经济学人双语精读：中国城市的抢娃大作战

2024年9月12日 文摘

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Chaguan
茶馆

China’s cities compete for kids
中国城市的抢娃大作战

Enlightened self-interest nudges rich places to woo rural families
开明的自利促使富裕地区想办法吸引农村家庭

As a rule, China’s central planners do not say much about love. But look closely at recent plans from some reform-minded provinces—notably schemes that try to address a shrinking population—and appeals to hearts as well as minds leap from the page.
中国的中央规划者一般很少谈“爱”。但仔细阅读一些具改革意识的省份近期出台的规划，尤其是那些试图应对人口减少的方案，会明显感受到字里行间不仅试图晓之以理，更试着动之以情。

  • notably 尤其、特别；极大程度上、非常

Chaguan travelled to Yiwu, a city of 1.9m in Zhejiang that is a trading hub for small commodities, supplying the world with pencils and parasols, shoelaces and shopping trolleys. He heard locals and migrants weigh the likely impact of relaxed residency rules on Yiwu’s economy, on school waiting lists and on housing prices. Strikingly often, the same people then stopped talking about statistics and spoke of how the reforms make them feel.
笔者走访了义乌。浙江这座190万人口的城市是一个小商品贸易中心，向全世界供应铅笔、遮阳伞、鞋带和购物车。笔者在那里听到本地人和外来工琢磨居住规定放宽会怎样影响义乌的经济、入学排队和房价。几无例外的是，本来说着数据的他们往往聊着聊着就开始述说起自己对这些改革的感受来。

Though Zhejiang stands out for reforming zeal, cities across China are being encouraged to hand out hukou papers more easily. Some are opening public services to migrants who prefer to remain registered in their rural birthplaces. Both economics and demographics are driving change. Fertility rates are dropping fast and China’s population declined in 2022 for the first time since the early 1960s. Natives of some of China’s biggest and richest cities are proving indifferent to offers of baby-bonuses and other government incentives. Far-sighted provinces and cities are now focusing on a stock of young people who have already been born: China’s 67m “left-behind children”. That is the term for youngsters being raised by relatives or in boarding schools in villages, county towns or minor provincial cities, while one or both parents works as a migrant away from home.
尽管浙江的改革热情尤为突出，但全国各地的城市都受到敦促来放宽落户限制。一些城市正向更愿意保留农村出生地户籍的务工者开放公共服务。经济和人口结构变化都在推动变化。生育率迅速下降，2022年，中国人口自20世纪60年代初以来首次减少。一些中国最大、最富裕城市的居民对于生育奖励等政府激励措施反应冷淡。一些目光长远的省份和城市现在将关注的焦点放在了一个已经出生的年轻群体上，那就是中国6700万“留守儿童”。这些孩子的父母两人或之一远离家乡在外务工，孩子被留在乡村、县城或小城市里，由亲属抚养或上寄宿学校。