Gietel-Basten comments on China's declining number of newborns
In a news article about China's falling birthrates, Stuart Gietel-Basten, a Professor of Social Science and Public Policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that while there is likely to be a drop in births in most countries in 2020 as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the statistics from China are in keeping with a general downward trend. "The impact of Covid has probably exaggerated it, and in coming years the drops probably won't be so bad, but that downward structural trend is likely to continue," he said. "The number of new babies born is never going to be that high in future, because the number of childbearing women is declining, and will be declining rapidly (in years to come)."
Read the news articles at
- CNN - Number of newborns registered in China drops 15% amid population decline fears https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/09/asia/china-population-births-intl-hnk/index.html
- 自由時報 – 中國去年新生兒大跌15％ 專家憂「變富」前先「變老」 https://news.ltn.com.tw/news/world/breakingnews/3437397 (traditional Chinese only)
