BEIJING: More comprehensive and concrete measures aimed at encouraging births will be rolled out in China to meet public expectations and increase fertility rates, experts said.
They made the comments after a key report delivered to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which concluded on Saturday, stressed that the country will establish a policy system to boost birthrates and bring down the costs of pregnancy and childbirth, child rearing and schooling.
China’s fertility rate dropped below the replacement level of 2.1 — the minimum threshold for keeping a stable population — in 1992 and has remained at a low level since. Official data show that in 2020 the rate fell to 1.3.
To tackle falling birthrates and a looming decline in population, the central leadership released a decision in May last year to allow all couples to have three children, up from two, and to roll out supportive policies, such as extending maternity leave and issuing fertility subsidies.
“The policy shift has not yielded expected outcomes thus far. So the report signals that boosting fertility remains the core of China’s population work in the future, and systematic measures surrounding fertility should be established,” said Lu Jiehua, a sociology professor at Peking University and vice-president of the China Population Association. He said one of the most important tasks is to consolidate sporadic measures seen in localities and elevate them to a national level.
“Since the decision was announced, we have seen some regional policies shoot into the limelight — such as Panzhihua city in Sichuan province, which first decided to give monthly allowances for families with more than one child. However, top-level design of such policies should be enhanced.”
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchage item
