The Chinese Communist Party has been promoting “one-child policy” and advocating “late marriage, late childbirth” for decades, distorting China’s population structure and leading to a sharp decline in the birth rate. Now, the authorities are making a swift shift in their family planning policy, encouraging people to have children earlier and more frequently.
Ahead of this year’s “Two Sessions,” Chen Songxi, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), proposed to lower the legal marriage age to 18 in order to “release the potential for childbirth.” Lowering the marriage age to 18 would mean that even students in high school could marry and have children early. This proposal has sparked controversy.
According to a report by “21st Century Business Herald,” Chen Songxi, a CPPCC member and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, plans to submit a proposal at the national “Two Sessions” this year, including a recommendation to relax population control constraints and establish a marriage and childbirth incentive system.
The proposal points out that from 2022 to 2024, China’s annual birth rate has remained at over 9 million for three consecutive years. The rapid decline in the number of births will lead to an imbalance in the age structure of the population, shrink the labor force, worsen population aging, weaken the country’s production and consumption capacity, and ultimately affect overall economic vitality.
The proposal suggests amending the Population and Family Planning Law to remove restrictions on the number of children a family can have. Currently, the law allows a couple to have up to three children.
In addition, the proposal recommends lowering the legal marriage age to 18 to increase the population base for childbirth and unleash the potential for childbirth. According to China’s legal education stages, 18-year-olds are in the high school (senior year) stage. Currently, the legal marriage age in China is 22 for men and 20 for women.
The proposal to lower the legal marriage age to 18 has stirred controversy.
Many netizens on social media commented, “My daughter is 15 years old and in the third year of junior high school. She is still mentally a child. If 18-year-olds can marry, how many innocent young girls will be harmed? Is this madness?”
Another comment read, “Are they out of their minds? Some 18-year-olds haven’t even finished high school. You want them to date in high school and get married before the college entrance exam? Experts’ children should lead by example.”
Furthermore, another netizen remarked, “How can you let 18-year-olds who have just graduated from high school get married and have children? How are they going to support them? Will the experts provide money? This is just for publicity! If you really want to promote the birth rate, you first need to solve the three livelihood issues of healthcare, education, and elderly care thoroughly, so that young people have no worries, and the fertility issue will naturally be resolved. Otherwise, what will they use to get married, have children, and raise them?”
Some netizens also raised concerns about post-childbirth care, employment issues for women after childbirth, and the current societal challenges surrounding unmarried mothers.
In addition to Chen Songxi, there are other CPPCC members who have proposed lowering the marriage age. During last year’s “Two Sessions,” CPPCC member Gan Huatian also suggested lowering the legal marriage age to 18. He proposed comprehensive relaxation of population birth restrictions, abolishing marriage registration limits, and ensuring the rights of non-marital children.
Official statistics from the Chinese government show that China’s population is declining year by year, especially after the outbreak of the pandemic, entering a stage of negative growth. In 2022, the population decreased by 850,000 compared to the previous year, marking the first negative growth since the Great Famine of the 1960s. In 2023, the population shrank by 2.08 million, and in 2024, by 1.39 million.
Additionally, the overall trend of declining births in China is evident. The number of births has decreased from 16.35 million in 2012 to 9.52 million in 2024. One direct cause of the declining birth rate is the continuous decrease in the number of childbearing women and the decline in fertility rates.
Chen Songxi’s proposal to lower the legal marriage age for women from 20 to 18 aims to increase the number of women of childbearing age to boost the population base for childbirth. Generally, women of childbearing age are defined as those between 15 and 49 years old.
According to population census yearbooks from various provinces and data released by some provincial civil affairs departments in 2020, the average age of first marriage in 17 provinces exceeds 27 years, with 8 provinces having an average age of first marriage over 29 years. Heilongjiang Province has an average age of first marriage exceeding 31 years.
Facing the crisis of continued shrinking working-age population and rapid population aging, the Chinese authorities have been implementing various pro-natal policies, such as the three-child policy, and even relaxing restrictions on unmarried childbirth. Moreover, local “childbirth incentives” policies are common, with the current situation in various provinces and cities being “no incentive for the first child, little incentive for the second child, and more incentive for the third child.” A commentary by The Paper noted that if a family is unwilling to have even one child, how can there be a second or third child?