Beijing will need to change tack if it hopes to raise China’s low fertility rate. Efforts so far appear to be delivering little success. Official data released on Monday showed that the number of births last year fell to their lowest level since records began in 1949. Deaths, driven largely by old age, continued to climb. Taken together, this means the country’s population shrank for the fourth consecutive year.
China’s demographic decline complicates Xi Jinping’s ambitions. The president wants to double GDP by 2035, complete the country’s transformation into a techno-industrial superpower and expa