{"id":29555,"date":"2021-08-18T17:08:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T09:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/?p=29555"},"modified":"2021-08-24T16:17:32","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T08:17:32","slug":"chinas-three-child-policy-slogan-competition-leaves-many-unimpressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2021\/08\/18\/chinas-three-child-policy-slogan-competition-leaves-many-unimpressed\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Three-Child Policy Slogan Competition Leaves Many Unimpressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo: \u2018Holding Hands\u2019 by Filbert Kuong from SRN\u2019s SG Photobank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pressure is mounting on the Chinese government to combat the long-term effects of a rapidly aging population and reverse the country\u2019s falling birth rates. In 2015 the Chinese government scrapped its controversial one-child policy, allowing Chinese families to have two children. The two child-policy was passed in December 2015 and came into effect on January 1st<\/sup>, 2016. On 31st<\/sup> May this year, in response to the results of China\u2019s Census 2020, the Chinese government replaced this policy with the current three-child policy.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Family Planning Association has long been the subject of controversy. Controlling the number of children families can have has been perceived as a violation of an individual\u2019s autonomy and reproductive rights. The government\u2019s far-reaching population policy has had profound effects on socioeconomic norms in the country. Chinese families are unlikely to have more children despite the relaxation of restrictions, citing reasons such as the increasing costs of raising children and a desire to maintain their current lifestyle.<\/p>\n

To rack up public support for the state\u2019s recent three-child policy, China\u2019s Family Planning Association launched a competition encouraging the public to submit slogans promoting couples to take advantage of the new policy. This move has prompted public backlash with citizens posting slogans on their social media accounts which criticized decades of heavy, centralized state control over an individual\u2019s reproductive rights.<\/p>\n

Professor Jean Yeung (NUS Sociology and Center for Family and Population Research), who recently pointed out the implications of China\u2019s Census 2020 on population and family planning policy (https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2021\/05\/18\/chinas-census-report\/<\/a>), also responded to the three-child policy in \u2018China holds competition for public to come up with three-child policy slogans but many are unimpressed\u2019 (ABC News<\/em>, August 2021). Prof. Yeung argued that the new policy will not be able to sufficiently address China\u2019s aging population and falling birth rates and advocated for policies focused on tackling the challenges and restrictions that young Chinese couples face.<\/p>\n

Prof. Yeung suggested that policies aimed at removing discrimination against women in the workplace and at home, affordable childcare, and long-term monetary incentives could be more effective at reversing China\u2019s falling birth rates. She further pointed out that persistent government intervention in the form of family planning and population policy is counter-productive to China\u2019s efforts to reverse falling birth rates. Removing obstacles such as gender inequality, rising costs of living, and workplace discrimination could go much further in encouraging couples to have more children.<\/p>\n

Relatedly, Prof. Yeung had previously outlined two of Singapore\u2019s most pressing challenges after the government released the 2020 census (https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2021\/06\/22\/singapore-census-2020\/<\/a>). A rapidly aging population and declining birth rate are problems confronting Singaporean policymakers as well. She noted that Singapore has taken steps in the right direction to address these problems such as providing affordable childcare services, increasing monetary incentives for couples having children, extending the retirement age, and encouraging flexible work arrangements for families with newborn children.<\/p>\n

Although the findings from Singapore\u2019s latest census suggests that Singapore and China are confronted with similar population policy challenges, Prof. Yeung points out that the Singapore government has a range of institutional tools at its disposal to address these problems in addition to the existing policies that are in place to encourage couples to have more children.<\/p>\n

Read the article here!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Pressure is mounting on the Chinese government to combat the long-term effects of a rapidly aging population and reverse the country\u2019s falling birth rates. In 2015 the Chinese government scrapped its controversial one-child policy, allowing Chinese families to have two children. The two child-policy was passed in December 2015 and came into effect on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":29556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4529,4545],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sociology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/170"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29555"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29559,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29555\/revisions\/29559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}