China is campaigning for single people to date, get married and give birth

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China has stepped up a nationwide campaign to convince single people to date, get married and have children as Beijing faces a growing humanitarian crisis.

Local governments call married women to ask about their plans to have children and give money to parents to encourage them to have more than one child.

Universities have been asked to start so-called romance courses for unmarried students, and there are frequent reports in the state media about the benefits of having children.

China’s population is shrinking, by the number of people who die than are bornincreasing pressure on local governments to deal with the increasingly bleak demographic outlook.

“ChinaThe population is facing three major trends: aging, low fertility and low marriage rates,” said renowned economist Ren Zeping in an interview with local media last month. “There are fewer children. and the elderly. The pace and scale of China’s aging is unprecedented.”

Beijing has promised to offer subsidies and bigger tax breaks for parents to reduce the cost of raising children. The State Council, China’s cabinet, said in October it was developing a plan to build a “friendly society” as part of a wider stimulus package to deal with a sluggish economy. The details of this plan are being deleted.

Meanwhile, married women in their 20s and 30s across the country are getting calls from local officials asking about their plans to start a family, according to multiple people who spoke. and Financial Times and social media posts.

In some cases, the callers asked the women to go for a physical examination of the pregnant women. Some of the callers were direct, offering assistance to women who had more than one child. A couple needs to have about 2.1 children to reach the population migration rate.

A resident of Zhejiang who declined to be named said authorities offered local women Rmb100,000 ($14,000) in subsidies for having a second child. “There is no clear plan, but if you ask for it, the city will find a way to get you help,” he said. Currently, child support is determined by local governments based on their financial health.

The personalized lobbying comes against the background of an an intensified media campaign to celebrate the benefits of childbirth. In recent months, the state-run newspaper People’s Daily and Life Times have promoted the scientific claims that childbirth is good for the mother’s health and can help prevent cancer and treat certain diseases. .

A government publication by the National Health Commission in December called on universities to create “marriage and love education courses” to encourage students to get married.

“Universities are an important place for college students to date,” it wrote, citing a survey in which 57 percent of students said they did not want to be in a relationship because of their heavy workload. .

This article recommended that universities develop courses in the study of love and the analysis of real events to promote a “systematic knowledge of love and marriage”.

However, experts are skeptical that legal measures to boost the birth rate will encourage young people to start families, especially since rising unemployment and rapid economic growth have continued to fuel consumption. money.

Wang Feng, a Chinese demographer at the University of California, Irvine, said officials were turning to a “playbook of using administrative power to achieve population goals” that was evident during the the one-child policy, 35 years since 1980. when families were prohibited from having one child.

While Beijing has succeeded in preventing couples from having large families, it is difficult to use administrative power to achieve the opposite result, he said. Old wine in a new bottle will not work, as the reasons behind late marriage and low fertility are completely different.

Shen Yang, a feminist writer, said people can “see through lies”.

“If the government wants to boost the birth rate, it should create a friendly environment for parents, especially single mothers,” he said.

While Beijing encourages fertility, there are no signs that it has limited access to contraception or abortion. While there may be specific cases of doctors refusing to provide treatment, these often reflect concerns about legal action from family members, said a gynecologist in Beijing. .

However, Wang said the authorities have an uphill battle to convince “young women and men today, who belong to the most educated generation in Chinese history” to have children.

“For young women in particular, they not only face high living costs but also a severe labor penalty when they leave work to have children.”