Lijia Zhang

Opinion | How to fix China’s birth rate: treat single mothers the same as married ones

Growing numbers of independent-minded Chinese women no longer see marriage as a necessary passage in life, but they might still embrace motherhood

Passing a nationwide law ensuring equal rights for single mothers would remove significant barriers to having children and be good for the country as a whole

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Lijia Zhang

Published: 5:30am, 14 Oct 2023Updated: 1:57pm, 17 Oct 2023

Sishengzi, or “secretly born child”, is a derogatory term to describe children born out of wedlock. For a woman to raise such a child in China used to be as difficult as climbing up the sky. To start with, without a marriage certificate, this child would not be able to get registered, which meant they could not go to a state school, take a flight or get vaccinated.

However, there are signs that suggest the Chinese government has begun to loosen control to a certain degree. In recent years, provinces such as Sichuan, Guangdong, Anhui and Shaanxi have issued new regulations that allow unmarried mothers to register their children. More governments are likely to follow suit.

In July, the authorities in Xian announced that single mothers could now apply for child subsidies and insurance. These developments are encouraging, but in my view, the central government needs to go much further.

The new regulations were developed amid increasing concerns of a plummeting birth rate. China allowed couples to have two children in 2016, with the limit going up to three children five years later, but not enough couples have taken up the offer. China’s fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.09 last year. The enormous cost of raising a child and changing values have also contributed to this alarming trend.

Different regions have come up with their own packages to offer new parents financial incentives to drive up the birth rate, but these new policies have usually come about quietly, I imagine because they challenge social conventions and notions of morality. Surfing the Chinese internet suggests the information concerning the treatment of unmarried mothers is confusing.

Well ahead of Xian, the Shanghai municipal government announced back in 2021 that single mothers could also enjoy maternity benefits. However, I have learned that the implementation of the new rule, which is not widely known, has been problematic, partly because local officials only know how to provide child-related benefits to married couples.