"Lowest Population Since Great Famine" ... China Facing Population Cliff Crisis, Offering Incentives for First Child

Hengsuishi to Provide 1.86 Million Won to Families of Women Over 35 Giving Birth to First Child
Despite Full Implementation of 2016 'Two-Child Policy,' Population Decline Warned Within Next 3 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Sumi] Facing a demographic cliff crisis, China has begun preparing incentives for families with their first child. This move is interpreted as an effort to expand birth support policies, which were previously limited in effectiveness as they only provided childcare expenses to families with a third child.

According to Chinese media Caijing, recently Hengshui City in Hebei Province decided to provide subsidies of up to 10,000 yuan (approximately 1.86 million KRW) to families where women aged 35 or older give birth to their first child.

This appears to be an expansion of birth encouragement policies designed to prevent population decline due to low birth rates. China, which introduced the "one family, one child policy" in 1978 to limit births, experienced a decline in birth rates and fully implemented the "two-child policy" in 2016.

However, China has not escaped the demographic cliff crisis. Last year, China's birth population was recorded at 10.62 million, down 11.5% from 12 million in 2020, which was the lowest since the Great Famine period in 1961 (9.49 million). In particular, the natural increase rate (0.034%) was the lowest since 1960. Some forecasts even suggested that China's population would begin to decline within three years.

As this demographic cliff problem showed no signs of resolution, China accelerated its countermeasures. Following the introduction of the "three-child policy" in May last year, allowing couples to have three children, a comprehensive government-wide plan covering housing, childcare, and employment was announced in August this year. The explanation was to supplement support measures in finance, taxation, insurance, education, housing, and employment to establish a system that enables healthy childbirth and proper child-rearing.

However, indirect support measures such as extending maternity leave or providing housing purchase benefits, and the fact that incentives were only given to families with a third child, were criticized for their limited effectiveness. Dong Yuzheng, director of the Guangdong Population Development Research Institute, said, "Providing subsidies to families with the first and second children as well is necessary to increase the birth effect."

Accordingly, Hebei Province decided to expand the target of birth incentive subsidies to families with their first child. Additionally, all families with a third child will receive a childbirth subsidy of 5,000 yuan (approximately 930,000 KRW). Childcare institution fees will also be supported until the child turns three years old. The subsidy is 300 yuan (approximately 56,000 KRW) per month for the first child, 500 yuan (approximately 93,000 KRW) for the second, and 800 to 1,200 yuan (approximately 150,000 to 220,000 KRW) for the third, increasing with the number of children.

Besides this, Ningshan County in Shanxi Province will provide a one-time childbirth subsidy of 2,000 yuan (approximately 372,000 KRW) for the first child, 3,000 yuan (approximately 558,000 KRW) for the second, and 5,000 yuan (approximately 930,000 KRW) for the third. Harbin City in Heilongjiang Province will provide childcare subsidies until children turn three for families with two or more children, and Songyuan City in Jilin Province will support childcare and kindergarten fees for families with two or more children from ages 3 to 6. However, they did not disclose specific subsidy amounts, stating that they would be determined considering financial conditions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.