WASHINGTON - "Three kids? I don't think it matters if they say I could have 100 kids. For me, one is more than enough," says Mrs. Sun, a 36-year-old officer worker in Beijing. She is having none of China's latest population policy change that allows married couples to have three children. She told VOA Mandarin she didn't want to reveal her full name for fear of government retaliation.
China's top leaders earlier this week. In 2016, Beijing began allowing couples to have two children, a response to the demographic time bomb triggered by the one-child policy introduced in 1980, which has resulted in .
Online, many people echoed Mrs. Sun's concerns. On Weibo, China's version of Twitter, the hashtag #three-child policy is here# has since the announcement on Monday and generated a torrent of sarcastic comments.
The takeaway is that the cost of living, the lack of quality child care options, and the cultural expectation of providing children with all possible advantages while providing parents with a comfortable retirement have combined to keep many middle-class Chinese couples from considering two children, let alone three.
Employed by a foreign-invested enterprise in Beijing, as is her husband, Mrs. Sun enjoys a combined monthly household income of about $3,570 (25,000 RMB) per month.
While that's a good household income for Beijing, where the average monthly salary was about $1,660 (11,623 RMB) in 2020, , the Suns still feel pinched.
"My son goes to painting class, swimming class, piano class and taekwondo training every week," she said, adding that she and her husband also care for their elderly parents. Besides those costs, she said, "we have a mortgage. If we have two or three kids, who's going to take them to all these classes and who's going to pay for them?"
Forgoing the extra activities is not an option because it would put her child at a competitive disadvantage, Mrs. Sun said. Every parent she knows is trying to give their child the same kind of head start.
"If I have to take a second, or a third, maternity leave, who's going to ensure that my company would not fire me? I'm not taking that risk," she said.
Mrs. Sun, like many online commentators, places little faith in an official circular from 2019 promoting "." It prohibited "asking female applicants about their marriage and childbirth status, including a pregnancy test in the entry medical examination, and restricting childbirth as a condition of employment." The circular "also claims to provide increased support to female workers, including promoting the development of daycare services for infants and toddlers under three years old and improving after-school services for elementary-school and middle-school students," according to the Global Legal Monitor of the U.S. Library of Congress.
Officials announced the three-child policy at a meeting of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), chaired by CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. The May 31 meeting was focused on the aging population. Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, deflected a question about the purpose and motivation of the new policy asked .
The birthrate fell for four consecutive years after Beijing abandoned the one-child policy in January 2016. In 2020, only 12 million babies were born, the lowest number since 1961.
China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on May 11 that in the decade ending in 2020, its lowest growth since imposing the one-child policy. China's total fertility rate stands at 1.3 children per woman, below the rate of 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population, according to data from the .
According to the official Chinese state media outlet Xinhua News Agency, the three-child policy is aimed at averting a demographic crisis as the population ages and keeping "." In about 25 years, , according to the NBS 2020 census report was released on May 11.
, managing director and chief China economist at Citigroup, as saying that for the three-child policy to be effective, the country will need "a comprehensive policy package ranging from tax incentives, education and housing subsidies, more generous maternity leave, universal provision of child care."
Mary Gallagher, a political science professor and director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan, says that the new policy will have little impact.
"Most importantly, the government should do more to regulate workplaces' common discriminatory practices toward women, especially women of child-bearing age," she told VOA via email.