major firings of different twitter employees. then there was a vote, a straw poll that, that must consult, put online on twitter itself, asking if he should step down at the and the vote with 6040 for him actually stepping down many different level on many different count. what must cause done as the public persona who in many ways is quite unpredictable, has impacted his secure his security with itself. so i think it's important for us to, to look at must as a public figure, but also for investors to get someone who is not dependable with not predictable and not the cure. so the real drawstring that, that may have actually some power over mosque are the investor and advertiser draw strings. and in those areas, we see the, the, with the huge impact actually emerging. ah,

this is al jazeera, these top stories i caught in the philippines has a quick nobel prize winning journalist, maria reza, of tax evasion, charges rest of still phases 3 on the criminal cases, which are under appeal rights group. say it as part of a large, a crackdown or media freedom that began on the former president rodrigo to teddy. was maria arrested, told al jazeera how she felt. i'm cautiously optimistic. look these for tax evasion, charges were exactly where business. so luca nomics rule of law and press freedom meet our president, president mark was in davos, switzerland right now, trying to get investors to come look at the philippines. this is a good 1st step forward to restoring that. i think we have to still wait and see. i'm optimistic, there is a ray of light. i hope it widens and it becomes

a sunny day just to bring you some breaking news. we're getting reports that a helicopter has crashed just outside the ukrainian capital t tell so far indicate that the aircraft went down near a children's nursery. in a residential area. they are reports of casualties. emergency services are currently on the scene will keep you updated. meanwhile, moscow is trying to secure a victory in the dumbass region. it's aiming to take back moot where months of intense fighting has led to heavy losses on both sides. ukrainian president, belgium is lensky says there is no place around the city that is not covered with lot. the u. n. has sent its top ranked woman as part of its highest level delegation to afghanistan. since the taliban sees power, the on is expected to push for women's rights curtailed under taliban rule to be restored. a court in japan has found 3 former executives not

guilty of professional negligence in the fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. and upheld a ruling by lo accord, declared the former employees of tokyo electric power company. okay, there's a headline. news continues here now. does aircraft inside story stay with us? is the deaths outnumbered births last year? economists sworn the low birth rate and rapidly aging population will have far reaching effects and not just locally but on the global economy. katrina, you begins all coverage from shang who county in northern china, tao to me has lived in bite our one village his whole life. he says the streets here are quieter than they used to be. most young people have moved to beijing. 65 kilometers away. the la la la world, there are more and more all people now to made old people in this building will ural odl 5 passed away recently due to the cove it though over 80 years old. the

situation is similar in many parts of china, where increasingly, debts are outstripping births. the population shrunk 585-0000 people in 2022. it's the 1st decline since 1961, a year of great famine in china. economist say strict corona virus measures and poorest until late last year. accelerated looming, demographic crisis, or the pan darling has been the biggest, the constraints for people's family planning in the past 3 years. and a lot of chinese people believe that the vaccination would be bad for fertility. so many families have been postponing. and at one comes to the economic prussia. it was even bigger problem for urban residence. as the government abandoned its one child policy in 2016 and now allows families to have up to 3 children, but many are unwilling sighting soaring housing prices and education fees.

meanwhile, china's workforce, a key driver of economic growth is rapidly aging. analysts predict the elderly will make up one 3rd of the population by 2050. in by del one. most of the residents are retired. the cost of living in villages like this is far less than the biggest city, the locals tell us the problem is being able to find a stable income. many of the young people who are born here had enforced to leave in order to secure a job. job tune me, says he understands he and his wife have no children, but still to make the money here, living boat a day, having to support a large family has little appeal all the years china's population has been shaped by birth control regulations. in 1979 in an effort to so population growth, beijing implemented a one child policy. it was strictly enforced with fines punishment such as loss of

employment and forced abortions. the result was gender imbalance as traditionally male children are preferred over female to carry on family name. baby girls were dumped, placed in orphanages or even killed at birth. the policy was revised in 2016, but couples hesitated, citing the high costs of property, child care, health care, and education. the 2020 census highlighted a looming demographic crisis. it prompted another revision this time up to 3 children. ah, that's been august. so this edition of inside story in beijing is and a tang and senior fellow at the time institute in bristol, is winnie king, a senior lecturer in chinese international political academy of bristol university . and in san glenn in switzerland is guido kazi, a professor of macro economic cert, sango university. welcome to you on this edition of inside story. i can come to you

in beijing 1st. i mean, this is generally a story that seems to resonate with a lot of countries at the moment globally. and this sort of demographic change has become quite a topic of conversation. why should the authorities or public in china be worried about as shrinking population when there are over a 1000000000 in terms of the population, all sort of clamoring for the same resources and services from the government? well it has a lot to do with workers and moving out the line. if you look at china's population over the last 7080 years. ready you'll see, you know, there are periods when there was a lot of birds and then periods from there are very few, especially during this one child period. and that was a deliberate policy by the government to bring down the population. but now they put it into reverse, they want to make sure that not that they have lots and lots more people, but that they have the, the number of people that they need in order to run their commie,

they are very much concentrate on this idea of expenditure driven, things like that, but it also has to do with infrastructure. imagine trying to build cities and thinking to yourself, you know, i don't know how they're going to have less people in the future, but people have needs now. so it's all about putting the pieces together. okay, when you come to you in bristol, obviously an expert in the chinese economy, but would you agree with all i was just said, because it is actually a conversation that is happening globally in different countries at different levels. through different cultures as well. yes. and that's for sure. i mean, not just with regards to developed worlds, but in this case, retainer developing world, i think picking up on his point about infrastructure a p. a key point is also due to the fact that because china had traditionally relied upon its population in its family, community networks with regards to support because the child care health care care

for pensioners and elderly. there's a significant kind of policy and infrastructure deficit within china itself that the government is trying to, to build up and in order to help take care of it, aging economy. and if you're going to have population that you're trying to encourage to have children after decades of a shift to policy, then you obviously need to make up for a deficit in that area as well. because you don't have kind of child care provisions that are necessary. so in terms of party legitimacy, this is a very key thing, not just with regards to ensuring the economic engine continues, but with regards to ensuring that the population itself is supported. let's go to switzerland and greeted cosy loans angle. and i mean, you've heard what our speakers have said. i mean, how concerned will the government be at the statistics in beijing? because they've made the statistics public and analysts like yourself and others globally with a range of social and economic experience. we'll look at perhaps what reforms the chinese communist party has to make because it has to make some serious decisions

in the next few years. yes, and what was these difficulties to change a time that is predetermine from the past? because even if we increase that you, they increase child care and put in place any policy to possible to simulate arrays. still, it will take some time for some minimum 20 years so, so on to these people can work it. meanwhile, if you look at the chinese population, diane ram is we will see the, the most have the group, the group in their fifties. so from $50.00 to $59.00, just before were born just before 1980 and the, and the single child policy in 20 years time or even less this people would be unable to work and, and they were, they will bear on the, on the pensions. so the young will have to support them and this is going to be

a very daunting task. it is. and if i just come back to you in beijing because you know, with focusing on young people, what have to look back at history. nice. you said, you know, one of the big issues in the 60s was this one child policy. i mean, it was a policy conducted and executed at a time in history that the chinese communist party thought was the right decision. in retrospect, was it so absolutely. i mean, china, you can imagine and china with a burgeoning population, but every family having, you know, 6 or 8 kids was traditional. obviously, infant mortality was an issue back then. but with modern medicine, imagine, you know, you would be blown past 2000000000 people. the amount of resources out there, i really, you know, while this is definitely about how china is reacting to it,

let's look at this in a modern context. the fact is that, you know, in the u. s. agriculture produces more food than the u. s. citizens can actually consume with less than 2 percent of the population. china has 32 percent of its people in the rural areas. automation is changing the way factors work, their less less line workers, more and more people are repairing the machines that are actually doing it. so i don't necessarily know that there's a correlation between, you know, this classical economic model that you need more people in order to grow. i think really as we enter a tertiary economy, it's really about having disposable income. and that means a greater and larger middle class, not necessarily just more people. look at india, look at africa, plenty of young people, but plenty of problems because they don't have jobs. i mean, when you king in bristol, can just bring you in that because of course,

2016 saw the policy scrapped to allow 2 children. and last may, the policy were revised the 3 children mean you can't demand or expect people to produce children on the get co can you. it's a very difficult sort of scenario to be in a fuel, in a society where you weren't allowed to have more than one child for a long time. then all of a sudden states that you can have a fuel. yeah, that is very true. i mean, you're talking about mind said the, you're changing that of a policy that's been in place for a while over 34 decades. the thing that we really need to take into account however, is that is that there's, there's a different kind of context that the chinese population is facing. it's not just the fact that if we look from the 1980s until it's until the until 2020, the population in china grew from 6660000000 to 1400000000. and i think the previous speakers, aptly craft, is that it does take time absolute as take time. but there are other policy

initiatives that the government can take into account if we're talking just about trying to bolster the economy that includes allowing for immigration, china's foreign population in terms of foreign residents is very, very small compared to the population. it's the native population itself. and so if we're talking about um scope for feeding into the work, the young workforce in the innovative workforce, there's definitely means to do that with us with regards to innovation it's, it's about how you, you use the resources you have more efficiently and innovation focusing on health care focusing on technology. the internet of things are all policies and strategies at the chinese government trying to adopt as a means to diversify its economy away from the traditional kind of made in china, export oriented manufacturing economy that we're used to. so there is more potentially more breathing space for antennas, growing middle class, or it's youth to try and choose what kind of job or a career that they want to,

how that is far more innovative is higher, paid in, therefore provides for a larger and better tax base, a good, a kind of bring you in here in san glen because obviously, you know, you've got the, the urban mindset and you've got the rural lines that we're going to either in on this as well in a moment. because of course, they're very different mindsets culturally as well. and that if you say you can have more than more than one child, the urban mindset is to have more children, maybe to look after the farm will to look after the community. but it might not necessarily get the education and the level of education that when he's talking about to actually at help that the chinese academy in the future when it comes to technology or development. i mean, how do you regard this sort of rather interesting equation at the moment that the chinese communist party will have to just think about absolutely. as the country girl is said, a different community transition inevitably takes place. so, and this happened everywhere. and we know, of course, it happened before in europe,

but, but then it's happening everywhere in the rest of the world. so there is a transition from quantity to quality or children. so you want to have many ask you, i need to get to children or few, or even one or 2 well educated children and of course families besides this, as the counter grows and education compensates for quantity because it allows you know, ation and by the use of integration, it was mention also robotics artificial intelligence. these are, these are aspects in which china is already a champion and he has to invest a lot on the silver line having a more mature population, let's say compared to india. if we compared the to 50 percent of the population you need get below the age of 2939 would be number 4 for china. so having more mature people means having more educated people. of course india,

a managed, well educate a young population. they may re, china, you went to college equally and you know, or they get because their, their knowledge would be more new, you know, less obsolete. so there are potential that are report unities, but certainly, innovation will be the major, the major challenge. and it has to, as to be at the center, you know, that it has to be indigenous innovation or just the import the knowledge from the rest of the world. which was, by the way, accessor base trade disputes, for example, on intellectual property rights. sure. but i knew when you were agreeing with the article i just come into, you were not in agreement. yes, i mean the 1st off, let's not take us too far out of context. remember, coming out of an extraordinary period. cobit, during that there were a lot of social changes. there are a lot fewer marriages, obviously. there are lots here, children being born. there's

a lot more uncertainty. people were isolating physically. so you know, the ability to go find the major and have children or the time to have the children that. ready hospitals were full or potentially dangerous. people did back also there are certain things culturally within, in china they, they like the year of the tiger generally and things like that. but i guess i didn't make a big difference as me thought any about put it into context. it is a quality versus quantity issue. and it has to do with the ability of these young people to earn money so that they can in fact support. not only their, their elders, but through taxes support the entire social service system. so i agree with my colleagues that this is not something simply a 1000000000 people are putting a lot of pressure on. ready resources adding more to it, responsibly would not help. so when you let me bring in here because he talks about

how much the state is saying what it wants to do. and yet as i just mentioned, you know, society has changed. and so has technology over the past 20 years, we're living in a time of social media, the internet, the potential to travel, seeing and experiencing the world where previous generations lived in a very isolated close society that the china could be described as does the states requirement for manpower resonate, do you think with the younger generation who aspire perhaps, to walk the things that other young people around the world want? they want to travel, they want to see the world. they want to have savings and buy a house. whereas if they were, if more children in the family, they might not get those opportunities. i mean, chinese people are like any other people as human nature to, to be curious and want to, to move up the social ladder or to experience things that others experience. that's

without a doubt. i think one way that i think we have this problematic in looking at is that we, we see these, these, the chinese youth of the chinese young labor for us as, as in a bubble that they're located in china. and that's where they'll stay in an actual fact, they're very, very mobile. they're very well educated, they're very mobile and they are very ambitious. and i think the very fact that the chinese economy is no longer just restricted to its domestic borders, but it's actually through it's built in road initiative, a strategy to try and promote and invest and collaborate with other economies internationally. not just developing economies in the global self, but also in western economies and developed economies that there is scope for these, these, the, the, for the, for the graduates and, and these are the chinese labor force to, to expand. they're not just expand their footprint internationally. but also to bring that back to china domestically to try and promote domestic development in,

in a, in a rather in tandem to find a balanced way. so i think there's a way to contribute to that in the domestic economy as they try and go abroad and experience our experiences that, that, that any, any young person, one experience, i think i can just come back to you because, you know, looking at social media as well, or coming out of china about, you know, debates over the, having that the child policy, whether it's 12, or 3 comments of, for, from people are things like, you know, i don't want kids. i have a problem in my own workplace dilemma. why would i want to bring children into a world like this? you know, some women talk, you have no children until they've had higher education opportunities and career progression. others talk about you no longer working hours and over time. and do you really want to be in that sort of scenario, genuine concerns and worries about the workplace and about bringing young people into a world that's revolving around, you know, manufacturer all or industry?

well, yeah, i know there's definitely a lot of higher expectations. but you know, let me tell you when i 1st came to trying to met a man by the side of the road whose house was about 3 feet from the road and he was beaming. he told me he was happy. the road was there because he could get his protest market. then he had chicken once a week instead of once a year. you know, china's come a long way, but it's become very middle class very, very quickly as, as my colleagues agree. and as a result of there is a different sense of these things. i talk to people all the time. i asked younger people, i have younger children, and that's 20 to 30 year range. and they say, well, you know, how many children do we actually want? they're concerned about the vironment impact that people have, have very, very different things. and we're not talking just about china. this phenomenon goes across the western world. so it's, you know, it's something that's but one, let me bring him when he can just quickly wanted to bring to bring into another

angle to, because trying to talk about wanting to be, you know, captain on the waters, maritime strength. they will to explore space, not every one, but it's produced in china, will be able to have the brain power of the education to be part of that scientifically or military group. do you think there is a possibility you touched on it just a moment ago about where the china may have to look beyond its board and to bring the talented? would it look to foreign workers to bring advancement to the country? is it somebody has to consider? well, it's already begun doing that. so with regards to it's, it's high tech, technologically based strategies. it's, it's adopted specific policies doing to allow for easier visa pathways for residency requirements to encourage foreign workers of specific industries, high skilled, highly educated, highly experienced to come to china to basically feed into the, the industries that the chinese government and the come is periodically interested

in developing in china. so it's not, it's not a new thing in a, in it's at present i, i think it's relatively untapped because it's not just about bringing people in to china, but it's also about sending about it's its own citizens going abroad. and then returning back to china to, to influence their, on their own development, which is something that happened in the past. and at the, at the high tech level, it's quite new uncle's at goodness, i'm just bringing in here in china is not the only country in the region thinking the same way. you've got the asi and countries, you've got india, which you touched upon that you know, has a lot of, it's young graduates go, go abroad and come back to help within. you might say the domestic economy. i mean, china is looking over its shoulder is better to, to it's very stronger and becoming stronger neighbors. yes. clearly, india is more integrated with the western world. china a little bit less, but so foreign policy, mother's a geo politics. my mother's eyes. so we all hope that the, you know, wait list economy, where as one man who was mentioned, social media,

digitization ideas, mother. and this super important for innovation, ideas can be shared better. of course, being a, you know, respecting, get the rewards, support innovation, highway idea to circulate. but i was, i was trying, in this video in this box in a shout raise to see china failing to import to the modern technology about back to the fact that he lived on the not the rated virus boxes which are more dangerous. and let the effective and say yay or nay, or even the, the techniques used by sort of the neck. so i think there is a lot more noted sharing to be accomplished to overcome the challenges of population aging. and that is what, not just in china. i also also in the was the word so because ideas can be, can be, can have, you know,

can be infinitely replicated in production. so it is important to find the right way to, to share them. and then we have to leave it because obviously the debate about cave it and china is a different story for a very different day. but for now, we have come to the end of this particular edition of inside. so i'd like to thank all of my guest scientist hanging in beijing when he king and bristol, and greta because they in sunglass switzerland. thank you very much and thank you for watching as well. you see the program again, and he saw by visiting our website that out there a dot com and the further discussion go to our facebook page. facebook dot com forward slash ha inside story. you've also joined the conversation on twitter handle that is a inside story for me, so that all of the inside story team hearings over. thanks for your time and your company. the news

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