Declining birthrates and the resulting graying population are a growing concern in many countries. Each nation has its unique circumstances, but there are some common denominators and some equally common responses, with officials voicing concern over the declining birthrate in economic terms: the loss of potential workers and the resulting burdens — tax-wise and societal — on the current workforce.
Household registration figures show that an average of 1.02 children were born per woman in Taiwan last year, compared with 1.55 per woman in 1999. This is a big drop from the 2.1 children-per-woman figure that is frequently cited as the replacement rate needed to keep a population stable.
Financial concerns and, especially in Taipei, housing costs, are all factors in a woman’s or a couple’s decision to have children and how many.
Of greater concern, but getting less play in the media and from the government, are statistics from the Ministry of the Interior showing that Taiwan has joined the list of nations where gender imbalance should be a major concern. It appears that when given the choice — thanks to modern medical technology such as ultra-sounds and artificial insemination — couples are choosing to have boys.
Officials usually cite UN figures of a ratio of 105 or 106 male births to 100 females as the “natural” ratio. The ministry’s data shows Taiwan stayed within that range between 1955 and 1986, but beginning the following year, the number of male births began to rise until it reached 110.7 to 100 girls in 2004. The Bureau of Health Promotion said last year the ratio was 109 to 100, while one health facility recorded an unbelievable ratio of 178.13 male births per 100 females.
Our sister newspaper, the Liberty Times, cited ministry figures from 2004 showing that couples apparently become more selective the more children they have. The sex ratio for a couple’s first child was 108.7 males to 100 females, 109.4 for the second, 122.6 for the third and 122.8 for the fourth.
This isn’t as bad as China’s gender gap, which the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in January had reached a ratio of 119 boys for every 100 girls, but we’re getting there.
Cultural bias and economics are the usual reasons given for this preference, but if the sex gap continues to grow, there will be an even bigger problem to deal with than a plummeting birthrate — having a birthrate at all. The ministry has been tasked with combating Taiwan’s declining birthrate. Its latest response, announced this week, was to start organizing matchmaking activities for its own singles. The ministry is also offering a NT$1 million (US$31,148) prize for a slogan that will help convince people to have more children. This comes on the heels of Minister of the Interior Jiang Yi-huah’s (江宜樺) announcement in March that the ministry wanted to destigmatize out-of-wedlock births, saying that both the government and society at large need to be more accepting of “illegitimate” children.
Get-togethers, contests, prizes, social progressiveness — it’s a wonder the ministry didn’t mention the usual bureaucratic palaver: fact-finding forums and opinion surveys.
It will take more than slogans and parties to convince women not only to marry, but also to have more children. It will be even harder to break that predominant desire for boys.
Decades ago, the government achieved success with its “One is not too few; two are just right” population control slogan. Concerned that the birthrate had fallen too low, it modified that slogan to “Two are just right.” It looks like the slogan needs to be modified again to “Girls are best,” or Taiwan will be facing the same bleak future as China, where forced prostitution and human trafficking have become a major problem, especially in rural areas where an entire generation of men is growing up without enough women around for them to marry.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of