China’s National Health Commission announced ten new COVID measures to soften its strict COVID control policies, It was done in an effort to soothe the public anger that was demonstrated in a string of protests throughout China a week ago. Some key features include:

• People with COVID, with either mild symptoms or no symptoms, can choose to isolate either at home or at a state controlled (centralized) facility. In the past, the authorities quarantine in centralized facilities not only those who were infected, but also people who were in the same building.
• The designation of high-risk area should be “precise.” This was in reference to the individual building, the floor, or even the apartment. It should not be broadly applied to the entire residential neighborhood, street, or other area. (as the local authorities had done in the past)
• The authorities should not mobilize (require) all residents to take COVID tests.
• Venues, except those with the elderly, children, or patients, will not check visitors’ COVID test results. In the past, all visitors had to provide negative COVID results before being allowed to enter the facility.
• People travelling do not need to show negative COVID test results at the new city, either.
• It is strictly prohibited to use any method to block a fire emergency exit, a buildings door, etc. (This was in response to the Urumqi fire that claimed dozens of people’s lives. This happened because the authorities sealed apartment doors and fire exits.)
• If no new cases are found, “high-risk” areas should come out of lockdown in five days. In the past, several cities in China had locked down the entire city for months even with though there were only a handful of cases.

These new measures represent a major change from the communist regime’s previous “Zero-COVID” policy, which aimed to control and quarantine anyone who either had contact or was in a vicinity close to a COVID patient.

The authorities had in fact issued 20 measures in November in an attempt to ease the policy, but apparently it was not enough and the public didn’t buy it.

Source: Chinese Government Official website, December 7, 2022
http://www.gov.cn/fuwu/2022-12/07/content_5730470.htm.

China.com recently reported that, according to data just published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in 2021, the number of first marriages in China was 11.578 million, a decrease of 708,000 from the previous year. This is also the first time in 37 years that the number of first marriages has fallen below 12 million. It represents a new low since 1985. In the past 8 years, the number of first marriages has dropped by 51.5 percent. Data also shows that in 2021, there were 7.643 million marriage registrations. This is the first time since 2003 that the number of marriages has fallen below the 8 million mark. In recent years, the age of the first marriage of young people has been greatly delayed. According to the China Census Yearbook-2020, the average age of a first marriage in 2020 was 28.67 years old, an increase of 3.78 years from the average age of first marriages in 2010 (24.89 years old). Marriage registration data includes the number of first marriages and the number of remarriages. The number of first marriages is more closely related to the number of births than the number of remarriages. The decline in the number of marriages will also have a greater impact on future population development. First, the number of births will decrease even more and the birth rate will continue to decline. Second, the natural growth rate of the population will also be affected. Third, the average life expectancy of people will continue to increase and the population structure will further age. Data shows that in 2021, the proportion of China’s population aged 65 and over reached 14.2 percent. With reasons such as the decrease in the number of first marriages, this ratio is expected to continue to increase.

Source: China.com, December 2, 2022
http://guoqing.china.com.cn/2022-12/02/content_78548985.htm