Hope I get rich before I get old

摘要

It has been called the demographic sweet spot - a huge working-age population supporting a relatively small number of old and young people - and it has helped power China's economic explosion. China hit that sweet spot because of decades of social engineering. In the late 1950s, Mao Zedong promoted large families to power his economic vision of a Great Leap Forward, and by 1976 the population had almost doubled. This prompted the introduction of national family planning policies to restrict the number of children a couple could have. With some modifications, these policies are still in place. They were designed to put a brake on runaway population growth, end poverty and encourage economic development. In part, the plan has worked: today almost 72 per cent of Chinese people are of working age.