(TibetanReview.net, Jul29’24) – China is desperate as it fails to repeat the spectacular success of its decades-long one-child policy in implementing its current three-child policy. Burdened by economic hardship and for sundry other reasons, young people are simply refusing to marry and procreate or otherwise have more children.
A leaked draft document has revealed that the government plans to coerce government officials and employees into having more children, reported news.com.au Jul 28.
China’s population is already contracting. As its citizens age, the labour force is shrinking. And that means its social, economic and military ambitions are coming under increasing pressure, the report noted.
While the party-state realized this as early as 2015 when it abandoned its long-enforced draconian one-child policy, the nation’s birth-rates only continued to decline.
Now, a leaked draft document circulating on Chinese social media reportedly details plans to “organise and implement” Chairman Xi Jinping’s 2021 “three-child” policy among party officials and municipal employees. In particular, the document states among its “key tasks and measures” the need for bureaucrats at all levels to lead by example.
“Party members and cadres at all levels of government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and public institutions should take the lead in implementing the three-child policy,” the report cited the Chinese Sina news service report as saying, referring to the leaked document.
The Quanzhou Municipal Health Commission is stated to have confirmed to Sina the document was authentic, while blaming “negligent” staff for its early release.
“Later, the relevant departments of Quanzhou City may publish it in due course according to the situation,” it has added.
It is not clear from the report whether this is a nationwide policy yet.
The Quanzhou documents is stated to list three main areas of work: “First, organise and implement the three-child policy; Second, cancel fertility restrictions, including cancelling social maintenance fees, cleaning up policy documents and social restrictions that are not suitable for the population development situation; Third, improve the population service system, improve the overall solution for the ‘old and young’, and establish and improve the population service system covering the life cycle.”
But what attracted public attention was stated to be a fourth element. “In the section on ‘organising and implementing the three-child policy’, the mention of party members and cadres taking the lead in implementing the three-child policy made some netizens feel uncomfortable,” the Sina report was stated to read.
“Some people worried that it would become a disguised forced birth of three children,” the report quoted one commentator as saying.
Apart from the prosperous Quanzhou, Jiemian Financial News has reported that the Xiangtan District in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province, had already taken similar steps.
“We call on party members and cadres to publicise and guide, take the lead in implementation, and consciously implement the country’s optimised fertility policy, and make positive contributions to promoting the long-term balanced development of the population,” the Xiangtan District CPC administration was stated to have proclaimed in Nov 2023.
Party General Secretary Xi set the ball rolling in Nov 2023, when he told an assembly of the All-China Women’s Federation: “We need to actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and child-bearing” as an essential contribution to the “rejuvenation” of the nation.
Following it, the party last year ordered government family planning officials to “intervene” and reduce the number of abortions among teenagers. They must now campaign for “respecting the social value of childbirth, advocating age-appropriate marriage and child-bearing, as well as optimal child-bearing and raising”, the report noted.
“The new marriage and childbirth culture must be incorporated into village regulations, and content that is inconsistent with this must be revised,” the family planning directive was stated to have added.
State employees who fail to comply “can forget about getting promoted or getting rich,” another commentator was stated to have noted.
The concern about declining birth rate was also mentioned recently by China’s Central Party Committee, whose 205 members are responsible for establishing national policy, during its Third Plenum (five-yearly assembly) under Chairman Xi Jinping earlier this month.
“A sound system will be instituted to provide full life-cycle population services to all in order to promote high-quality population development. China will refine the policy system and incentive mechanisms for boosting the birth-rate and strive to build a childbirth-friendly society,” Xinhua reported the Plenum as ruling.
A Global Times article Jul 22 stated that work was already underway to establish a “child-bearing and child-rearing support system”.
Progress so far includes “a number of policies rolled out in localities across the country, including extending maternity leave to 158 days or longer, raising childbirth allowance and child-rearing subsidies, and providing more professional and affordable babysitter services at childcare institutions,” it added.