China Considering Financial Rewards to Encourage Second Children

[Bussard Ramjet]

China Considering Financial Rewards to Encourage Second Children

China is weighing subsidies for couples who have a second child to help increase the birthrate after authorities scrapped a decades-old one-child policy in 2015, official media reported.

The government is considering measures such as "birth rewards and subsidies" to help encourage more people to have another child, Wang Peian, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said at a conference on Saturday, according to a report Tuesday by the state-run China Daily.

economic growth. And a limited baby boom could still be dampened by the rising costs of child-rearing. Wang said that affordability has become a constraint on Chinese families’ decisions to have a second child, according to China Daily.

Read More: China Ending One-Child Rule Too Little, Too Late for Growth

Wang’s comments are in line with the advice from one of the nation’s top demographers. Policy makers should use public services -- including kindergartens, schools and child care -- to lower costs and encourage cash-squeezed parents to have more children, Cai Fang, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing and a member of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, recently told Bloomberg News in an interview.

Wang said that such a "baby bonus" policy would not be easy because it should be applied evenly nationwide, China Daily reported. The population authority alone can’t handle such a plan as it requires consensus and cooperation among all authorities, Wang said.

Read More: Top Demographer Says China Should Allow Three or More Children

Government subsidies may not be a panacea. They had limited success in countries such as Singapore because people tend to have fewer children when they’re wealthier and more educated, according to Chen Xingdong, chief China economist at BNP Paribas SA in Beijing.

“The mindset of the entire nation is switching from controlling births to worrying about low births," Chen said. "But many parents would still be reluctant to have kids even if the government encourages them to."

Births reached 17.86 million last year, a 1.3-million increase from 2015, official statistics show. The policy would lead to about 17 million additional births by 2020, and add 30 million young workers by 2050, the family planning commission said in late 2015. The larger labor supply would boost the economy’s potential growth rate by 0.5 percentage point, it said.

The working-age population has been shrinking as a result of aging and low birth rates, draining the labor supply. About one in three Chinese will be older than 60 by 2050, compared with about one in seven now, posing challenges to the social welfare system.

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[ChineseToTheBone]

I think financial rewards for having more children might disproportionately increase the less wealthy rural population rather than the more wealthy urban population at first, but honestly that is fine as long as the situation in China does not reach the critical level of that in Japan where their population has been plummeting.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

I think financial rewards for having more children might disproportionately increase the less wealthy rural population rather than the more wealthy urban population at first, but honestly that is fine as long as the situation in China does not reach the critical level of that in Japan where their population has been plummeting.

That's a good point. The problem is that poorer families, who have a lower level of educational attainment are more likely to have more children, this has always been the case across the world.

It's like Africa where the poorest families have the most children, and it becomes too much of a burden on them (and on society).

The focus should be on improving the standard of school education. Children from poorer backgrounds can end up doing very well, given enough opportunities to do so. It's all about opportunities.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

I think financial rewards for having more children might disproportionately increase the less wealthy rural population rather than the more wealthy urban population at first, but honestly that is fine as long as the situation in China does not reach the critical level of that in Japan where their population has been plummeting.

Poor people should be encouraged to have as many children as they like.

The thing that must be ensured is that their children get good state sponsored education, right up to college.

That's a good point. The problem is that poorer families, who have a lower level of educational attainment are more likely to have more children, this has always been the case across the world.

It's like Africa where the poorest families have the most children, and it becomes too much of a burden on them (and on society).

The focus should be on improving the standard of school education. Children from poorer backgrounds can end up doing very well, given enough opportunities to do so. It's all about opportunities.

Actually poor and middle class children given right education are far more productive.

Rich people don't do a lot of hard work. Their children don't take tough subjects like math and science. This is the reason why West depends on foreign immigrants for engineering skills. Their own children like to take soft subjects.

 

[Zsari]

I think financial rewards for having more children might disproportionately increase the less wealthy rural population rather than the more wealthy urban population at first, but honestly that is fine as long as the situation in China does not reach the critical level of that in Japan where their population has been plummeting.

Instead of nationwide implementation, it could start in few selected cities. There is not a necessity to enact such policy currently, so testing and fine-tuning at this point would be the way to go.

 

[shadows888]

The one child policy was an essential policy that allowed Chinese to drastically increase their quality of life, otherwise, there won't be enough resources in the world to support 2 billion Chinese. However, I think the one child policy should end earlier, maybe 8 years ago, of course i understand doing these drastic things requires much political capital which Hu Jintao never had.

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

The one child policy was an essential policy that allowed Chinese to drastically increase their quality of life, otherwise, there won't be enough resources in the world to support 2 billion Chinese. However, I think the one child policy should end earlier, maybe 8 years ago, of course i understand doing these drastic things requires much political capital which Hu Jintao never had.

Totally agree.

The policy for the future should be:

1. Ensure that about 20% of world's children are born in China.
2. At least 95% of children born are Han.
3. All children born should be given state subsidized, quality education, right up to college.

Poor children with decent education are an explosive mix, since they have the desire to surge ahead.