CHINESE PROVINCE OFFERING BABY LOANS TO TACKLE DECLINING POPULATION

Sat 25 December 2021:

According to a draft document published by the regional administration, the Chinese province of Jilin is considering providing up to $31,400 to couples who want to settle down and raise children.

The rapidly aging population prompted the Chinese government to raise the baby limit from two to three children this year to encourage births after the previous easing produced no major effect.

The world’s most populated country’s demographics are currently in reverse, and it may suffer negative growth after 2025.

There is currently no information on how the government intends to support these loans. However, depending on the number of children a couple has, the loans give a discount in interest rates.

The loan became a topic of interest on Weibo as many people expressed their views on the same. One person wrote how if families that need a loan to raise kids would not want to have them in the first place. “It’s not a good thing to increase their financial burden,” the person said.

In another measure, Jilin permits couples from other provinces to get a hukou, or residence permission. It also lets these couples to use public services in Jilin and register their children there if they have children.

Couples with two or three children are also eligible for tax benefits if they start a small business.

The area has become the subject of the most severe population reduction in recent years.

Meanwhile, an editorial by a state-run news outlet had asked the members of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) to shoulder the responsibility of the dwindling population and told them that they should be “obliged” to have at least three children.

“No party member should use any excuse, objective or personal, to not marry or have children, nor can they use any excuse to have only one or two children,” the article said, asking about 95 million CPC members to “should shoulder the responsibility and obligation of the country’s population growth and act on the three-child policy”.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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