of the main reasons for the declining newborn population. But the root cause of the problem is the declining desire among couples to have children.