From Nikkei Asia, January 29:
Chairman James Liang urges financial support for births, and ponies up his own cash
China's deepening demographic troubles have sent Beijing scrambling to encourage more births. One entrepreneur has taken it upon himself to advocate for solutions to what he calls the country's "biggest-ever challenge."
James Liang co-founded the online travel booking operator now known as Trip.com Group and has been its chairman since 2003. But in China, he is better known for his advocacy of higher birth rates. The 56-year-old now spends the bulk of his time researching population issues and has thrown some of his own money behind the effort.
The challenge has only grown more acute, as illustrated by China's latest population data, which showed a decline of over 3 million people last year and a record-low number of births. With government efforts to spur the birth rate largely falling flat so far, there may be room for the private sector to play a more important role in addressing China's shrinking and aging population.
Liang said he came to grips with China's demographic dilemmas while studying for his doctorate at Stanford University more than a decade ago. "When I was looking at the relationship of innovation and demographics, I realized that China's one-child policy was not sustainable and not good for the future of innovation and technology in China," Liang told Nikkei Asia in an interview.
China announced an end to the one-child rule in 2015.
"In recent years, I was trying to find a way to get other people to come together to search for a solution," Liang said. "Low fertility is becoming a global problem."
For Liang, that problem is closely intertwined with economic issues, as China has been mired in a deflationary spiral, with a property sector slowdown and weak consumer demand. He believes this is the place to start.
"China is not providing generous financial subsidies to parents. Given the current economic situation, China can increase spending or ease monetary policy by printing money to increase demand. That would also help the macroeconomic situation," he said.
The Chinese government has previously announced that starting this year, a tax-free lump sum of 3,600 yuan ($516) per year will be granted to eligible parents nationwide for every child up to age 3. The program had already been introduced in some provinces.
Liang maintains that there is plenty of room for the government to increase subsidies. "It is the first time in history that the government gives a small amount of subsidy, but it's not nearly enough to cover the cost [of raising a child], and it's not very generous relative to other countries."
According to a 2024 report Liang co-authored, Chinese parents bear some of the highest costs among major countries to raise a child to 18, at 6.5 times gross domestic product per capita. That was compared to 4.26 times in Japan and 2.08 times in Australia, although the figures the report cited were from different time periods.
In November 2025, Liang set up the Genovation Foundation in Hong Kong in his personal capacity, using 500 million Hong Kong dollars ($64.1 million) of his own money. During its pilot phase, the foundation will offer a HK$50,000-per-child subsidy to full-time doctoral students at Hong Kong universities who have children after Jan. 1, 2026.
Liang said the foundation has already handed out allowances to the parents of five newborn children during its first week.
"I'm hoping to do more, but that also depends on my ability," Liang said, adding that the foundation is looking to work with some universities in China to roll out childbearing allowances on the mainland....
....MUCH MORE
Recently: "China’s Population Falls For Fourth Straight Year"
