Hu Shuli: Can the Three-Child Policy Defuse China’s Demographic Time Bomb?

China has just unveiled its new policy to encourage married couples to have up to three children. This policy alone won’t be enough to boost population growth, and more supportive measures and structural changes will also be needed. 

The alarm bell was sounded by the results of China’s latest national census released last month. The long-awaited headcount conducted in 2020 is crucial for government planners and enterprises to plot a course for the future. The result shows that China, with 1.41 billion people, is still the most populous country in the world.