The number of babies born in China fell again last year, adding to pressure on the ruling Communist Party’s ambitions to boost national wealth and global influence with a workforce that has been declining for a decade.
The Associated Press
The total population stood at 1.413 billion at the end of 2021, an increase of 480,000 from the previous year, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. The ruling party has enforced birth limits since 1980 to restrain population growth and conserve resources. But leaders started to worry after the working-age population peaked at 925 million in 2011 and started to drop earlier than expected.
The looming worker shortage comes as President Xi Jinping’s government boosts spending on its military and efforts to create global competitors in electric cars and other technologies.
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