As Chinese avoid fertility, companies delay bonuses, loans and retirees | Business and Economy

China wants more children to end the bombing that threatens to destroy it Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to increase China’s economy by 2035.

To achieve that goal, Beijing is partnering with government and business authorities to encourage infertile women – by offering everything from baby bonuses, mortgage repayments and overtime pay based on the number of children.

From May, China began allowing families to have three children after decades of family planning programslocal authorities and corporations have forced many aspiring parents to become parents.

Dabeinong Group, a Beijing-based agricultural technology company, has been known as China’s most generous parenting employer for a pension fund that includes 90,000 yuan (US $ 14,100) and an additional 12 months’ maternity leave for 5 days. four. for fathers. Chinese law provides for 98 days of maternity leave but no leave for men.

Dabeinong vice-president Chen Zhongheng said earlier this month the company adopted this “because the government is promoting birth control”.

Grants start at 30,000 yuan ($ 4,740) for couples with first-born children, and double that amount for three and three times for a second and third child, respectively. The company is also planning to extend the maternity leave by one month, three months and 12 months, in line with government promises.

“We believe departmental authorities should take the lead in having more children,” said Cheng, according to the South China Morning Post. “They should have a leading role depending on their age and status.”

In December, the northern province of Jilin announced it was offering 200,000 yuan ($ 31,500) loans to couples planning to have children, along with tax breaks and income. Currently, the eastern city of Nantong is providing 400 yuan ($ 63) per square meter for families with three children, while in Zhejiang province, families with more than one child can get a high roof. to borrow cheap mortgages.

One of the most exciting developments to date, Beijing last year banned secret education in order to reduce the financial and social ills of parents, which are often cited as the main reason for not wanting children.

The insistence on more children marks a change in China’s well-known one-child law, which was in effect for 40 years until 2015.

While the policy sought to avoid overcrowding, its unintended consequences now threaten the foundations of the world’s second-largest economy, as economic growth between working age and the elderly is seen as slowing economic growth, burdening social services and disrupting stability.

The problem in Beijing is that most women refuse to have many children – or any of them. Prior to termination of one-child policythe country saw only one increase in the number of births, followed by a decrease of five consecutive years.

Last year, China’s birth rate has dropped to 7.52 per 1,000 peoplewith only 10.6 million births – fewer than 1961, when Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward caused widespread hunger and death.

“China’s population problem is unimaginable,” Yi Fuxian, a senior medical and gynecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Al Jazeera.

In exchange

China’s population is expected to begin to decline in 2022, although many experts say climate change has already taken place.

The government’s efforts to address this problem are strengthened by the fact that the country’s major economic policies are based on demographic differences.

President Xi Jinping’s statement in November that it was “possible” to double China’s exports by 2035 gave the impression that the population would not start to decline until 2031, Yi said.

“China’s negative population growth means … a strong economic downturn will exceed our expectations,” he said.

The future will be chaotic. Every man to his belt girded. ”

For many wealthy and highly educated Chinese women, the efforts to make child rearing fun are limited, too late.

“Having a baby will not bring time, money and freedom,” Kavita Yang, a 40-year-old professor at Beijing University, told Al Jazeera, asking to be called by a pseudonym.

Yang decided that last year he would not have a baby after sitting on the fence for years. A child may want to spend time, energy and money realizing he or she does not want to make it.

Her idea was based on what people expect of women to do household chores and take care of children – even if they have been at work for a long time. More and more responsibilities do not come with the same opportunities: Chinese women cannot continue their family lineage, while many complain that they are denied access to family support that can be provided for men.

Many Chinese women refuse to marry [File: Aly Song/Reuters]

Young women in particular are avoiding marriage: A study published by the Communist Youth Council in October found that among the 2,905 unmarried urban dwellers between the ages of 18 and 26, nearly 44 percent of women said they had no intention of marriage or doubted their marriage. happens – about 20 percent more than men in the same group.

“When you get married in China right now, in the worst places and places to hang out, I’m just committing suicide,” Rebecca Han, 28, a former employee of an education firm in Beijing, told Al Jazeera. “You’re putting yourself at such a high risk, and you’re getting into gambling that you can’t win.”

Han believes that benefits such as children’s bonuses and longer parental leave are not ideal for women after a lifetime of being seen as inferior to men, ostracism and overcrowding.

“At the heart of this issue is the gender inequality and the high cost of education and child development,” Zheng, an assistant professor of sociology at the National University of Singapore, told Al Jazeera.

Although women make up more than 50 percent of China’s college graduates, advances in education and workplace have not been reflected in family events and public affairs, “she said.

“Men should be encouraged to take a leave of absence and participate in childbirth,” she said. “Otherwise, because of the superstitions of men and women, women, especially those with a good education and career prospects, do not want to have children.”

Some companies are experimenting with ways to support women. Trip.com, China’s largest online company, offers flexible work schedules and free taxi services for prospective employees, providing scholarships and paying female employees for frozen eggs, Jane Sun, the company’s chief executive, told Al Jazeera.

As a result, Sun said, women make up more than half of the company’s employees, more than 40 percent of middle managers, and more than a third of governors.

Yang, a professor at Beijing University, said the Chinese are too late to read the mental and physical burdens imposed on women – the burdens imposed on men often do not rise.

Until then, they would not dare to have children.

He said: “Taking proper care of yourself is a big responsibility in my country.