By Farah Master
HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s National Health Commission will push harder to promote marriage and childbirth at “appropriate ages” as authorities struggle to boost a declining birth rate that is decimating the population.
Yu Xuejun, vice chairman of the National Health Commission (NHC), said the NHC will also call for shared parenting duties to guide young people toward “positive perspectives on marriage, childbirth and family.
This will help foster a “new culture of marriage and childbearing,” Yu added.
According to the law, Chinese men can only marry after the age of 22 and women after the age of 20.
The move comes as Beijing seeks to encourage more women to have children after China’s population is set to shrink for a second straight year in 2023 and births hit a record low.
Many women choose to remain childless in a traditional society where they are still seen as the primary caregiver and where gender discrimination persists, due to high childcare costs, reluctance to marry or stop careers.
According to official data, the number of marriages in the first half of this year fell to the lowest level since 2013.
Much of China’s demographic decline is the result of China’s one-child policy between 1980 and 2015, as well as expensive education costs that have led many Chinese to stop having more than one or any children.
The NHC’s Yu said China’s changing demographics of low birth rate and rapid aging were a natural consequence of economic and social development, but added that the committee called for sustained efforts from all regions to “promote sustainable demographic development.”
