Based on the analysis of national birth monitoring data, this paper suggests that declining number of births in recent years in China is driven jointly by the reduction of births among women aged below 30, the decrease of first births and the waning growth of the second births. The outbreak of COVID-19 further drastically depressed the number of births among women aged below 30 and reduced the number of first births in the fourth quarter of 2020, resulting in an accelerated decline in the number of births in 2020.

Population monitoring is the fundamental work for carrying out population strategy research and solving population problems. Establishing and Improving the population monitoring system is not only the responsibility of the government, but also has theoretical and methodological significance in the field of demographic statistics. Globally, all countries in the world attach importance to population monitoring, and basically follow the model of “administrative records + monitoring and investigation”. Countries with complete vital registration system also conduct demographic surveys to make up for the deficiency of administrative records, while countries with imperfect administrative records rely on demographic surveys to carry out population monitoring. This paper examines the detailed practices of the largest demographic and health survey in the world, mainly in developing countries, in perspective of organization and implementation, survey content, questionnaire design, sample size, sampling methods, and data development and application. Based on the current situation of Chinas demographic surveys, this paper describes China's population monitoring system, clarifies the features of Chinas population monitoring system, and also puts forward the key work of the current population monitoring system construction in China.

While policies of generalized system of preferences(GSP)empowering and benefiting people are important means for building a harmonious society,some of the GSP policies are not consistent or even go contradictory to the national policy of family planning.This paper examines some of the GSP policies that run counter to the family planning policy,and discusses institutional determinants of the inconsistency.Lack of policy coordination mechanisms result in departmentalization of national obligations,and the major executing department of the national policy has not been adequately involved in formulating these GSP policies.Policy suggestions are discussed in the paper.