How Can China Raise Its Total Fertility Rate?

According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, China’s total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen below the warning line as the country’s population development has hit a critical point. The birth rate on the Chinese mainland dropped to 10.48 per 1,000 people in 2019, the lowest in seven decades, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Keeping in line with international standards, a country needs a TFR of 2.1 to maintain a stable population. All this is taking place at a time when China has relaxed its family-planning policy.

This grim picture of China’s population contraction has generated much buzz across Chinese society. Given that the relaxed family-planning policy has failed to reverse the decline of the birth rate in recent years, most people argue that the high cost of living