China to offer free pre-school education from autumn
There were just 9.54 million births in China last year, half the number in 2016, when Beijing ended its one-child policy after more than three decades.
The population declined by 1.39 million last year, and China lost its crown as the world's most populous country to India in 2023.
Marriage rates are also at record low levels, with many young couples put off having babies by high child-rearing costs and career concerns.
On Tuesday China's cabinet, the State Council, announced that: "starting in the fall semester of 2025, childcare and education fees will be waived for children attending public kindergartens in the year before school".
The policy aims to "effectively reduce the cost of education, improve the level of public education services, and provide education that satisfies the people", the State Council said.
Beijing described it as an "important measure that concerns thousands upon thousands of households and relates to long-term development".
Funding for the new measure would be shared between central and local authorities, while children attending approved private kindergartens would also be eligible for fee reductions.
The announcement comes a week after the country said it would offer parents the equivalent of $500 per year for each child under the age of three.
At a news conference in Beijing last week, National Health Commission (NHC) official Wang Haidong acknowledged that the country had "gradually shifted from a phase of population growth to a phase of population decline".
"The childcare subsidy system can directly increase people's cash income," Guo Yanhong, vice minister of the NHC, said.
Chinese leaders have in recent years struggled to breathe life into the economy, beset by a years-long property crisis that has spooked would-be homebuyers and dissuaded many people from having children.
China's shrinking population is also ageing fast, sparking worries about the future of the country's pension system.
There were nearly 310 million people aged 60 and over in 2024.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
China's exports grow despite tariff turmoil as trade pivots to Africa
Despite Washington and Beijing locking horns many times this year, China's economy has remained mostly unshaken. According to data released on Thursday, the nation's exports surged 7.2% in July from a year earlier, while its imports grew at the fastest pace in a year. This came as businesses rushed to take advantage of a lull in President Donald Trump's trade war with Beijing, after both sides agreed to temporarily reduce tariffs until 12 August. The US tariff on Chinese goods had previously reached 145%. Analysts nonetheless added that the improvement looked particularly positive because exports were weak in July 2024. China redirects trade flows to Africa Exports to the United States sank nearly 22% year-on-year, while imports from America fell almost 19%. But exports to Africa and Southeast Asia surged at double-digit rates as Chinese businesses diverted sales to other markets. China has become Africa's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade worth around €141bn in the first half of this year, according to the Chinese General Administration of Customs. For now, US tariffs on Chinese goods are being considered separately from the new higher tariffs that took effect today for dozens of US trading partners. China's global trade surplus for 2025 rose to $683.5bn or around €586bn by the end of July, nearly a third higher than the surplus for the same period last year. The data showed that China's surplus in July was €84.3bn, while its exports to the United States were €20.3bn more than its imports of US goods. 'With the temporary boost to demand from the US-China trade truce already fading and tariffs on shipments rerouted via other countries now rising, exports look set to remain under pressure in the near term,' Zichun Huang of Capital Economics said in a report. The economy is holding up, for now Economists had been expecting China's dollar-denominated exports to grow less than 6% in annual terms in July, on a par with June's 5.8% rate. But improved trade with the rest of the world has helped offset the impact of Trump's trade war. Imports rose 4.1% last month from a year earlier, the most since July 2024, with higher shipments of crude oil, copper and soybeans. China's exports of rare earths that are vital for making many high-tech and other products and Trump has made ensuring US access to such vital minerals a key part of trade negotiations, leading Beijing to promise to loosen some controls. In July, China's exports of rare earths fell 17.6%, compared with a nearly 50% fall the month before. From January to July, its rare earths exports fell 24.2% in dollar terms, although they rose more than 13% by volume. Exports of vehicles, fertiliser, ships and auto parts also saw strong growth.
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
Influx of Afghan returnees fuels Kabul housing crisis
More than 2.1 million Afghans have returned from Pakistan and Iran so far this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency. They join earlier rounds of mass expulsions from the neighbouring countries, deported or driven out by fear of arrest. Many of the returnees, like Zaryab, fled with their meagre belongings to Kabul, expecting the swelling city of eight million to offer the best prospects of finding work in a country where half the population lives below the poverty line. Zaryab begged landlords to bring down prices for his family of eight, only to be told, "If you can't pay, someone else will". The 47-year-old factory worker said he had expected when he returned in July to find more solidarity for Afghans coming "from far away with no home". Multiple Kabul property dealers told AFP that rental prices had skyrocketed with the influx of returnees. "Since landlords noticed that refugees (from Iran and Pakistan) were returning, they doubled their rents," said real estate agent Hamed Hassani, calling for the government to "intervene". "We have many refugees who come to ask us for an apartment to rent, and most of them cannot afford what's available," he said. Urban anarchy A year ago, a three-room house would on average cost 10,000 Afghanis ($145) per month, but renters now pay 20,000, said Nabiullah Quraishi, the head of a property dealership. The cost amounts to a fortune for the majority of Afghanistan's 48 million people, 85 percent of whom live on less than one dollar a day, according to the UN. Two years ago, multiple landlords would come to Quraishi's business every month seeking help renting their property. Now, demand outstrips supply, he said. The municipality denies any housing crisis in the city. Major urban development plans, which include building new roads even if it means bulldozing numerous residences, are further straining housing access. "Seventy-five percent of the city was developed unplanned," municipality spokesman Nematullah Barakzai told AFP. "We don't want this to happen again." Can't stay, can't leave Zahra Hashimi fears being evicted from the single basement room that has served as her home since she and her family returned from Iran. Her husband, who works odd jobs, earns about 80 Afghanis per day (a little over a dollar), not enough to pay the rent for the property, which has no electricity or running water. "We lost everything when we returned to Afghanistan," said Hashimi, whose eldest daughter can no longer attend school under Taliban rules that deny women and girls schooling and employment. Her two primary-school-aged daughters could still attend, but the family cannot afford the tuition. The housing pressures have also affected long-time Kabul residents. Tamana Hussaini, who teaches sewing in the west of Kabul, where rents are lower, said her landlord wants to raise the 3,000 Afghani rent for their three-bedroom apartment. The family of eight tried to move out, but "rents are too high", she told AFP.
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
India exporters say 50% Trump levy a 'severe setback'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was willing to "pay a great personal price", while opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi called the levies "economic blackmail" and "an attempt to bully India into an unfair trade deal". Stocks opened marginally lower on Thursday, with the benchmark Nifty index down 0.31 percent after an initial 25 percent US tariff came into effect. That levy will be doubled in three weeks after Trump signed an order on Wednesday to impose an additional 25 percent tariff because of New Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil, a key revenue source for Moscow's war in Ukraine. India is the second-largest buyer of Russian oil, saving itself billions of dollars on discounted crude. India's foreign ministry condemned Trump's announcement of further tariffs, calling the move "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable". S.C. Ralhan, president of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said he feared a troubling impact. "This move is a severe setback for Indian exports, with nearly 55 percent of our shipments to the US market directly affected," he said in a statement. "The 50 percent reciprocal tariff effectively imposes a cost burden, placing our exporters at a 30–35 percent competitive disadvantage compared to peers from countries with lesser reciprocal tariff." Ralhan said "many export orders have already been put on hold" as buyers reassess sourcing decisions. Profit margins for "a large number" of small- to medium-sized enterprises profit "are already thin", he said. "Absorbing this sudden cost escalation is simply not viable," he said. India, the world's fifth-largest economy and most populous nation, is bracing for a bumpy ride because the United States is its largest trading partner, with New Delhi shipping goods worth $87.4 billion in 2024. "If the extra 25 percent tariff that President Trump has announced on imports from India remains in place, India's attractiveness as an emerging manufacturing hub will be hugely undermined," Shilan Shah of Capital Economics said in a note. US spending drives around 2.5 percent of India's GDP, Shah said. A 50 percent tariff is "large enough to have a material impact", he said, with the resulting drop in exports meaning the economy would grow by closer to six percent this year and next, down from the seven percent they currently forecast. Drug, gems, seafood India's top exports include smart phones, drugs, gems, textiles and industrial machinery, with some of the most labour-intensive goods -- including jewellery and seafood -- under threat. The Seafood Exporters Association of India said on Wednesday that the 50 percent tariff "imperils" its $3 billion business. India's jewellery sector, which exported goods worth more than $10 billion last year, had already warned of job losses potentially hitting "thousands" at lower levy levels. It called the higher rate "devastating". A key sticking point for India has been its reluctance to fully open its agriculture, a sector that employs vast numbers of people, to US imports. Modi said in a speech on Thursday that "India will never compromise on the interests of its farmers". He said he would "have to pay a great personal price, but I am ready for it", without giving further details. It seemed a far cry from India's early hopes for special tariff treatment. Trump said in February he found a "special bond" with Modi when the Indian leader visited Washington. Successive US administrations have seen India as a key partner that has like-minded interests with regard to China. India and China are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia. Indian media has reported that Modi might visit long-time rival China in late August. The trip has not been confirmed by officials but it would be his first visit to China since 2018. Modi and China's President Xi Jinping last met in Russia in October 2024.
