China’s State Council unveiled new policies last week intended to promote parenthood and foster a more “reproduction-friendly society,” which were met with muted skepticism. Along with other media pieces on the subject, subsequent news underlined just how far away Chinese citizens are from supporting the government’s goal. For example, the Ministry of Civil Affairs recently released data showing that marriage registrations for the first nine months of 2024 dropped to a record low since 1980. Nectar Gan at CNN provided more context on the figures and their relation to falling birthrates:
Some 4.74 million Chinese couples registered their marriages in the first three quarters of 2024, a decrease of 16.6% from the 5.69 million recorded in the same period last year, according to data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Friday.
The decline is consistent with a falling trend from a 2013 peak of more than 13 million new marriages, and in line with predictions by Chinese demographic experts that marriages in 2024 will drop below 2022’s record low 6.83 million since records began around 1980.
A rebound in marriages last year after stringent Covid restrictions were lifted appears to be an anomaly largely driven by pent-up demand.
[…] Chinese officials see a direct link between fewer marriages and falling births in the country, where social norms and government regulations make it challenging for unmarried couples to have children. [Source]
The government has rolled out a variety of measures to promote marriage and childbearing in order to reverse demographic trends. As Caixin reported, over 30 Chinese cities have provided subsidies and other incentives for childbearing. The Global Times highlighted one of these cities this week, Lüliang in Shanxi Province: “One key initiative is the establishment of a database for unmarried people, which will provide targeted and personalized marriage services through both online and offline channels. Efforts will also be made to guide young people in developing a positive perspective on marriage, family, and childbirth.” Luna Sun from the South China Morning Post described the system of cash rewards to promote marriage in Lüliang and two other cities:
Starting next year, couples registering their first marriage in Luliang would receive a 1,500 yuan (US$211) cash reward, as long as the bride is aged 35 or younger, the city’s Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau said on its official WeChat social media account last week.
“Although the amount isn’t much, it still holds symbolic value in encouraging young people to marry,” said independent demographer He.
[…] In April last year, Shangyu district in the eastern city of Shaoxing in Zhejiang province offered 1,000 yuan (US$140) to every couple registering to marry.
In August 2023, Changshan county in Quzhou city, also in Zhejiang province, introduced a policy offering a 1,000 yuan reward for couples registering their first marriage where the bride was 25 years old or younger, and provided at least one partner held residency in Changshan. [Source]
Other recent reports provide clues as to why fewer Chinese women are marrying and having children. A survey of households by the National Bureau of Statistics found that women’s unpaid labor time is 1.9 times greater than men’s, and that more women than men participate in unpaid labor, revealing inequalities of labor in marriage. Another study that went viral last month showed that, in stark contrast to previous generations, Chinese women born after 1990 have on average a higher education level than their husbands, which has made them less likely to have more than one child. Reporting on a recent white paper by a pet industry association, Nikkei Asia stated, “Around 75 million urbanites had a dog or cat in 2023, up 30% from 2018,” with “[n]early 60% of these pet owners […] born in the 1990s or later.” The article states that these figures are in large part due to China’s declining birth rate and cites a Goldman Sachs prediction that in 2030 China will have twice as many pets in cities as children aged four and under.
On Xiaohongshu, women have shared stories about government officials calling them to ask if they are pregnant and at times demanding they focus on raising children instead of pets. Many women described these as unwanted and insensitive encounters. Highlighting the disconnect between government policy and women’s desires, Shen Lu at The Wall Street Journal described how “some women say trauma of [the] one-child policy shattered their sense of family” and their desire for motherhood:
Now 32, Dai has decided against having children herself. “I never felt the kind of unconditional love from my mom,” she said. “I don’t know how I could give it to another human.”
Having scrapped the one-child policy, the Communist Party is now championing the term “family values” and pressuring women to have more children as it grows increasingly anxious over China’s shrinking population. Those pressures are colliding with the lingering—and never addressed—emotional toll of decades of draconian enforcement of birth restrictions.
Dai and countless other women not only witnessed their parents’ pain over children abandoned or never born but were themselves made to feel that they were mere obstacles in the family’s quest for a son. Some of these women now say the sense of feeling unloved and uncared for shattered their very concept of family, part of a backlash by women who resist getting married or having any children at all.
“The one-child policy created generational trauma,” said Mei Fong, author of “One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment,” a book on the policy. “And that has left such a deep scar that women today are reluctant to build happy families. Why would they? They had very unhappy families.” [Source]
