How to fix China’s birth rate: treat single mothers the same as married ones

Growing numbers of independent-minded Chinese women no longer see marriage as a necessary passage in life, but they might still embrace motherhood
Passing a nationwide law ensuring equal rights for single mothers would remove significant barriers to having children and be good for the country as a whole

Lijia Zhang

Published: 5:30am, 14 Oct 2023

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Sishengzi, or “secretly born child”, is a derogatory term to describe children born out of wedlock. For a woman to raise such a child in China used to be as difficult as climbing up the sky. To start with, without a marriage certificate, this child would not be able to get registered, which meant they could not go to a state school, take a flight or get vaccinated.

However, there are signs that suggest the Chinese government has begun to loosen control to a certain degree. In recent years, provinces such as Sichuan, Guangdong, Anhui and Shaanxi have issued new regulations that allow unmarried mothers to register their children. More governments are likely to follow suit.

In July, the authorities in Xian announced that single mothers could now apply for child subsidies and insurance. These developments are encouraging, but in my view, the central government needs to go much further.

The new regulations were developed amid increasing concerns of a plummeting birth rate. China allowed couples to have two children in 2016, with the limit going up to three children five years later, but not enough couples have taken up the offer. China’s fertility rate dropped to a record low of 1.09 last year. The enormous cost of raising a child and changing values have also contributed to this alarming trend.

Different regions have come up with their own packages to offer new parents financial incentives to drive up the birth rate, but these new policies have usually come about quietly, I imagine because they challenge social conventions and notions of morality. Surfing the Chinese internet suggests the information concerning the treatment of unmarried mothers is confusing.

Well ahead of Xian, the Shanghai municipal government announced back in 2021 that single mothers could also enjoy maternity benefits. However, I have learned that the implementation of the new rule, which is not widely known, has been problematic, partly because local officials only know how to provide child-related benefits to married couples.

02:14

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Chaotic is a good way to summarise the situation. A single mother I recently interviewed – known on Douyin as Pupu Ma, or the mother of Pupu – had managed to obtain a Hainan hukou for her six-month-old son, a sishengzi. A hukou is the crucial household registration which allows a child access to social welfare.

Last year, just as she broke off her relationship with her boyfriend, she discovered she was pregnant. As an abandoned child herself, she decided to keep her baby. After she placed video clips of herself picking and selling rubbish on Douyin, she became a celebrity of some sort, which helped ease her financial situation.

Scholars have described the rapidly shrinking population as China’s population time bomb. Together with an ageing population, negative population growth is threatening the Chinese economy. Despite this, the authorities are still reluctant to relinquish control over family planning.

Single women are still not allowed to access assisted reproductive technology. Teresa Xu filed a lawsuit in 2019 while fighting for the right to freeze her eggs. Her case is still in the courts.

With better income and higher education, growing numbers of independent-minded women no longer see marriage as the necessary passage in life, but they might still embrace motherhood. Two weeks ago, I was in Chengdu researching a book about young women’s changing attitudes towards marriage and motherhood.

My feminist friend Xiao Meili organised a lunch for me to talk to some of her friends. Among the seven guests, not a single person expressed the desire to get married, but a couple of them said they might consider having a child on their own in the future.

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Various lawmakers have raised the issue concerning the legal protection of single mothers. In 2019, Huang Xihua, a representative of the National People’s Congress from Guangdong, called for a law to provide equal rights and benefits to unmarried mothers. Her proposal led to heated discussion among the public. Many opposed such a law as they argued that it is unethical and against tradition.

I believe such discussions are healthy as they can help society to move beyond the outdated traditional family values. Fortunately, stigma against single women and their children is easing in major cities such as Shanghai.

If the government can introduce a nationwide law protecting the rights of single mothers, it will send a clear message to its citizens: women, married or otherwise, deserve to be respected and possess the same rights. After all, having children or not is entirely a woman’s choice. Chinese law does not prohibit single women from giving birth.

The authorities should do everything they can to treat single women equally, including to encourage all Chinese provinces to follow the footsteps of the provinces that have liberalised regulations. They should offer the same maternity benefits, allow all women to freeze their eggs should they wish and train local family planning officials.

In most developed nations, child support has nothing to do with a woman’s marital status. If China adopts this more humane and tolerant approach, it will be good for the birth rate, the country itself and its global image.

Pupu Ma named her son Pupu, meaning ordinary. Her biggest wish is for the boy is to be treated like an ordinary child, just like those born in wedlock. Is she asking too much?

Lijia Zhang is a rocket-factory worker turned social commentator, and the author of a novel, Lotus