China’s Census Highlights Its Looming Population Problem

May 13, 2021

(Wall Street Journal) – In a news conference after the release, Ning Jizhe, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said there were 12 million births last year, which would represent an 18% drop from the 14.65 million the year before, a trend that is likely to increase pressure on Beijing to ease remaining birth restrictions. It was the fourth straight year of declining births after a rise in 2016, the first year after China ended the three-decade-old one-child policy.