$50000.00 fewer people at the end of 2022 than the previous year in an aging population coupled with birth rate. climate activist gratitude back is one of a number of demonstrators who have been detained in the west, german village of looks at out. turned back to partner protest against expansion of an open cast. coal mine in the area. renewed protest comes just a day after all authorities managed to clear climate protesters out of it is asia with melissa. john is next. taking a look at china's population decline. i'll be back at the top of the a

m, as in so many portion of blood are now in the world climate a story. this is my plan, the way from just one week. how much was going to really get we still have time to go. i'm going with what you're watching. d. w is asia coming up a change for china that will have global consequences. the countries 1000000000 plus population gets by 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 we 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 born in 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 and 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 believe that a large population was a key component of china 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, which 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 williams, i shall. china is still the most populous country in the world, but if it can't reverse 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. christopher, 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 fast growth is over . that of course has used huge consequences. and those can be felt also globally of, 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 would 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. but 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 decade except during the pandemic, you know, the economic rise was really very fast. but now this will be over, of course,

the anchor. this that we will not, you know, i sustain this arise and of course yes, 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 we'll have a stagnation in terms of economic rise. 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 that. 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 a ton 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. q have couples and to have families. one thing i'm wondering about on 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 ex athena population control is something that you can steal. like with 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 now they can pay the bill. so living costs are so high, so some cannot afford more attract more than one child. and also many, especially young woman for them, you know, not having to. and it's also political versus statement because it 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 children as possible as a pet your petro arctic. duty. well, that's fascinating. so even in the 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 cove id, right? i me imagine that lot of people are sitting at home couples are 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 0 covert times, especially in the last year with the frequent locked downs 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 played 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 the life plans and adjusted them and probably, um, you know, livermore, i taught it away also. no, 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. there was 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 you have a situation where it's a country where there's one child with a burden of, 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 day. 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. say allow to doraville herrera. you 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 wanted because of the heavy social burden. the sons and daughters of the elderly have to find work elsewhere. lawyer said, help. a tomboy, 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 the with ella light and i look the wound from a bone of rice hamlet also want to few cad flaw to write you lance and the linda. yes. yeah. good at lee. in 8th either. wow. way 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. and this cannot be solved overnight, but i mean there are only really slow progress. and in terms of how rapid the am a society is aging, i don't think it's enough. and you know, there's a running joke for example, which says if you want to get rich in china right now, invest in a retirement home or open up a elderly care because that's a really a booming a business that the demand is very, very strong. but no, there's really not enough care for the ally that will be of become a really big problem also in general for the health system. yeah, i mean it's fascinating because of course, this is society that boasts that it is confusion. it takes care of its elderly and it's facing the crate. same crisis that are 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. not 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 e w. news asia and see you tomorrow with the movie is tied up in traffic jams. it's an ongoing problem in the canyon capital . a small start up with big ideas wants to improve the situation. electric buses to reduce small,

quiet and affordable. they can already be found on the streets of my movie. but does the project have a future read ah, next on d, w. making? raring to read me. if there is any erotic events between them, you'd have to find it between the lines. he w literature, 100 german must reads ah, blue moon uh gets me every single day. i.