https://www.nzz.ch/english/beijing-targ ... ld.1843460
Local officials are calling women, asking them to have children. Divorce applications are being rejected. China's government is using increasingly questionable methods to push women to be traditional relationships and raise the country's birth rate. China's rulers are on high alert in view of the rapidly shrinking population. In Shanghai, the fertility rate, or average number of children born during a woman's lifetime, is only 0.6. To keep the population stable, the fertility rate must be 2.1.
The local city council is therefore doing all it can to ensure that young women do not neglect to children, despite their career aspirations and their insistence on self-determination. On the so-called Family Day on May 15, the director of the Center for Reproduction at Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai called on on men and women to "get married, stay healthy and have at the children at the right age." But the authorities have long since moved beyond such gentle public appeals. In Shanghai, there are increasing reports of young women being contacted directly by the authorities, often by telephone. The officials are calling the women, most of whom are members of the ruling Communist Party or work in the public sector, and asking them to have children. Mothers of unmarried women receive calls telling them to find a partner for their daughters.
From the government's point of view, the practice is understandable. Since 2013, the number of marriages has shown a persistent decline, with corresponding consequences for the birth rate.
Such calls from the authorities are "nonsense," Fu says. "It would be better if the government provided financial support to couples with children," similar to what Germany and Switzerland do. In Shanghai, it costs the equivalent of more than 120,000 Swiss francs (about Ã139,000) to raise a child up to the age of 17. This is more than in most European countries when average annual incomes are taken into account.
Government intervention always violates the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Local officials are calling women, asking them to have children. Divorce applications are being rejected. China's government is using increasingly questionable methods to push women to be traditional relationships and raise the country's birth rate. China's rulers are on high alert in view of the rapidly shrinking population. In Shanghai, the fertility rate, or average number of children born during a woman's lifetime, is only 0.6. To keep the population stable, the fertility rate must be 2.1.
The local city council is therefore doing all it can to ensure that young women do not neglect to children, despite their career aspirations and their insistence on self-determination. On the so-called Family Day on May 15, the director of the Center for Reproduction at Zhongshan Hospital in Shanghai called on on men and women to "get married, stay healthy and have at the children at the right age." But the authorities have long since moved beyond such gentle public appeals. In Shanghai, there are increasing reports of young women being contacted directly by the authorities, often by telephone. The officials are calling the women, most of whom are members of the ruling Communist Party or work in the public sector, and asking them to have children. Mothers of unmarried women receive calls telling them to find a partner for their daughters.
From the government's point of view, the practice is understandable. Since 2013, the number of marriages has shown a persistent decline, with corresponding consequences for the birth rate.
Such calls from the authorities are "nonsense," Fu says. "It would be better if the government provided financial support to couples with children," similar to what Germany and Switzerland do. In Shanghai, it costs the equivalent of more than 120,000 Swiss francs (about Ã139,000) to raise a child up to the age of 17. This is more than in most European countries when average annual incomes are taken into account.
Government intervention always violates the Law of Unintended Consequences.
statistics: Posted by Rebcop — 5:21 AM - Today — Replies 1 — Views 53