The Chinese internet overwhelmingly vetoed the new proposal. A top comment under state-run news agency Xinhua’s post about the new policy saying just “Bah!” was liked nearly 80,000 times.
The ‘three child’ policy immediately became the top talking point on popular social network Sina Weibo with posts attracting tens of thousands of views and hundreds of thousands of comments.
More than 180,000 users have commented on Xinhua’s upbeat post, and the ones with the most likes do not look upon the policy kindly.
“There are too many big pressures in life at the moment,” one user says. “Young people are not willing to have kids.”
Census figures reveal only 12 million babies were in China in 2020, the lowest level since 1961. The Chinese Communist Party has said there will be over 300 million people aged 60 and above by 2025.
It is expensive raising children in China and the young adults in China are expected to work far longer hours than their predecessors – a population twice as large that is increasingly retiring. Overtime and extended working hours are endemic in most of China.
Looks like the Chinese Government will need to offer a few more incentives to get the younger generation feeling clucky.
