Serious economic challenges

China's population declines for a fourth straight year amid record low birthrates

China's population has shrunk for the fourth straight year as birthrates hit a record low, national data shows.

Xiujian Peng, senior research fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies at Victoria University, said adjusting work expectations could help couples balance family life and have the energy to have more children.

She said allowing both men and women to work from home, and guaranteeing a woman's job after giving birth would help.

"Ensuring job security and preventing workplace discrimination against women who give birth can reduce the career costs of motherhood and encourage higher fertility," Dr Peng said.

However, she said these policies would not be enough to reverse the decline.

"These policies may stop the further decline of births or slightly increase the births number, but they can not change China's population decline trend," she said.

"Even if China's government could reverse the fertility decline immediately and increase its total fertility rate to a replacement level of 2.1, it will still take around 70 years for China's population to increase again.

"But many countries' experience in east Asia and Europe has told us there is no quick fix for a low fertility rate, so we will see China's total population will continue to decline in this century."

She added that in the long term, the population decline could lead to serious economic challenges for China.

And invading Taiwan won't make the slightest difference. Immigration isn't a solution either.