HONG KONG: When Zane Li was nine, the arrival of his baby sister plunged his family in eastern China into crippling debt.
At the time, China’s strict one-child policy meant his parents were fined 100,000 yuan (about US$13,900) for having a second child — nearly triple their annual earnings from selling fish at the local market.
“We were barely able to survive,” Li recalled. Forced to grow up quickly, he took on most household chores and spent school holidays helping at his mother’s stall.
Now 25, Li has no intention of having children — a sentiment shared by many in his generation and one that alarms Beijing as it faces a self-inflicted population crisis.
For decades, the government enforced birth limits through fines, forced abortions, and sterilizations. Today, it is offering incentives to encourage the same generation to have more children.
Last week, China announced a nationwide annual subsidy of 3,600 yuan (US$500) per child until the age of three, retroactive to January 1.
But Li is unimpressed. “The cost of raising a child is enormous. 3,600 yuan a year is nothing,” he said. He is still paying off a student loan from his master’s degree in Beijing.
According to the YuWa Population Research Institute, raising a child to age 18 costs an average of 538,000 yuan (US$75,000) in China — more than six times the GDP per capita. In Shanghai, the cost exceeds 1 million yuan; in Beijing, it’s about 936,000 yuan.
For Li, having children would only bring hardship. “I’m not a capitalist. My kid probably wouldn’t have a good life either,” he said, citing job insecurity and considering a PhD instead.
From Fines to Subsidies
The new childcare subsidy marks a shift in Beijing’s population policy.
Local governments have previously offered tax breaks, housing incentives, cash handouts, and extended maternity leave. Now, the central government is rolling out a standardized program worth 90 billion yuan (US$12.54 billion) to support about 20 million families this year.
“This shows the government sees the birth rate crisis as urgent and national,” said Emma Zang, a Yale University demographer. But she doubts it will boost fertility rates, noting similar schemes failed in Japan and South Korea.
For young Chinese facing unaffordable housing, long work hours, and precarious jobs, the subsidy barely scratches the surface of deeper anxieties about parenthood.
“It’s not just about money,” Zang said. “There’s job insecurity, aging parents, and emotional fatigue. Cash handouts don’t solve that.”
The irony is not lost on millennials and Gen Z who remember — or lived through — the penalties of the one-child era. On social media, some share receipts of the fines their parents once paid.
Fading Optimism
Gao, 27, grew up in rural Guizhou, where families could have a second child if the first was a girl. Her parents kept trying for a son, ultimately having four daughters before a boy. To avoid family planning officials, Gao and her sisters lived with their grandmother.
Now in Jiangsu, she refuses marriage or motherhood. “If I can’t provide a good life, not having children is an act of kindness,” she said.
Her outlook reflects a broader shift. For decades, rising living standards fueled optimism that each generation would do better than the last. Today, soaring property prices, scarce well-paid jobs, and cutthroat competition have eroded that belief.
The buzzword “involution” — a spiral of self-defeating competition — has given way to “lying flat,” a lifestyle rejecting the relentless grind, including marriage and childrearing.
June Zhao, 29, from Beijing’s hyper-competitive Haidian district, says the pressure she endured growing up is a major reason she won’t have kids. “The cost is too high and the returns too low,” she said. Even with a relatively easy job, she has only a few hours of free time each day — far less for friends working “996” schedules.
Barriers for Women
For many women, the prospect of motherhood comes with disproportionate burdens. Zhao saw her mother juggle a full-time job with her education. “Women bear a much heavier cost than men when raising a family,” she said.
The government has called on women to embrace traditional roles as “virtuous wives and good mothers,” but Zang argues that’s unrealistic. “Today’s young women are highly educated and career-oriented. Without policies like paternity leave, workplace protection, and flexible jobs, fertility rates won’t rebound,” she said.
“The government wants more babies, but society isn’t built to support families,” she added. “Right now, parenting looks like a trap — especially for women. Until that changes, subsidies alone won’t be enough.”
Source: CNN
