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A30 world news
Diamars 1 Juni 2021

China easing birth limits further to cope with aging society

(AP) — China’s ruling ages of 60 for men, 55 for
Communist Party said white-collar female workers
Monday it will ease birth and 50 for blue-collar female
limits to allow all couples workers.
to have three children in-
stead of two in hopes of The potential change is po-
slowing the rapid aging litically fraught. Some fe-
of its population, which male professionals welcome
is adding to strains on the a chance to stay in satisfying
economy and society. careers, but others whose
bodies are worn out from de-
The ruling party has en- cades of manual labor resent
forced birth limits since 1980 being required to work lon-
to restrain population growth ger.
but worries the number of
working-age people is falling The fertility rate, or the av-
too fast while the share over erage number of births per
age 65 is rising. That threat- mother, stood at 1.3 in 2020,
ens to disrupt its ambitions to own have little impact on the eration won’t live long.” ed last year was down nearly well below the 2.1 that would
transform China into a pros- trend. one-fifth from 2019. maintain the size of the pop-
perous consumer society and China, along with Thailand ulation.
global technology leader. Couples say they are put and some other Asian econo- About 40% were second
off by high costs of raising a mies, faces what economists children, down from 50% in China’s birth rate, paralleling
A ruling party meeting led by child, disruption to their jobs call the challenge of whether 2017, according to Ning Ji- trends in other Asian econo-
President Xi Jinping decided and the need to look after el- they can get rich before they zhe, a statistics official who mies, already was falling be-
to introduce “measures to derly parents. get old. announced the data on May fore the one-child rule. The
actively deal with the aging 11. average number of children
population,” the official Xin- Comments on social me- The Chinese population of per Chinese mother tumbled
hua News Agency said. It said dia Monday complained the 1.4 billion already was ex- Chinese researchers and the from above six in the 1960s
leaders agreed ”implement- change does nothing to help pected to peak later this de- Labor Ministry say the share to below three by 1980, ac-
ing the policy of one couple young parents with medical cade and start to decline. of working-age people might cording to the World Bank.
can have three children and bills, low incomes and gru- Census data released May fall to half the population by
supporting measures are con- eling work schedules known 11 suggest that is happening 2050. That increases the “de- Demographers say official
ducive to improving China’s popularly as “996,” or 9 a.m. faster than expected, adding pendency ratio,” or the num- birth limits concealed what
population structure.” to 9 p.m. six days a week. to burdens on underfunded ber of retirees who rely on would have been a further
pension and health systems each worker to generate in- fall in the number of chil-
Leaders also agreed China “Every stage of the problem and cutting the number of come for pension funds and dren per family without the
needs to raise its retirement hasn’t been solved,” said a future workers available to to pay taxes for health and restrictions.
age to keep more people in post on the popular Sina We- support a growing retiree other public services.
the workforce and improve ibo blog service signed Tchai- group. The ruling party says it pre-
pension and health services kovsky. “Who will raise the Leaders at Monday’s meet- vented as many as 400 mil-
for the elderly, Xinhua said. baby? Do you have time? I The share of working-age ing agreed it is “necessary to lion potential births, averting
go out early and get back late. people 15 to 59 in the popu- steadily implement the grad- shortages of food and water.
Restrictions that limited Kids don’t know what their lation fell to 63.3% last year ual postponement of the legal But demographers say if Chi-
most couples to one child parents look like.” from 70.1% a decade earlier. retirement age,” Xinhua said. na followed trends in Thai-
were eased in 2015 to allow The group aged 65 and older land, parts of India and other
two, but the total number Another, signed Hyeong- grew to 13.5% from 8.9%. It gave no details, but the gov- countries, the number of ad-
of births fell further, sug- mok, joked bitterly: “Don’t ernment has been debating ditional babies might have
gesting rule changes on their worry about aging. Our gen- The 12 million births report- raising the official retirement been as low as a few million.

Chaos in African parliament after 'I'll kill you' threat

(AP) — There was mayhem at a meeting of “I’ll kill you outside. Outside this room, I’ll kill identified lawmaker said he was not trying to kick
the African Union’s parliament Monday as you. I’ll kill you,” Malema, a notoriously fiery Majodina but rather trying to kick a cellphone out
lawmakers scuffled over a ballot box and a leader of a far-left opposition party in South Africa, of the hand of another lawmaker recording the
man appeared to aim a head-high kick at a was heard saying while pointing his finger at Kone. chaos on his phone.
female colleague amid shouts that there were
people armed with guns in the room. It all stems from a disagreement between a block “It’s quite a rough and chaotic situation now, and
of countries from West Africa and a block from the matter is about the election and rotational prin-
Numerous scuffles broke out on the floor of the southern Africa over whether the presidency ciple,” Majodina told SABC.
meeting in Midrand, South Africa, as a disagree- should move around the various regions of Africa
ment over the process to elect a new president for on a rotational basis. The last two presidents of As the mayhem unfolded, other lawmakers shout-
the AU’s legislative body boiled over. The scenes the Pan-African Parliament have been from West ed into their microphones that there were “armed
were broadcast on South Africa’s national broad- Africa and there’s never been a president from the men in the room” and called repeatedly for police
caster the SABC. The Pan-African Parliament elec- south in the short history of the parliament, which and security. They claimed that they were being
tion was suspended while leaders worked out a way came into existence in 2004. threatened by a group of South Africans with guns.
forward. Majodina said there were no guns in the room.
As tempers again frayed Monday, lawmakers wres-
The election had already been postponed last tled over a white ballot box at the front of the room African and international relations expert Dr.
Thursday when a staff member working at the that was meant to hold the vote papers for the elec- Charles Sinkala told the SABC that the scenes,
venue near Johannesburg tested positive for the tion. Two women first fought over the box, trying broadcast on television in South Africa, were em-
coronavirus. But that meeting last week also first to rip it out of each other’s hands. Other members barrassing.
revealed the tensions when South African lawmak- of the parliament then joined the tussle. Then, an
er Julius Malema was heard threatening Malian enraged male lawmaker ripped off his suit jacket “We do not expect elected leaders to behave like
lawmaker Ali Kone in the midst of the sitting. and aimed a kick in the direction of female mem- such horribles,” he said. “Look at the footage ... it’s
ber Pemmy Majodina of South Africa. The un- adults who need adult supervision.”