China's Fertility Crisis Threatens Economic Growth.

China's population decline and ageing population are putting pressure on the country's welfare services and pension system. The birth rate has been slowing for years, and in 2022, the population fell for the first time in 60 years. China's working-age population is expected to fall by another 35 million over the next five years, and the number of retirees has already exceeded the number of contributors, leading to a drop in contributions to the pension fund since 2014. Beijing is trying to address these issues, but experts warn that China's demographic structure will be similar to Japan's in 2020 by 2040, and the country's economic growth will be worse than the US by 2031-2035.