Human Resources Both Drive and Limit China’s Push for Automation

As an Aging Population Shrinks the Chinese Workforce, Planners Aim to Upgrade Both Workers and Their Tools

By Muyi Xiao on February 4, 2020

For China’s government planners, one of the most important roles for artificial intelligence (AI) and automation is addressing looming challenges in the labor market. After nearly four decades of the one-child policy, China’s aging population is growing, while the number of working-age people (15-64) is decreasing.

Stuck in Central China on Coronavirus Lockdown

By Lavender Au on February 4, 2020

Before Shiyan, a city in Hubei province, went into quarantine, the sum of 30 yuan (about $4) could buy two cabbages, enough spring onions for two soups, a large white radish, two lettuces, a potato, and 10 eggs. Not any more. Wanting to record the hiked prices, I took two photos of price cards in my local district’s largest supermarket. Immediately, a shop assistant approached. “You can’t do that,” she said. “Please delete them.” Even after I agreed, she stood peering over my shoulder to see my phone, to make sure that the images were gone. “You could report her,” a local resident told me later: National orders have forbidden merchants to raise their prices.