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As China’s birth rate drops, authorities call newlyweds about baby plans
- In now-deleted Weibo post, social media users say local officials have asked about pregnancy status, conception plans and prenatal vitamins
- China aims to boost births as population teeters on the brink of shrinking and zero-Covid policy dampens desire to have children
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An online post about a newlywed in China, who was rung up by her local government asking if she was pregnant, garnered tens of thousands of comments on Thursday before being removed, with many social media users saying they had experienced similar calls.
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The debate comes on the heels of President Xi Jinping declaring at the Communist Party’s 20th congress last week that China would establish a policy to boost birth rates and improve the country’s population development strategy.
In the post on Weibo, a Twitter-like service, a user named “lost shuyushou” described a colleague’s experience in which the colleague answered a call from the Nanjing government’s women’s health service.
The post quoted the colleague as saying she was told by an official that the local government “wants newlyweds to be pregnant within a year and their target is to make a phone call every quarter”.
The Nanjing municipal government and the National Health Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The post was taken down a few hours after it was posted along with all the comments.
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Having imposed a one-child policy from 1980 to 2015, China has acknowledged its population is on the brink of shrinking – a potential crisis that will test its ability to pay and care for its elderly.
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