This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
A leaked internal document file from the provincial health authority in Quanzhou, in southeast China, which was promoting measures to encourage representatives and government workers to have three kids to lower the birth rate has sparked heated conversation on social media.
The report lists a number of ways being considered by city authorities to “organize and apply the three-child plan,” which was first published online in the form of a picture before being identified as a leaked document by the Quanzhou Municipal Health Commission.
China , scrapped its policy , limiting most people to just one child in 2015, following years of human rights abuses, including forced late-term pregnancies and sterilizations, as well as common monitoring of children’s fertility by authorities.
The reproduction rate was then set at around 1.3 children per woman in 2020, compared to the 2.1 children per woman required for the community to exchange itself, and the cap was raised to three in May 2021. However, by 2020, the limit was set at 1.3 children per woman.
But the people who do most of the mental, physical and emotional function of child-bearing and care — China’s women — have been , hesitant to move up , to address the government’s population problems despite claims from Communist Party leader Xi Jinping that they have an , “irreplaceable” role , to play in the “rejuvenation of the Foreign nation”.
The leaked Quanzhou document, which was confirmed by health officials as a genuine leak by “negligent” staff in comments , reported by Jiemian News, goes a little further than sloganeering, calling on officials lead by example and have more children themselves, while proposing an array of support services to help them.
In a section titled “key tasks and measures,” the document states that” Party members and cadres at all levels and cadres of state-owned enterprises benefiting from]connections to government ] business units should take the lead in implementing the three-child policy.
According to a screenshot from the document, which is widely circulated on social media this week, those who work in the municipal government and party committee system, as well as state-owned businesses with connections to Quanzhou or the counties under its jurisdiction.
It also calls for “eugenics” and post-natal care. While eugenics originated as a socialist, progressive movement, it has become closely linked in some countries to discrimination against minority groups, often based on ethnicity or disability, using “scientific” rationales, according to a , 2020 article by Leo Lucassen , in the , International Review of Social History.
Heated online discussion
In Nazi Germany, women deemed “fit” to have children by the authorities were banned from having abortions, according to Lisa Pine ‘s , 1997 book , Nazi Family Policy, 1933–1945.
Although no explicit plan to impose on others to have three children has yet been proposed in China, the screenshot sparked heated online debate, according to Jiemian News, because” some people feared it was a veiled reference to imposing on others to have three children.”
Officials who do n’t have three children” can forget about getting promoted or getting rich,” wrote blogger Tuzao Ershan, and blogger Xiao Lu Jie, said there are two main ways for Chinese citizens to show their patriotism: spending money and having kids.
Nothing wrong with party leaders and officials having children because it’s a significant way to show patriotism, the blogger wrote. ” They should just set up a birth-promotion bureau”.
RFA Mandarin also noted that the families of the officials who responded to the request to have a second child in 2015 are already struggling.
It reminds me of what many of my classmates did, including four elderly parents and two children who now have to pay off their loans, raise their kids, and manage their elders ‘ health issues,” wrote blogger Chuanfu Buhuo. ” It really does n’t bear thinking about”.
Xi Jinping told the All-China Women’s Federation in 2023 that Chinese women should be mobilized” to contribute to China’s modernization”.
” The role of women in the … great cause of national rejuvenation … is irreplaceable”, he said.
The pressure to boost births comes as young people in China are increasingly , avoiding marriage, having children and buying a home amid a tanking economy and rampant youth unemployment.
According to the 2023 China Statistical Yearbook, the number of Chinese couples getting married for the first time dropped by 8.3 % in the first quarter of 2024, while first marriages have decreased by nearly 56 % over the past nine years.
That’s contributing to a , sharp decline in birthrates , and a shrinking, aging population – a trend that the United Nations projects will lead China’s population to contract from 1.4 billion to 800 million by 2100.
Passive resistance
Fang Yuan, a commentator on current affairs, claims that Xi’s plan for an economy and social control system includes the official pressure to have more children.
But he said it would n’t bear fruit for at least another couple of decades.
” You need at least 20 years to raise a generation”, Fang said. Their belief that major long-term issues like low productivity and an aging population will be resolved right away is “wishful thinking and unrealistic” and “is expected”
He claimed that because of the sheer cost of raising children in today’s China, such a scheme is unlikely to succeed if there are no significant subsidies from the government.
Without significant financial support, further down the ranks will demonstrate passive resistance to top-down policy, according to Fang.
Economist Si Ling said party members and government officials make up around 7 % of China’s population, which is likely not enough to solve China’s population problem, even if all of them complied.
” Short of financial resources, the Chinese government has discovered that it still needs to , rely on foreign investment , to drive economic growth”, Si said. However, it is no longer able to negotiate lower administrative costs and tax rates.
He claimed that if the costs of subsidizing those children are n’t fully figured out in advance, any attempt to press officials to have more children will fail.
The Chinese government needs more children to have more children to attract foreign investment, he said, adding that all it can offer is cheap labor.” This is a false proposition because it’s almost impossible to achieve in the short term,” he said.
