(ECNS) -- China's aging society has become a daunting barrier to economic growth as the country has fallen into what experts call a "low-fertility trap," China Youth Daily reported.
At Boao Forum held in South China's Hainan Province, professor Yi Fuxian with the University of Wisconsin-Madison revised popular Chinese verses to warn the younger a generation who has no interest in giving birth.
"An idle youth with no kids, an old age of vain regrets," he said.
In 2015, the number of Chinese aged 65 and older was 137 million, accounting for 10.1 percent of the whole population. More than 212 million people are above the age of 60, accounting for 15 percent of China's total population. Both indicators show the country has well passed the internationally recognized red line for an aging society.
Yi, who has studied population policy for more than 10 years, said the annual 10 percent economic growth from 1978 to 2011 was to a large extent due to a younger labor force in China. He also believes the sudden economic slowdown since 2011 is partially due to lack of a labor force.
He warns that China may see a crisis similar to that in Japan during 1992 if the county can't deal with the dropping rate between labor force numbers and aged people, projected to be 4.2 percent in 2021.
Liang Jianzhou, an economics professor with Peking University and also CEO of travel service provider Ctrip.com, shares Yi's opinion that China's economic rise benefited hugely from the demographic dividend, but that now the county is seeing a worsening structure.
Liang talked of "a cliff-like drop" in the post-90s generation number, in comparison with previous generations.
Although China has relaxed its population policy to allow all couples to have two children, Liang thinks that the temporary increase in new births can not change a projected long term low fertility rate as the post-90s generation reaches an age where they will be having children.
Studies by Yi and Liang also show an aging society affects social innovation and mass entrepreneurship. Liang said China's Northeastern region, a collection of state-owned companies, strictly followed the one-child policy in the past and now faces a recession due to a shortage of younger people.
Yang Yansui, director of the Tsinghua Center for Employment and Social Security, said China is now in a stage where it is getting old before getting rich as the country has not finished modernization of agriculture and industry.
Liang has called on the government to introduce policies that will encourage the post-80s and post-90s generation to have more children. Yang also suggested promoting equality in education and also guaranteeing housing for the younger generation.
