China strives to build birth-friendly society via multipronged approach

BEIJING -- With an array of stimulus policies unveiled earlier this week, China is intensifying its efforts to build a more childbirth-friendly society through a multipronged approach.

These latest stimulus measures were announced on Monday by the State Council, China's cabinet, and include expanding child care systems, cultivating a birth-friendly social atmosphere, and strengthening education, housing and employment support.

This news has sparked heated discussions online, with numerous internet users hailing the government gesture as an "encouraging signal" while also calling for the strict implementation of such policies, as well as more material support from the government and society as a whole.

"The new stimulus policies are very necessary and can help tackle practical issues faced by many families with children or planning to have children," commented one user from east China's Zhejiang Province on popular microblogging site Weibo.

A nationwide survey conducted by the National Health Commission in 2021 showed that Chinese women were less willing to have children, primarily due to concerns about economic burdens, a lack of time to care for children, and giving up their careers.

"For most couples who are not wealthy enough to allow one person to be a full-time homemaker, raising children usually poses the biggest challenge," another Weibo user from Sichuan Province, southwest China, commented. "Young mothers in cities often have to sacrifice job promotion opportunities, or even lose their jobs due to childbirth."

The new government measures promise that the country's maternity insurance scheme will include those in flexible forms of employment, people engaged in new employment types and rural-origin migrant workers who have already participated in the basic medical insurance scheme for urban workers.

A childbirth subsidy system will also be established, and the government has pledged to increase related personal income tax relief. Suitable labor pain relief and assisted reproductive technology services will also be added to the list of services that qualify for medical insurance reimbursement.

Yuan Xin, a professor at Nankai University and vice president of the China Population Association, said the government's latest measures are aimed at creating sound external conditions for people to have children by improving supporting policies from a holistic perspective.

"The ultimate goal is to make young people 'want to, dare to, and be able to' have children," Yuan added.

As one of the world's most populous countries, China faces the mounting challenge of its 1.4-billion-strong population aging at a rapid rate. Official data shows nearly 300 million Chinese citizens are aged 60 or above -- a figure projected to surpass 400 million by 2033 and approach 500 million by 2050. At that point, seniors are expected to account for nearly 35 percent of the nation's population.

In response to these demographic shifts, China has gradually relaxed its family planning policies over the past decade, phasing out the decades-long one-child policy. In 2021, it announced support for couples who wish to have a third child.

Local governments across China have since put in place a series of stimulus measures for childbirth, including subsidies, expanded insurance coverage, extended maternity leave, and more public child care facilities.

Official data shows that by the end of 2023, China had the facilities to offer care services for 4.77 million children under 3 years of age, which amounted to about 3.38 such offerings for every 1,000 people in the country. In 2023, a total of 236,000 non-profit kindergartens had accounted for 86.2 percent of all kindergartens in China.

During the past week, a county in east China's Jiangxi Province drew significant attention for offering 7,000 yuan (about 982 U.S. dollars) in subsidies for couples having a second child and 13,000 yuan for those having a third child.

Notably, Zhao Shaoxia, a health official in the city of Tengchong, southwest China's Yunnan Province, said cross-sector coordination will be needed in the future to materialize government stimulus policies more effectively and accelerate the construction of a birth-friendly social atmosphere.

"For young people, the government's support policies are indispensable," said Wang Peng, a 32-year-old store owner in Shanghai. "People need to realize the benefits of having children while also having confidence that costs incurred will be bearable."