Electrifying sights: Spectators enjoying a dragon dance performance at the 2025 Penang Chinese New Year celebration or Miaohui in George Town, Penang. — Filepic
Compiled by C.ARUNO AND JUSTIN ZACK
DESPITE being the Year of the Dragon, which usually sees a baby boom, Malaysia saw a decline in the number of ethnic Chinese babies born in the first three quarters of 2024, reported Sin Chew Daily.
Based on figures from the Statistics Department, the number of Chinese babies dropped by 18% to just 9,372 in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023.
The second quarter of 2024 also saw a year-on-year drop of 11.6% to just 9,786 babies.
In the third quarter, there were only 11,162 Chinese babies born, which was 6.6% lower than the year before.
Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin released a statement pointing out that birth rates across all races dropped in 2024, not only among the Chinese.
In the first three quarters of 2024, Malaysia saw a total of 307,763 babies born, which is 12% lower than the 344,374 recorded in the same period in 2023.
“This is alarming because the drop is across all ethnicities and the drop is more than 10%,” he said.
Sim added that the falling fertility rate could have significant implications for Malaysia’s population, productivity and social economy.
“In conclusion, Malaysia’s total fertility rate is dropping fast. It affects all races and will affect our country. We as a nation must come together to find solutions to reverse the trend,” he said.
> A court verdict in China sparked an uproar online after a man was sentenced to just seven months in prison for luring his friend to work for scam syndicates in Myanmar, reported Sin Chew Daily.
Li Junhao, who is originally from Guangdong province, had earlier contacted his high school friend Zhang Jinwu about a lucrative job opportunity in Thailand.
Zhang flew to Bangkok in April 2023 and has lost contact with his family ever since.
In return for his services, Li was paid 8,000 yuan (about RM4,900) for selling his friends to human traffickers.
Li was arrested in August 2023.
The court heard that Li had contacted Zhang’s family multiple times claiming to have a way of rescuing their son and returning him safely to China.
He managed to scam Zhang’s mother for a total of 4,400 yuan (RM2,690).
According to the verdict released in December 2024, Li’s actions were deemed to be a fraud as he had “concealed the truth to defraud others of their property”.
Li was sentenced to seven months in prison and fined 5,000 yuan (RM3,057).
When the verdict was released, many netizens were shocked that he got away with such a light punishment.
“He’s a human trafficker and yet he was only given seven months?” one netizen wrote.
Many thought he should have been sentenced to a longer term in prison to serve as a deterrent to others from committing the same crime.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
