A country's birthrate is not only a women's issue, nor just a family issue. For policymakers, it is a fiscal issue.
The question is: How will China face the financial challenge of an aging population when there is a shortage of workers and taxpayers?
Experts say there are options to deal with the issue.
A policy-led rise in birthrate is not the only way to maximize the future labor force and the taxes it pays.
It is not even the most effective one. An extension of the retirement age may work much better.
"People are preoccupied with the 'fertility rate' issue, while ignoring other options that might have a far-reaching impact," said Mauricio Soto, a labor economist with the International Monetary Fund.
Soto, one of the authors of the IMF's latest report, The Fiscal Consequences of Shrinking Populations, examined various options to address the challenges associated with an aging society.
The report found that, across all countries, a higher fertility will play only a modest role in alleviating pension and healthcare spending pressures by 2050 and 2100.
The IMF found that increasing fertility would only cut pension and healthcare spending by 0.6 percent of GDP by 2050.
By comparison, increasing women's role in the labor force would cut 0.7 percent, and increasing the part seniors play could cut 1 percent.
Other options include raising the retirement age and lowering excess healthcare costs. If the retirement age was extended by 5 five years over the next five years, it would cut 0.8 percent, while cutting medical costs would cut 1.8 percent.
All options would make a greater impact by 2100 than by 2050, and cutting excess healthcare cost brings the biggest bonus, both in the medium-term and long-term.
In a sign that the Chinese government is looking beyond a raised birthrate to address declining growth and an aging population, the recently concluded Fifth Plenum proposed to "gradually increase" the retirement age.
The specific scheme has yet to be announced but many experts have long been arguing its benefits.
"Chinese employees retire too early," said Wang Hui, an analyst with China International Capital Corp. "The current age, 55 for women and 60 for men, was set in 1978. At that time life expectancy was 65 - now it is 75."
The deficit in the urban employee pension fund, China's main pension program, reached 150 billion yuan ($23.5 billion) last year and is expected to reach 300 billion yuan this year.
CICC estimated that if the retirement age was raised by one year every five years, in 30 years the average retirement age would be raised from 56 to 62 and the pension fund deficit as a ratio of GDP would be cut by one-third.
Another feasible solution is easing the household registration, or hukou, system.
Cai argued that hukou reform is like "killing three birds with one stone". It would ensure stability in the labor force, raise productivity and boost migrant workers' consumption.
The hukou system makes it unattractive for migrant worker parents to put money into educating their children beyond junior high school as graduates find it difficult to get a job.
It is also irrational for migrant workers to receive vocational training, and for employers to provide that training, because they switch jobs so often.
The result is an unskilled workforce that is ill-prepared for an economic shock.
A 2013 report by McKinsey & Company, A $250 billion question: Can China close the skills gap?, warned that by 2020 there will be a shortage of 8 million university-educated workers and 16 million vocationally trained workers.
If China does not bridge the gap by 2020, the cost could be as much as $250 billion - about 2.3 percent of GDP.
"The dominant thinking on why China is a developing country with a low GDP per capita is there are too many people so the GDP has to be divided by a gigantic number," said Liang Jianzhang, a demographer with Peking University.
"I often told people why not think another way around: China's GDP per capita is so low, but it is already the second largest economy.
"There is no causal relation between a larger population and a lower GDP per capita. If everyone's human capital improved, the actual result of a larger population is a larger economic output," he said.
