life every weekend on d w. the only way i can be on top is to create my own empire, discover stories whose own way just to click away the journey, the destination, right? size of this documentary on tooth. i've never seen it before. friday i came entry here watching d, w, news, asia coming up a change for china that will have global consequences. the countries 1000000000 plus population dips for the 1st time since the middle of last century, marking a turn that is expected to continue. how will china deal with this demographic decline?

ah, i melissa chan, thanks for joining us. for the 1st time in decades, china's population has declined by a 150000 people according to official numbers. that doesn't sound like much for a country of more than a 1000000000 chinese, but this moment marks a trend will be seen over this century. projection show that by 2100, china's population will be lower than it was even in the 19th sixty's. this demographic shift will have massive consequences, not just for china, but globally. here's a look back at how china has tried to manage its population up to now booming mega cities teeming with people. that's the image of 21st century china.

and yet, china needs more babies. for the 1st time in 60 years, as population is shrinking. despite dropping its notorious one child policy some years ago. chinese couples are reluctant to have more children those out. so are you feel that the economic pressure on young people is quite high, especially for those from outside of beijing who live here. it's already really difficult. for those of us that were born in the eighty's, most of us are from one child families. there's a lot of pressure when it comes to taking care of your parents and improving your quality of life in the future, you'll have audi alley. with this is an inevitable outcome. at the moment people bowling the 2 thousands which is reaching the twenty's. and right now, many young people don't want to have kids. so that's because of the economic circumstances in the social environment. so that's contributed to decline and population growth. wine, back to the 19 fifties and china's population was exploding,

fueled by chairman mas believed that a large population was a key component of china's strength. but this led to poverty and food shortages, especially in rural areas. in 1979 authorities introduced a strict one child policy with families who violated it, facing hefty fines and other penalties, but worries over a decline in the working age population that could threaten china's position as the wells manufacturing powerhouse prompted a change in 2016, the rules were relaxed to permit parents to have 2 children. 2 years ago, the policy was expanded to allow couples to have up to 3 children. law for decades of social conditioning from the one child policy. as well as economic worries mean that chinese couples remain unconvinced. well, what not? we don't think about it too much. we only care about whether having a 2nd child is good for our family. i don't feel i should have more children

because the birth rate of this country is falling georgia. we don't think that way . well, i'm happy as long as our family is happy with having only one child. kyla, goal of wound i shall. china is still the most populous country in the world, but if it can't be verse, it's slowing rate of population growth. it's set to face a demographic time bomb. well, joining us in the studio is journalist funding questionnaire, usually based in bay gene 5 in welcome. why is this moment a big deal for china? why is this moment scary? well, my opinion, it's really a big deal on many levels. and the most important aspect is probably the economic dimension. i think this is really the biggest threat to china's economic rise, bigger than, for example, the trade war with the u. s. bigger than the ongoing real estate crisis. why? because the consequences are really long lasting. so

a declining population means shrinking workforce. so the population becomes less productive and the growth rates will stagnate. so the times of fos growth is over. that of course has huge consequences. and those can be felt also globally. for example, china is producing a lot of goods, but if they cannot maintain their manufacturing industry because of the shrinking workforce and, you know, they produce less goods. that means higher prices and will probably also, um, you know, an impact on the inflation in europe. now this is big news all over the world today, and there's a lot of buzz in china about this moment. there's a lot of angst, that's what i sense. tell us a little bit about that. what understandably so many chinese grew up, you know, with the knowledge that it will get better, like, you know, circumstances will improve. wages will get higher and the economy is increasing. and in the last decades, except during the pandemic, you know, the economic rise was really very fast, but now this will be over. so of course,

the angst is that we will not, you know, i sustained this arise. and of course, as a short time window, china has to get rich before it gets old, that's what the experts say, because the demographic change will happen. the question is how fast it will happen . and now china, it's g d. p per capita is not as high as it should be before it, you know, gets old and will have a stick nation in terms economic rights. and of course, i mean, correct me if i'm wrong. but one way of course to fight demographic decline is to have a welcoming immigration policy. that doesn't, i'm guessing that's not the case with china. no, i don't see that. and there's no political will for them. why? i mean, this government is really obsessed about social stability is obsessed about ideological control. if you have a lot of migration, that means also a lot of, you know, culture exchange also exchange with a different and eternity of ideas. i don't think that's what the government right now once they rather see this as a risk and what it bets on

a smaller technological solutions. they want to improve automation, artificial intelligence to compensate with a shrinking workforce. but if this can work out, i mean, i'm pretty skeptical. very interesting. so absent that, i mean, the government has to do its best to convince people to have babies. and on that note, i would definitely want to share this with people back home. we have some video of a communist party event. this is a dating event for party members. they're playing hoops. they're trying to have the government b matchmaker to have couples and to have families. one thing i'm wondering about all this slide is that you know, you have a generation of people told that they can only have one child to bit like whiplash . now suddenly you have the government trying to tell people to have as many children as possible. i mean, is that convincing? i mean, doesn't seem like people are cooperating. yeah, exactly,

and many young people feel that, you know, it's ridiculous. i mean, the government acts as if the know population control is something that you can still leg like a veal. and you can just order people to have one chart. now you order them to have free trials. but what the real problems are for many people for many young families is that you know, they can pay the bill sir, living costs are so high, so some cannot afford more adrift more than one child. and also many especially young woman for them, you know, not having children is also political versus statement because they basically don't, you know, cooperate with a patriotic mandate that the, a government is propagating because the government says you should have as many a children as possible as a perpetual patriotic duty. well, that's fascinating. so even an authoritarian state like china, it's hard to get people to do everything that you necessarily want. now, in terms of this particular set of numbers from last year, the dip has something to do with covey, right? i mean, imagine that lot of people are sitting at home couples or deciding should we have

children and they're looking at the situation with access to hospitals. i mean, you've been in china all this time. tell us about that angle of it. yeah, i would say this is even more general the, the feeling that we had to bring both um as the recovery times, especially in the last year with the frequent lockdown was basically, you cannot predict anything in your everyday life tomorrow. you could be locked in your apartment, you cannot plan anything and also the economic damage was, you know, getting out of control them. all those factors plate in that, you know, it's times of very uncertain. and that is not really a very good for when you want to plan to have 2 babies. i mean, so i think many people really thought about their life plans and adjusted them and probably, um, you know, livermore, i took it away also. now of course, the other issue with this demographic decline is the issue of the elderly. this is the challenge that's faced by japan and other developed countries, which is an age, a growing aging population up. i was in beijing once,

and i remember reporting on and visiting a nursing home. those were the early days of these kinds of facilities. those were not common in china at that time. over the past decade, we've seen more and more of these facilities. and do you have a situation where it's a country where there's one child with a burden of 4 grand parents? i want to share some of the comments from people in china, including the elderly, but others about the stress that is creating good bye. hello. i my worried about getting old la, well, what can i do to a, you know, i don't have much money, but i, the country gives me 800. you want a month. that is robot. and it's enough for buying food to go. but it's not going to be enough if i get seriously ill in the future and then no one knows what illness they'll get right now to doraville herrera. you'll hear how you feel.

government should relieve the burden and young parent shoulders is too much for couples to look after their children and the elderly illnesses under the shall we wanna because of the heavy social burden. the sons and daughters of the elderly have to find work elsewhere. lawyer said healthy tumble, many elderly people are living alone to her la cartilage. some live with a husband or wife, but still some live without relatives. her one wacko with ella la, they look for the wound from a bone of rice. hamlet also want to few cat flaw to guide you land santa linda? yes. yeah. good at lee, in 8th either. wow, wow. so far being you to have reported on this issue in china. we've kind of come full circle to the start of our talk, which is it. this is related to the economy, this financial burden, right? that the country has over the years that you've been in china, has the government indicated that they have a good solution to this elderly crisis. they have to take care of all these chinese

. well, to be fair, it's a really very complex issue and a very difficult issue. the elderly care is a very basic and definitely not sufficient. this cannot be solved overnight, but i mean, there are only really slow progress. and in terms of how rapid a society is aging, i don't think it's enough. and you know, this running joe, for example, which says if you want to get rich in china right now, invest in a retirement home, open up a elderly k because that's a really a booming a business that the demand is very, very strong. but um, yeah, that's really not enough care for the other that booby of become a really big problem also in general, for the health system. yeah, i mean it's fascinating because of course, this is a site that boasts that it is confusion. it takes care of its elderly and it's facing the crate. same crisis that many other countries are facing fabi and it's so good to have you in the studio. thank you for joining us and we hope that we'll see you again. no, thank you. and that's it. for today,

as always for more you can check us out online on our website and on social media. facebook and twitter. i, melissa chad in berlin. thanks for watching the w news, asia and see tomorrow. what secrets lie behind these walls? discover new adventures in 360 degrees. ah, and explore fascinating world heritage sites. d w world heritage is 360.

get the app now. an exclusive interview with donnie dionne director of the yard wash him holocaust memorial. you vowed that you would never visit germany. what are your expectations? we have to think together how to continue to keep the flame of all upholstered members alive. now he's visiting germany for the very 1st time. the exclusive interview with donnie di starts january 18th at 2315. you to see on d, w. ah, china post some of it's worse than ever throw the numbers on record. what does that mean for the world's 2nd largest economy? also on the show, we take you to davos, to catch up with the climate scientists camping out in the cold,

although it's not as cold as it should be. and we look at the attack driven evolution of career aspirations in brazil's villas. this is the w business. i'm janelle de malott unwelcome. china has missed its official growth target. 2 years after the start of the pandemic, the country appeared to be on a path toward recovery only to be hit by a series of coven, 19 outbreaks, turmoil and international markets, and a persistent property sector crisis. after years of high growth, the chinese economy dropped sharply in 2020 due to the pandemic than it recovered strongly and 2021 helped by robust exports. but the strict lockdown travel restrictions and supply chain bottlenecks hit the economy hard again. last year. growth came in at just 3 per cent.