FIn the future, if Chinese families have more children than the state plans, they will no longer pay fines. This comes from the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council announced on Wednesday. This puts an end to the policies that have put many families into financial distress since the 1980s. Fines often far exceed the family’s annual income.
In May of this year, China officially abolished the two-child policy and implemented the three-child policy. It is now said that families with more than four children should no longer be punished. It said in the document that the number of children should no longer play a role when applying for a job.
In the past, government employees and state-owned enterprise employees were fired if they had more children than allowed. In addition, even if the children already have three brothers and sisters, they should be able to go to school without restrictions in the future. In the past, such children often had to go to private schools. The Family Planning Law will now be revised accordingly.
Use F+ to access all articles on FAZ.NET for 30 days for free.
Chinese leaders also announced a number of measures aimed at preventing the birth rate from falling in recent years. Among them, the coordination between work and family needs to be improved. By 2025, 90% of children should be able to go to kindergarten. The number of nurseries for children under three will also be significantly expanded, as will the training of educators. So far, childcare in China has often been done by unskilled workers. Elementary schools should add two hours of class hours, and employers should provide more flexible working hours. Existing parental leave regulations should be strictly adhered to, but so far this has often not been the case.
The birth rate has been declining since 2016
The package of measures is still vague in many respects, including tax breaks for parents of children under three years of age and preferential social housing for parents. High rents and real estate prices in China’s big cities are one of the most important reasons why many young couples only want to have one child or do not want to have a child at all. The high cost of education is another reason, especially expensive extracurricular courses. Therefore, the government announced that it will strictly supervise the booming education preferential market.
Despite this, the National Health Commission still assumes that the birth rate will fall further this year, which has been falling since 2016. The committee announced on Wednesday that the study also showed that in the long run, families hope to have fewer than two children on average. Chinese leaders are increasingly concerned about a rapidly aging society. It puts pressure on the social system. In the process of the new family promotion policy, the Communist Party once again increasingly promoted the traditional image of the family.
