China, who felt those who had too many children, now pay those who do them (but will not be used to give birth to more children)

For years the slogan has been clear: less children, more prosperity. With savory fines, capillary checks and even abortions and forced sterilization, China applied the policy of the only child until 2016convinced that it was the key to economic development. Today, paradoxically, the state finds itself fighting the opposite problem: The birth rate has been in free fall and the population has decreased for three consecutive years.

The most recent turning point has arrived in recent days: An annual check of 3,600 yuan (about 500 dollars) for each child up to three yearsretroactive from 1 January 2025. A national operation of 90 billion yuan, which should reach 20 million families. “It is the signal that the government considers the crisis of births an urgent and national question,” he explains to Cnn Emma Zang, demographer and professor of sociology at Yale University. But warns: “Similar subsidies did not work in Japan and South Korea. It is not enough to put money on the table: We must face the distrust and emotional tiredness of young people».

Many twenty -year -olds and thirties of today are Growing up seeing their parents pay huge fines for having “unauthorized” children. This is the case of Zane Li, 25 years old: when her little sister was born, her family of fish sellers, in a city in Eastern China, was fined 100,000 yuan, almost three times the annual income. Today he does not think about them in the least to become a father: «The cost of growing a child is enormous. 3,600 Yuan the year are a drop in the sea, “he says to Cnn. And the numbers confirm this: according to the Yuwa Population Research Institute raising a child up to 18 years costs on average 538,000 yuan (75,000 dollars), more than six times the per capita GDP. In large cities, it is touched or exceeded one million yuan.

A difficult economic context is added to direct expenditure: Very high houses prices, growing youth unemployment, massacring working hours (from 9 in the morning to 9 in the evening, six days a week).

A crucial obstacle is the disproportionate weight that weighs on mothers: women pay a much higher price than men in family management. But today young women are educated, career oriented and ask for more equality. Without paternity leave, work protections and flexibility, the birth rate will not start again.

To weigh, in addition to the costs, it is A climate of widespread pessimism. In the years of economic growth, each generation believed he could live better than the previous one. Today social mobility is falling and the future appears uncertain. Many young people choose to refuse the race to meet social expectations, marriage and children included. For others, not getting to the world children is a gesture of protection.

China has passed in less than ten years from punishing extra births to encourage the missing ones. But the jump is not enough: The roots of the crisis are economic, social and cultural. As long as having a child it means a financial weight and a career brake – especially for women -, hardly checks and bonuses will be able to reverse the course. The government wants more children, but the company is not organized to support families. As long as it is, the subsidies will remain a palliative.