With the upcoming “two sessions” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it is speculated that one of the topics of concern this year will be the demographic issue in mainland China, where the birth rate will reach a new low since the establishment of the CCP in 2020, and the Marriage rate has been declining for years. On March 2, Lu Xiaoming, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and vice dean of the law school at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, said he would propose to the General Assembly that the marriage age be lowered to 18. The news was met with overwhelming criticism from netizens. Many people criticized Lu Xiaoming for not having a brain, “Does the low birth rate have anything to do with the age of marriage? Isn’t it because it’s too hard to live?” Others flirted with the idea that Lu’s children should be allowed to tie the knot first or be fined.
Lu Xiaoming, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), vice chairman of the DAB provincial committee and vice dean of the law school of Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, said on the 2nd that he would propose to the General Assembly to amend the regulations to lower the legal age of marriage to 18 for both men and women, according to the Surf News.
Lu said that the current legal age of marriage on the mainland is 22 years old for men and 20 years old for women, this rule is due to the rapid expansion of the population in the 1980s, far beyond the carrying capacity of society, the means to control population growth, is the late marriage and late childbirth concept of institutionalization. However, as the concept of “fewer and better children” has become mainstream in recent years, the mainland’s fertility rate is lower than the world average and the population is aging.
According to him, from the perspective of physiological development, women are usually mature at the age of 14 and men at the age of 16, and it takes at least six years to get married. Lu claimed that this creates “artificial abstinence” for young people and may lead to non-marital cohabitation, which affects the seriousness of marriage and poses an impact on the marriage registration system pending marriage.
He also said that the age of full civil capacity of natural persons under the civil law of the mainland is 18 years old, and the age of 18 years old can be married is also the world’s common practice. Therefore, it is proposed to amend the provisions of the Civil Code 1047, the age of marriage as “the age of marriage, shall not be earlier than eighteen years old.”
Netizen comments (Photo source: screenshot on Weibo)
The high cost of living leads to reluctance to have children in mainland China’s demographic dividend has been lost, going downhill
Recently, the Ministry of Public Security of the Communist Party of China announced that the number of newborn births in 2020 will be 10.035 million, more than 4 million fewer than in 2019. 17.86 million, 17.23 million and 15.23 million newborns were born between 2016 and 2018. The precipitous drop in the number of newborn births was a wake-up call to the authorities. So a while ago there were rumors of a pilot project to fully liberalize population birth restrictions in the northeast. After the news was sent out, it rushed to the Weibo hot search several times. The majority of netizens’ view is that the state will certainly not help without introducing corresponding policies and subsidizing measures such as housing and cash for families who have children. After all, shouting slogans can not give birth to children, low fertility rate is the situation facing the country, is the Northeast birth more fertility rate up? Should learn from the European and American countries to encourage childbirth policy, before someone is willing to give birth. Now the cost of living is so high that young people earning tens of thousands of dollars a month would rather fall in love than get married and have children.
In recent years, the population problem in mainland China has been the focus of the whole society.1. serious aging, mainland China’s elderly population over 60 years old has reached 254 million at the end of 2019, accounting for 18.1% of the total population, which has exceeded the proportion of the young population; 2. the birth population has declined sharply; 3. the number of first marriages in mainland China has decreased from 23.86 million in 2013 to 15.99 million in 2018 and 13.8 million in 2019 ……
Young people do not love to get married and do not love to have children for a variety of reasons, but almost always related to the pressure of Life. Many people have to face mortgage and car loans before marriage, and after marriage, they have to face a “four-legged Gold swallowing beast”, which is also a very real problem. The price of housing in mainland China is very high, especially in first-tier cities, a house may not be able to reach a lifetime of struggle, there are often 200,000-400,000 square meters of overpriced school district housing, high tuition fees, netizens say, these are “the best contraceptive pill”.
Young people also questioned the fact that the Chinese Communist Party’s claim of “state pension” during Family planning in the last century has not been fulfilled at all. Since the government has no credibility, many people are afraid that the government will change its mind after they have a second or third child, and that working families without subsidies will not be able to support more than two children.
Wang Jian, a veteran economic media personality in the United States, said in an interview with Radio Free Asia, “Population is the foundation of the economy, all consumption comes from population, and all industries and development are also based on population. Without labor, you can’t do anything. Population means opportunities, only areas with young people will have economic opportunities, as if someone will build a house and open a restaurant here. People know that the elderly are not spending, so there is no opportunity, so how can you have a vibrant economy?”
Given that population reflects a country’s fortunes, mainland China, which already has the largest elderly population in the world and is aging at the fastest rate, is starting to go downhill, Wang Jian added.
Until the high cost of living is addressed, the willingness of young people to have children will not increase. The fact that Lu ignored the aforementioned problem, but only talked about the marriage age, has led to overwhelming criticism from netizens.
Not to solve the economic problems is to play dumb
Anyone can be a CPPCC member. Did you used to be a pig killer?
This member of the Lu’s own children 18 years old? Hurry up and get married, not married sentenced to imprisonment
Housing prices are not solved down to the age of how much is useless
Next year, is it proposed that if you don’t get married, you will be shot, and if you don’t have children, you will be shot?
Eighteen years old many are still studying no job no savings married rely on the state to support these representatives are who elected up ah
Is it a matter of age? Is the house, tickets, cars, Education and health care and so on! Eighteen years old is the age of college, right, less developed areas of education, remote mountainous areas of girls is not farther from education equality…
It’s easy to move our mouths and let us have more babies early, but if you ask him to provide a little childbirth benefits, milk powder benefits, education benefits, they will start to play deaf and dumb.
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