2023-12-03 03:08:04
There was a time when having a daughter in China was the worst thing that could happen to a family. In the patriarchal and underdeveloped society of the last century, only men could perpetuate the lineage – only one surname is used, always that of the father – and their value as labor force was much higher than that of women, who moved to live with husband’s family. So, when the birth policy that restricted the number of offspring to one for most couples was imposed in the 1980s, selective abortions and infanticides became common. Hence arose the singular gender disparity in the most populous country in the world: 109 men are born for every one hundred women. In Spain there are 96.
The drop in birth rates is felt even in orphanages, where there are fewer and fewer children. Zigor Aldama
But the tables have turned. The China of today has little to do with the one that Mao Zedong left behind after his death. It is the second world power, has completed an unparalleled urbanization process, and has a youth as educated – or more so – than the West. In just two decades, its society has traveled the path that took Spain almost a century. The urban woman has emancipated herself, has professional ambition, and turns her back on traditions that widen the generational gap. “Our parents and grandparents, who grew up in the Cultural Revolution or before, want to perpetuate patriarchy, but we urban girls hate it,” explains Ren, a thirty-something from Shanghai who “is happily alone.”
Without men at his height
In many places in China she would be considered a ‘leftover woman’, the derogatory term for women over 25 who have not yet married. «They don’t let us have a partner until college, but they want us to get married right after we graduate and have a child a year later. I reveal myself. And I’m not the only one. I want to enjoy life, have a good job and see the world », she explains. As if that were not enough, she also does not find men that she is attracted to. “They have grown up too pampered in a sexist environment and now they find that women do not tolerate their behavior,” says Ren.
Chinese brides, increasingly coveted. Zigor Aldama
More and more heterosexual Chinese women are deciding not to commit to anyone because they cannot find a man who is up to their standards. Both physically and in character and materially. An online survey on Weibo made the requirements clear: at least 1.75 tall – almost three centimeters taller than the average -, willing to collaborate with household chores – now they dedicate twice as much time to them as they do – and who has a minimum salary of 12,000 yuan (1,560 euros).
He Gang complains. He is 28 years old and has a decent job in Suzhou, but he assures that the closest he comes to a romantic relationship are the sexual relationships he organizes through dating apps. «There is no way to go further. “Women are too selective,” she says. And he criticizes that, “even though they call themselves feminists, they then demand that we provide the house and the car,” an example of the still unresolved clash between the traditional concept of the family – in which dowry is still present – and the advance of a more modern and western model.
The Chinese woman reveals herself as a warrior. Zigor Aldama
The statistics perfectly reflect this reversal: the birth rate falls every year and reaches historic lows – in 2022, 9.56 million babies were born, the first time that the figure falls below ten million -, the Chinese are getting married more and more later -almost 29 years in 2020-, they continue to delay motherhood -27.4 years-, and the number of marriages is dangerously close to the number of divorces: in 1981, 10.4 million weddings and 187,000 divorces were celebrated; In 2022 there were 6.83 million unions and 2.1 million ruptures. Taking into account that children out of wedlock are still a headache, this situation becomes a major social challenge.
The slab of parenting
The Government has reacted late. Now it allows all couples to have three children. “The problem is that no one wants to,” Ren explains with a laugh. “I just hope they don’t force procreation, something I don’t rule out considering how our government works,” she adds. At the moment, what the Communist Party is doing is trying to stimulate births with baby checks, aid and tax exemptions. “It’s too little for the weight of having a child,” says the Shanghainese.
A couple are photographed in Shanghai. Zigor Aldama
Precisely due to the birth policy that China has imposed, there are more than one hundred million only children on whom the burden of caring for parents and grandparents will fall, all with a very thin social safety net. As if that were not enough, the Asian giant is the second country in the world in which raising a child until the age of 18 is more expensive, behind only South Korea. Specifically, the economic effort that families must make, in relation to their income, is equivalent to 6.9 years of their total income. Triple that in France, according to the study carried out this year by the Yuwa Institute for Demographic Studies.
According to the government’s own statistics, 77.4% of Chinese women consider motherhood to be “a huge economic burden”, while among the most cited reasons for not having children are also “being too old” and “not having children”. who takes care of the children. As if that were not enough, well-educated young people were previously guaranteed a good job, but this year Chinese youth unemployment has reached a record of 21%, after which the authorities have decided to stop publishing this statistic.
Without pyramid, taxes must be raised
In this way, the structure of the Chinese population ceased to resemble the ideal pyramid shape some time ago. Because the country is aging at breakneck speed and, unlike what happens in other countries of similar income, the birth rate policy prevents there from being a larger group of thirty- and forty-somethings who can bear the cost. Furthermore, in China immigration does not act as a counterweight. This means that, in a time of slowdown like the current one, the transition towards the welfare state that both the Government and the population desire is more complicated. And it starts with an increase in taxes.
Workers in a factory of the Oppo mobile brand. Zigor Aldama
The introduction of digital payments is facilitating the gradual emergence of the country’s immense underground economy, a treasure for the Chinese treasury. Currently, only 10% of Chinese pay taxes, which means that the country receives 21% of GDP from taxes, far from the 51% in Germany or 45% in Japan. And only 6% of the total comes from personal income tax, well below the world average.
However, public spending is at 37%, a significant gap. Therefore, in an aging society with plummeting birth rates, the only solution is to raise taxes: in just one year the ratio of taxes to GDP has grown by one point. It is the indirect cost of women’s emancipation. Still, it will be difficult to tighten people’s screws amid the biggest economic slowdown in 40 years. That is the great Chinese dilemma.
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