Population economics

China's status as the world's most populous country gives it plenty of reasons to closely monitor demographic shifts that could significantly impact its course of development.

So, policymakers should not turn deaf ears to the possibility that the country's seemingly inextinguishable surplus of cheap labor could soon dramatically diminish.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released on Thursday a report pointing out that the country's surplus of rural laborers is not as plentiful as presumed.