VOA慢速英语2021 中国全面放开三胎应对出生率下降（在线收听）

China's government has raised the child limit for couples from two to three as the country experiences lower birth rates.

随着中国出生率降低，政府已经将夫妇生育限制从二孩提高到三孩。

For many years, China enforced a one-child policy as a way to control the population. But that policy was replaced in 2016 with a two-child limit. That change was aimed at raising the number of births as the country faced a fast aging population.

中国多年来一直实行独生子女政策作为控制人口的一种手段。但是该政策在2016年被二孩政策所取代。由于该国面临人口快速老龄化，这一变化旨在提高出生人数。

But birth rates have further decreased in recent years as the cost of raising children in Chinese cities remains high.

但是由于中国城市养育孩子的成本居高不下，近年来出生率进一步下降。

The latest measure to permit three children per family is meant "to actively deal with the aging population," the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The decision came during a ruling Communist Party meeting led by President Xi Jinping, it said.

中国官方的新华社报道称，每个家庭允许生育3个孩子的最新政策是为了积极应对人口老龄化。报道称，这一决定是在习近平主席主持的一次中共中央政治局会议上做出的。

The policy includes what the government calls "supportive measures" to make it easier for families to have more children. The measures include plans to lower educational costs for families and increase tax and housing support. The government also said it would seek to educate young people "on marriage and love."

该政策包括政府所谓的配套支持措施，以使家庭更容易养育更多孩子。这些措施包括计划降低家庭教育成本支出以及加强税收和住房支持。政府还表示将寻求对年轻人进行婚恋观教育。

Recent data showed that China's fertility rate -- the average number of births per mother -- was 1.3 in 2020. That rate – which is similar to aging nations like Japan and Italy – is well short of the 2.1 needed to replace the population.

最新数据显示，2020年中国生育率，及每名母亲的平均生育率为1.3。该生育率跟日本和意大利等老龄化国家接近，远低于人口迭代所需的2.1的生育率。

Yifei Li is a sociologist at New York University Shanghai. She told Reuters that most families did not hold back on having children in recent years because of the government's two-child policy. Instead, she said they held off because of "the incredibly high costs of raising children in today's China."

李逸飞是上海纽约大学的一名社会学家。她对路透社表示，近年来大多数家庭并不是因为政府的二孩政策而抑制生育。相反，她说他们之所以迟迟不敢生育，是因为如今在中国养育孩子的成本非常高。

Zhang Xinyu is a 30-year-old mother of one from Zhengzhou in northeastern China. She said another problem was that women carried most of the responsibility for raising children.

张欣语（音译）是中国郑州市一位30岁年龄的母亲。她说，另一个问题是女性承担了抚养孩子的大部分责任。

She added, "I don't want to have a second child. And a third is even more impossible."

她还表示：“我不想生二胎，三胎更是不可能。”

Economists say that China, along with Thailand and some other Asian economies, faces concerns that it could grow old before it gets wealthy.

经济学家表示，中国和泰国以及一些亚洲经济体都面临自己可能会未富先老的担忧。

The Chinese population of 1.4 billion was already expected to reach a high later this decade before starting to drop. But recent government data suggested that is happening faster than expected. Experts say this adds to pressures on underfinanced retirement and health systems and cuts the number of future workers available to support a growing retiree group.

中国14亿人口原本预计将在本世纪二十年代末期达到顶峰然后开始下降。但是政府最新数据表明，这种情况发生的速度超出了预期。专家表示，这增加了养老和医疗体系资金不足的压力，并减少了可用于支撑不断增长的退休群体的未来工人的数量。

The share of China's working-age people 15 to 59 fell to 63.3 percent last year from 70 percent a decade earlier. The group aged 65 and older grew to 13.5 percent from nearly 9 percent. The country's reported 12 million births last year was down nearly one-fifth from 2019.

中国15至59岁劳动人口的比例从10年前的70%降至去年的63.3%。65岁及以上年龄群体从近9%增长到13.5%。该国去年报告的出生人数为1200万，比2019年下降了近五分之一。

Chinese researchers and the Labor Ministry say the share of working-age people might fall to half the population by 2050. That increases the "dependency ratio," the number of retirees who depend on each worker to pay into retirement programs and to pay taxes for health and other public services.

中国研究人员和中国人力资源和社会保障部（原劳动部）表示，到2050年，劳动人口比例可能会下降到总人口的一半。这会增加抚养比，即依靠每个工人缴纳养老和医疗以及其它公共服务的退休人员人数。

Party leaders at the meeting also agreed on the need to start delaying retirement ages for citizens, Xinhua reported, without providing details. The government has been debating changes in the current retirement ages of 60 for men, 55 for professional female workers and 50 for blue-collar females.

据新华社报道，与会党领导人还同意有必要开始推迟公民退休年龄，但是并未透露细节。政府一直在讨论修改目前男性60岁，女干部55岁以及女工人50岁的退休年龄。