Communist China will reportedly enact a hefty tax on condoms beginning in January to boost its dismal birthrate, largely the result of its draconian “One Child Policy” that spanned from 1979 to 2015.
Starting in January, contraceptive medicines and devices, including condoms, will be topped with a 13 percent value-added tax, the Independent reported. The policy ends a three-decade tax exemption on contraceptives, which were heavily promoted during the communist regime’s era of ruthlessly cracking down on population growth and family expansion.
The Chinese government is also introducing financial incentives to encourage its citizens to start families in the hopes of reversing its population death spiral. New legislation removes value-added taxes on childcare providers like nurseries and kindergartens, as well as elderly care institutions, disability service organizations, and businesses that offer marriage-related services, according to the report.
China’s population shrank for the third year in a row in 2024, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics. While there was a small increase in babies born last year, up to 9.54 million from 9.02 million in 2023, 10.93 million people died, leaving a net population loss for three years in a row, Breitbart News’s John Hayward reported. The birth rate was calculated at 6.77 births per thousand people, only a little higher than the 6.39 rate reported in 2023.
The number of births last year in China was roughly half of the 18.8 million births seen in 2016, the first year after the country’s “One Child Policy” ended. The Chinese government did not release its grip on family formation after the end of its one child policy, instead only allowing two children per family from 2016 to 2021. In 2021, the government increased the number to three children, although enforcement has reportedly become more relaxed.
Last year, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs also reported a record decline in marriage applications, going from 7.68 million in 2023 to 6.1 million in 2024, which arguably does not assist in repairing China’s birth rate catastrophe.
Breitbart News’s Hayward wrote:
China’s demographic crisis was greatly exacerbated by the brutal “One Child” policy of forced abortions, which eliminated a huge number of young women from the marriage pool between the 1970s and 2015, when the policy was finally rescinded. Many parents felt that if they could only have one child, they would rather have a boy.
Demographers also believe China is suffering from the incredibly rapid pace of urbanization during its boom years, which began in the 1980s and sputtered out in the 2010s. When the Chinese economy was roaring, countless young people decided to move from rural areas to big cities, in search of lucrative high-tech jobs. Birth rates are much lower in China’s cities, especially since career-minded women are reluctant to put their professional lives on hold in order to raise children.
Soaring youth unemployment has also compromised the country’s birthrate, Hayward noted, with the unemployment rate for Chinese people under 24 years old hovering at around 17 percent in 2024. Economic insecurity makes young Chinese people less inclined to seek marriage or take on the financial burdens of child rearing, he continued.
“Authorities have reacted with a catalogue of pro-natalist measures: local governments are offering cash rewards for newborns, parental leave has been expanded, and guidelines now discourage abortions that are not considered “medically necessary,” per the Independent report.
Experts cited in the Independent report said the contraception tax is unlikely to cause any meaningful spike in childbirth, although the move has sparked online debate about the policy’s impact on rising HIV infections linked to unprotected sex.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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