Govt will have to reduce cost of raising kids

A SOCIAL MEDIA POST relentlessly criticizes Zhai Zhenwu, head of the China Population Association, for a paper he wrote with a student in 2014, in which he predicted China's population growth will quickly rebound with the change to the family planning policy to allow all couples to have two children. Beijing News comments:

China allowed all couples to have two children in late 2015. But the number of newborns was 17.86 million in 2016 and 17.23 million last year, much lower than Zhai and his student's prediction that the annual number of newborns would soon reach 49.95 million after the change to the family planning policy.

The popularity of the angry post, which is in fact more emotional than rational, reflects the results of surveys that indicate most Chinese couples do want to have two children - ideally a daughter and a son. But few couples actually do because of how expensive it is to raise two kids.