China told women to have babies, but its population shrank again

China's ruling Communist Party is facing a national emergency. To fix it, the party wants more women to have more babies.

It has offered them sweeteners, like cheaper housing, tax benefits and cash. It has also invoked patriotism, calling on them to be "good wives and mothers."

The efforts aren't working. Chinese women have been shunning marriage and babies at such a rapid pace that China's population in 2023 shrank for the second straight year, accelerating the government's sense of crisis over the country's rapidly aging population and its economic future.

China said Wednesday that 9.02 million babies were born in 2023, down from 9.56 million in 2022 and the seventh year in a row that the number has fallen. Taken together with the number of people who died during the year - 11.1 million - China has more older people than anywhere else in the world, an amount...