Opinion | China’s three-child policy: how to get women on board

The sky was not alight with fireworks when China announced last week that it would allow all married couples to have three children. Instead, the government’s latest attempt to reverse the trend of declining fertility was met with cynicism and indignation. “Where could we get the money to raise three children?” was a common response.

Back in 2016, when the authorities ended the decades-long one-child-policy to allow couples to have two children, they expected many Chinese to bite. But they didn’t.

The new announcement marked an important policy shift from limiting births to encouraging births. It came after the once-in-a-decade census released in May showed China’s population was growing at the slowest rate of any decade since the first census in 1953. However, relaxing restrictions alone isn’t enough to stimulate growth.

Why aren’t young people keen on having children these days? First, living costs – and child-rearing costs – are high. Although the state offers nine years of compulsory education, urban parents are all vying to sign up their children for extra lessons and extracurricular activities, from English to piano.