Reproduction fund

Source: SupChina (8/16/18)
Subsidies for having kids? The Chinese internet is not impressed
By Jiayun Feng

Since China eased its decades-long one-child policy in 2016, the central and local governments have been aggressive in encouraging people to have babies. In recent months, the campaign has become noticeably more intense.

Earlier in August, a People’s Daily opinion piece that urges Chinese citizens to have more babies as a “national issue” caused a backlash online. The online sentiment is perhaps best summarized in this comment (translated from Weibo): “When you don’t want children, you force people to get sterilized. When you want more, you urge us to give birth. What do you think I am?”

On August 14, Xinhua Daily (a newspaper controlled by the Jiangsu Communist Party branch) also become a target of scorn and mockery for an editorial suggesting ways to encourage citizens to have more children (in Chinese), by Liu Zhibiao 刘志彪, an economics professor at Nanjing University. Liu suggests various measures to prevent a demographic crisis, such as reducing childcare costs, and mandating better maternity and paternity leave. But one recommendation sent the Chinese internet into an uproar:

“A reproduction fund 生育基金 shēngyù jījīn should be established that will reward families for second children without government investment. The government can stipulate that citizens under the age of 40, regardless of gender, each contribute a certain percentage of their salary into a personal account each year. When a family has a second child, it can apply to cash out the money and receive a maternity allowance to compensate for short-term income loss caused by interruption to the parents’ work. If a citizen never has a second child, the government will return the money when they retire. The fund should be based on a pay-as-you-go system 现收现付制 xiànshōu xiànfù zhì, which means that the money that has been contributed by individuals can be used by the government to pay subsidies to other families.”

Chinese internet users have joked for some time that the government will at some point introduce a tax that will be paid only by people with no kids. Liu’s proposal is not too different from the fears expressed in that joke.

“Shameless! This is a form of punishment on people who don’t want to give birth,” one Weibo user wrote (in Chinese).

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