China pursues high-quality population development to support modernisation

(Xinhua, May 9) China has sent a clear signal to adapt to the new normal in its demographics in an effort to boost modernization by improving the overall quality of its population.

According to a meeting of the Central Commission for Financial and Economic Affairs held last week, China is currently experiencing a trend of birthrate decline, population aging , and differentiation in regional population growth

The latest official data showed that China’s pop- ulation reached 1.41175 billion at the end of 2022, a drop of 850,000 from that at the end of 2021

“ A slight decline in population size and an increasingly aging society are inevitable during the economic and social development,” said He Dan, Head of the China Population and Development Research Centre.

But China’s supply of workforce remains rich, given its population of more than 1.4 billion Besides , the country ’ s working-age population is close to 900 million, and

15 million more join the workforce every year.

At the same time, China’s talent dividend, as a result of more education input,s is growing More than 240 million people in China have received higher education The number of research and development personnel in China ranks top in the world.

To advance Chinese modernization, last week’s meeting said China should speed up the development of modern human resources with good quality , sufficient quantity, optimised structure, and reasonable distribution

Over the past years , education has proved to be an important channel in improving the quality of China ’ s population and has created a growing talent dividend

According to the meeting, China will take the building of educational power as a strategic project, and comprehensively improve the scientific and cultural literacy, health , intellectual and moral levels of the Chinese people

Responding to popu- lation aging, Lu Ming, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said the country can tap into the experience and wisdom of senior citizens

Among Chinese seniors aged 60 years and over , around half are between 60 and 69 , according to Lu A lot of them have advantages in knowledge , experience, and skills, and their health is still good , Lu added They can continue to make contributions to society on a voluntary basis

While highlighting the work to develop human resources , Hu Zuquan , a researcher with the State Information Centre, stressed the need to safeguard population security Last week’s meeting underscored more efforts to maintain an appropriate birthrate and population size . China will develop inclusive childcare services , reduce the burden on families of child - bearing , child-rearing, and education, and promote the building of a child-bearing-friendly society, according to the meeting.

(Global Times, May 09) Brazil’s Suzano SA, the world’s biggest producer of hardwood pulp, may accept yuan for exports of its products to China, a further sign that the yuan’s internationalisation has gained momentum, while the US dollar is losing its dominance in commodity markets, experts said.

China’s currency is growing in importance and smaller customers there are requiring deals linked to yuan, Suzano CEO Walter Schalka said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters, the media outlet reported on Tuesday

China is the largest commodity buyer and takes 43 per cent of Suzano’s pulp While the dollar remains dominant, the use of the yuan in contracts for everything from oil to nickel is gathering speed, the CEO was quoted in the report as saying

Analysts said that the company’s move is the implementation of the results of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s visit to China, during which he called for BRICS countries to settle trade in their own currencies

On April 12 , China ’ s largest commercial bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China,