Jul 21, 2021, 15:18
China released an official document on improving birth policies to promote long-term and balanced population development on Tuesday.
China relaxed its family planning policy on May 31, supporting couples that wish to have a third child.
The policy document, jointly adopted by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, also put forward supporting measures to encourage births, including tax deductions and improving the public services related to family planning – particularly for child-rearing, eldercare and enhancing demographic surveillance and forecasts.
The document said China will allow tax deductions for expenses on children under three as part of a major relaxation in child-bearing policy, and local governments should take "due care" of parents with minors applying to rent public flats.
"The new three-child policy is not just a change in number. More importantly, it has policies to actively support childbirth. The central government has decided to focus on various aspects, including prenatal and postnatal care and universal childcare, education and parenting to ease the families' burdens and promote their well-being," said Yang Wenzhuang, head of Population Monitoring and Family Development at the National Health Commission.
Revision of family planning law for third child
China will also revise the law on population and family planning to legitimize the three-child policy, the document said.
The government will no longer charge a fine for couples who violate the family planning law to have more children than they are allowed, it said.
Also, how many children an individual has will no longer be a reference when they register for a household account, enroll in school and apply for a job, the document said.
Reproductive technology to be regulated
To enhance the level of prenatal and postnatal care services, the country will strengthen planning and exercise strict assessment for approval of the technology to build a service system of human-assisted reproductive technology with balanced supply and demand and rational arrangements, the official document noted.
It also highlighted the importance of preventing congenital disabilities by ensuring the health of pregnant, lying-in women and children in the meantime.
Continued protection for one- and two-child families
China will also continue to implement its current reward and assistance system and preferential policies for families with only one child and rural families with only two daughters, born before the two-child policy, the document said.
Efforts will also be made to explore setting up a leave system for children from one-child families to care for their parents, it said.
source: CGTN
"the personal dilemma is appreciated" - "the personal is the political". With the gradual dismantling of the hukou system over recent decades, people have been moving from their home towns and provinces to other provinces and more populated urban areas of China. This has created the issue of children left behind, cared for by their grandparents who often become 'de facto' parents.
In cities such as Shenzhen, Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, people have migrated from all over the country seeking jobs and higher salaries. These shifting patterns of population suggest that any fixed demographic analysis - "province by province, district by district" - is likely to soon be out of date and thus not be useful for predicting future trends for people's movements.
It seems apparent that more and more people are primarily concerned about achieving what they feel is best for them now in terms of job security and their standard of living, rather than considering starting a family with all of the unknowns and potential challenges that that entails. The idea of having three children in one's family would be very daunting for many parents despite the strong encouragement to do so traditionally proferred by potential grandparents.
The flip side is that those who argue against having a larger family or no family of their own for personal reasons should also be ready to answer what will happen to themselves when they grow as old one day as their own parents.
If they say they will depend on their savings to buy outcare services into their golden years or even put themselves into oldfolks' homes, then those savings need to be bigger which means they will have to earn more which means the economy needs to constantly grow which means domestic demand and supply must be maintained at a high level which means more productive workforce and consumers are both equally needed. Where to find if the population ages on the one hand and is not renewed with new peoples on the other hand?
The situation today is that there will be a very number of retirees due to vacate from the workforce which in turn will drop national productivity. Given their prolonged lifespan from improved healthcare and nutrition, their savings won't be enough to tide them to the end.
Nevertheless, the personal dilemma is appreciated. Somewhere in the discussion there must be an optimization equation for the dystopian challenges of demographic changes province by province, district by district, that will identify the economic tipping points more sharply. China's scale is certainly of a different order and magnitude.
as more people are educated and have broader view of the world, they concentrate more on their own life quality rather other being dedicated the whole life to raising the children.
Also it is costy to raise a child in modern world and most of the parents have to work and cannot take good care of their chidren, and entrust the big responsibility to their own parents, actually who are too old to give effective discipline to the minors. when they live together, the relationship of the whole family become more intricate and more conflicts conjure up,making life a sheer mess!
no one is silly enough to take these risks actively. those who are willing to have the second or third child must be at least rich enough to hire a nanny, to buy a school adjacent apartment, and to be extremely confident in their marriage.
For me, i will never have the third child.
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