A city in China will start to pay a monthly subsidy to families that decide to have a third child in an effort to reverse the country’s catastrophic birth rate, according to a report published by China’s state-run newspaper Global Times on Sunday.
The Global Times reported that the city of Shenyang, located in the northeast province of Liaoning, will offer a subsidy of 500 yuan ($72.96) to local families that have a third child. The monthly subsidy will last until the child reaches 3 years of age.
The announcement follows the recent calls for action from Chinese health officials, who have urged local governments to make “bold innovations” in reducing the cost of childbirth in an attempt to offset the nation’s population decline.
For decades under the Communist Party, having more than one child per couple was illegal. Between 1980 and 2015, China imposed a draconian “one-child policy” enforced through forced abortions and infanticide. The fervent desire for sons resulted in the mass killing of girl babies for decades; Chinese officials estimate that 400 million people were “prevented” from existing under the policy.
Genocidal dictator Xi Jinping “softened” the policy in 2016, allowing two legal children, and expanded to a “three-child policy” in 2021. The birth rate continued to decline severely following the easing of the one-child policy.
Rather than attributing the failure of the three-child policy to lead to more births to the lack of women of child-bearing age – as so many girl babies were killed – or to a lack of desire to start families under totalitarian communism, the Communist Party largely blames feminism for the phenomenon.
Yang Wenzhuang, director of Population Monitoring and Family Development at the Chinese National Health Commission (NHC), attributed the population decline to women who “are more concerned with finances and careers, and they are keenly aware that having children is expensive,” obviating the communist regime’s fierce population control policies.
China’s population has been in decline since at least 2020, according to government statistics. The Communist Party finally admitted in January to a decline in population, rather than decrease in growth. The Chinese population declined by about 850,000 people in 2022. Reports released in January indicate that the drop in China’s birth rate reached a a record low of 6.77 births per 1,000 people, causing population growth to fall for the first time since the communist induced famine and purges of Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward 60 years ago, which killed 45 million people.
A report released by the regime-friendly YuWa Population Research on Friday predicted that if China succeeds at implementing policies to encourage birth rates, the number of new births could rise back up to 10 million by 2030.
The YuWa Population Research’s report offered a list of ten suggestions to encourage a raise in Chinese birth rates, such as cash subsidies, tax incentives, subsidized housing, nurseries, more maternity day leaves, and education reforms.
Liang Jianzhang, economics professor at Beijing University and member of the YuWa research think tank, estimated that if the policies are effective, China’s population could reach 1.29 billion by 2050.
Shenyang’s monthly subsidy to families with three children is part of a broader package put forward by the local government, with incentives such as ten-day paid childcare leave per year, new childcare services, and housing policies with preferential treatment for families with two or three children. The plan aims to complete its goals by 2035, at which point they aspire to have completed their “birth support measures” to promote population growth.
Other Chinese provinces, such as the city of Tianjin and provinces of Anhui and Jiangxi, have extended the marriage leave as an encouragement for young people to get married.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.