China Says It Will Allow Couples to Have 3 Children, Up From 2

“My mobile phone almost fell to the ground,” said Yolanda Ouyang, a 39-year-old employee at a state-owned enterprise in the region of Guangxi who had kept her third child hidden for two years because she feared that she would be fired.

“I’m so happy and so shocked,” Ms. Ouyang said. “Finally, my child can come outside and play out in the open.”

The party’s announcement was quickly met with criticism on Weibo, a popular social media platform. “Don’t they know that most young people are already tired enough just trying to feed themselves?” wrote one user, pointing to a common lament about the rising costs of living. Other users complained that raising birth limits would do nothing to curb the discrimination that women faced at work when they had more children.

In a nod to such concerns, the party indicated on Monday it would also work to introduce broader changes that would make it easier for couples to have more children. It also pledged to improve maternity leave and “protect the legitimate rights and interests of women in employment.”

The party also said it would increase funding to expand services for the country’s retirees. In 2020, the number of people age 60 and above in China stood at 264 million, accounting for about 18.7 percent of the population. That figure is set to grow to more than 300 million people, or about one-fifth of the population, by 2025, according to the government.

The party’s reluctance to abandon its right to dictate reproductive rights points to the power of such policies as tools of social control. Even as the country has struggled to raise birthrates, the authorities in the western region of Xinjiang have been forcing women of Muslim ethnic minorities, like the Uyghurs, to have fewer babies in an effort to suppress their population growth.

A full reversal of the rules could also be seen as a repudiation of a deeply unpopular policy that the party has long defended.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/31/world/asia/china-three-child-policy.html