If I had to guess, it's many factors all combining. The main one has to be the economic one, which is that intense over-competition between companies is now affecting domestic production - the race to the bottom is no longer producing the profits it used to when it was competing for overseas customers, and is now undercutting domestic production.

Another is definitely declining birth rates, though this is happening worldwide, but a lot of people seem to think juan is also a factor. It's not necessarily that the amount of money needed to start a family and have kids is too high, but just that young people are delaying it more and more. Plus the recent economic downturn and too many educated young unemployed people.

This whole thing started off as an internet meme in 2018 with a video of Tsinghua university students riding home on bicycles, and there's one kid with a laptop open studying while riding a bike. Then in classic internet fashion, it escalated with other photos of someone eating noodles while studying while riding a bike, and it continues. The concept is now a part of daily life for a lot of people. Though, this was studied and acknowledged in past theoretical work, notably Indonesia's agricultural development where it was studied. But these days it feels like a catch-all sort of easy to blame reason for daily life getting harder.

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/ws/635/cpsprodpb/1628E/producti...

CCP has a backlog of tasks, ordered by priority, every year, this list is evaluated, every 5 years, the priority is adjusted. This topic would have been discussed for sometimes in the past until it surfaces for a broader discussion, followed by think tanks, policy making.