Having Three Children Is Impossible Many Chinese Say

After China said it would allow the couple to have three children, state news media announced the move as a major change that would help stimulate growth. But in most countries, the announcement was met with anger.

Women worry that the move will only exacerbate discrimination from employers who are reluctant to pay maternity leave. Young people grumble that they are already struggling to find work and take care of themselves, let alone a child (or three). Working-class parents say the financial burden of more children would be unbearable.

“I definitely won't have any more children,” said Hu Daifang, a former migrant worker in Sichuan Province. Hu, 35, said he was already struggling, especially after his mother fell ill and could no longer help care for her two children. "It feels like we're just surviving, not living."

For many ordinary Chinese people, news of the policy change on Monday is only a reminder of a problem they have long recognized: the lack of a social safety net and Chinese legal protections that will allow them to have more children.

On Weibo, users complained about the rising cost of education, high housing prices, and unforgiving working hours. They pointed out the lack of child care services in China, forcing many young parents to rely on their own parents to supervise their children.

"I recommend that you first fix the most basic issues with maternity rights and discrimination that women are sure to face in the workplace, and then encourage them to have children," read the most popular comments under an article on policy change by Xinhua, state. that. news agency.

Another commenter was more direct: “Get out of here! Would you like to help us take care of the children? Will you give us a house? "

Responding to the poll by Xinhua entitled: "Are you ready for the three-child policy?" only a small percentage of respondents chose “I'm ready, I can't wait.” Of the roughly 22,000 people who responded to the poll at one point, 20,000 voted "I wouldn't consider it at all." The poll was quickly deleted.

In its announcement, the government promised to help families with education and child care costs, but gave few details.

China has long promised to overhaul policies that affect families, but change has been slow. The only real change in the past five years, said Lu Hongping, a professor of population studies at Hebei University, is the statutory extension of maternity leave to about 160 days in most regions. But even so, he said, it was too short.

"They are not doing well. Basically, they haven't done it, ”Professor Lu said of the reforms. "And if that's not done, then the costs are too high, and a lot of people will feel that they can't afford too large a family."

For Hu and his wife, one child was enough. But her parents urged them to take a moment to help support the couple in their old age. They reluctantly agree, knowing that rural pensions pay little.

Hu's mother initially helped look after her two children, ages 4 and 9, when she went to a factory in southern China for a better job, but that was no longer possible after her health faltered. Hu and his wife recently moved back to their hometown in a small county in Sichuan and opened a street food shop to survive.

She is now working hard to pay for her mother's medical expenses—her insurance covers only a fraction of that—and to provide her children with a good education.

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“I don't want my kids to have the same path as I do, always working. I don't want my children to work in factories, ”he said. "So the pressure is still quite high."

For the more affluent, the pressure may be different, but no less severe.

On the same day that the government announced it would relax birth limits, Li Li, a middle-level manager at a technology company in Beijing, was approached by his boss. She anxiously asked Li, 35, who is pregnant with her second child, how long exactly she would be away for maternity leave.

She quickly reassured him that he would only be away for three or four months and that he could work during the end of the leave, if necessary.

Pregnancy discrimination is rife in China, with women reporting being fired or demoted after telling their boss they were pregnant. Some women even reported being forced to sign contracts promising not to get pregnant for a certain period of time in a new job.

"As a woman, you are inherently at a disadvantage at work," says Li.

Li said he sympathized with his boss's worries. He believed that as a manager, his absence would be troublesome for the company. She admits that she herself, when interviewing candidates, sometimes wonders if the new employee will soon leave for childbirth.

Still it's unfair to women, Li said. She said the government should compensate employers for maternity fees, as some other countries have done, and mandate paternity leave, so women would not be selected as parents.

In recognition of the matter, the government said on Monday that it would "protect women's legitimate rights and interests at work."

Several women pointed out that the government has banned employers from asking women about marital status or bearing children in 2019, and the problem is weak law enforcement. Governments often encourage women to retreat to more traditional gender roles, in an effort to increase birth rates.

"Our government is very good at bullshit," said Lu Pin, a Chinese feminist activist. "It's meaningless to just look at some of the things they say."

Lu hopes that workplace discrimination against women will get worse. Employers may fear women wanting to have a third child - even if, he adds, that's unlikely, given broader trends.

A lack of social support may discourage those wanting more children, but a more fundamental problem may be a lack of interest among better educated young women who have expressed a preference for small families. Even if the government does offer more benefits, Li said, he doesn't want to have a third child.

"Two pretty good," he said. There's no point in having too much.