China’s aging population is leaving the labor force while dropping consumer confidence discourages youngsters from marrying or having children. Business analyst Shaun Rein tells Reuters the country is heading for a demographic disaster, and raising the pension age is one inevitable measure the government should take.Read More →

The baby industry used to be a winner in China in the past, but the falling birth rate is hitting international companies in this industry hard, says Shanghai-based business analyst Shaun Rein to Reuters. Part of the industry is now refocusing on India, which overtook China in population growth.Read More →

China’s government tries to raise the number of newborns to offset an aging population, but the latest demographics show Chinese do not follow that lead as the country’s birthrate is dropping. People choose to make a different choice, explains social commentator Zhang Lijia in the Guardian. “And society has become more tolerant.”Read More →

A Hunan reality TV show Sisters who make waves triggers off a heated debate in China on whether the TV show adds to the feminist debate or not. Author Zhang Lijia collects the arguments pro and con, and in the end concluded that the commercial show is making quite some feminist waves, she writes in the South China Morning Post.Read More →

China has changed its income tax for the first time in seven years, beneficial for the lower income groups, and less for the high earner. Financial analyst Sara Hsu discusses the purpose: more spending might be a motive, but as aging and health care costs loom, many might opt for saving, she says at CGTN.Read More →

E-commerce giant Alibaba launched this week a special app for the older people at Taobao, its online shopping website. A logical step, says retail analyst Ben Cavender to Reuters. “It’s easier now than it was in the past to get some of these older users to actually open up their wallets and spend.”Read More →

Self-sufficiency in food has long been the mantra of China. But that is changing, as the country even imports rice from the US. Aging farmers, pollution and other challenges makes this change necessary, tells assistant professor Sara Shu, as the domestic production cannot be guaranteed.Read More →

A relative slow growth, a rapidly aging population in an unprecedented demographic transition, and no serious social safety net. Author Howard French of Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power calls at the Asia Society the next 10, 15 years the most dangerous for China.Read More →

While many analysts expect China to grab chances when the US is changing its global position, eminent China experts Howard French sees the opposite happening. With a shrinking and aging population, China´s power is diminishing, he argues in The Atlantic. While the US have chances.Read More →

China´s economy is struggling from a relatively lower growth rate and lack of efficiency. Despite all good intention, China will keep a leading role for the state in the economy, says economist Arthur Kroeber and author of China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know® in a wide-ranging interview in Knowledge.ckgsb.Read More →