Chinese women are resisting Xi Jinping’s pressure to have more children

• The Chinese government is trying to encourage women to have more children.
• A government campaign to foster a “childbirth-friendly culture” is calling for matchmaking events.
• Many Chinese women are resisting increasing pressure to have more children.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Chinese women are increasingly resisting the government’s push to increase production, citing government harassment and the burden of raising children.

The defiance poses a crisis for the party, the report said, as the country faces a demographic collapse, with fewer than 10 million babies born in 2022, down from 16 million in 2012.

Dramatic demographic changes mean that by 2040, China is expected to have 400 million people aged 60 and over. This is more than the entire population of the United States.

With the country’s declining birthrate and aging population, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has emphasized the urgency of preventing further decline in China’s population and urged action.

he said In October, the Communist Party-affiliated National Women’s Federation of China argued that women must contribute to establishing a “new family flow.”

Xi also said he hoped the Chinese people would “actively cultivate a new culture on marriage and childbirth, and strengthen the guidance of young people about marriage, childbirth, and family views.”

But Chinese women are pushing back. “I can’t afford to do anything other than work with her parents,” Molly Chen told The Wall Street Journal.

Despite efforts to promote “family values,” speak at parties, and cash incentives to have more children, many young women are discouraged from getting married because of financial concerns or restrictions on their personal freedom. They believe raising children is not realistic, the report said.

The change in mindset is evident in the decline in registered marriages, from 13 million in 2013 to 6.8 million in 2022, the report added.

A national debate over the treatment of women has erupted despite the government’s crackdown on women’s rights activists. One woman who spoke to the Journal said she only recently avoided a fine for having too many children. Now she is being harassed by text messages asking for more.

Despite the Chinese government’s continued efforts to promote childbearing, more women are choosing to remain single and childless, complicating China’s demographic future. It reflects.