China population: county sparks uproar by telling ‘leftover’ women to marry unemployed men
- Yihuang county in Jiangxi province is encouraging women to marry unemployed men, with offers of special training and treatment for potential husbands
- China is grappling with a declining marriage and birth rate, which has prompted a flurry of policies from local governments to address the issues
A county in central China has sparked controversy by offering a host of incentives to encourage “leftover” women to marry, including with unemployed men, local media have reported, amid rising concern about the country’s dwindling birth rate.
Yihuang county in Jiangxi province is offering preferential treatment for housing and employment, as well as birth allowances, to women and their partners, according to a report from Shanghai-based media The Paper.
“At present, the phenomenon of ‘older young female cadres and workers’ remaining single in our county has become a very prominent problem, which urgently needs the care, help and support of the whole society,” the county government reportedly said in a document, referring to women older than 26.
More controversially, authorities are trying to encourage women to marry unemployed men by promising their husbands vocational and entrepreneurship training, business loans and priority for public service positions.
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The proposal has been slammed online, with women questioning why it was a problem if they chose not to marry.
“I think I know why the marriage rate and the birth rate keep falling, if they don’t respect women or treat women as human beings, then the extinction of mankind is not far!” said one commenter on social media platform Weibo.
Another said: “Why should a 26-year-old female cadre be told that she is ‘old’ and has to have a baby with unemployed rubbish?”
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Yihuang county, which has a population of 240,000, is also collecting information from single women to establish a database for matchmaking purposes, the document said.
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In China, “leftover women”, or sheng nu, is a term used to describe unmarried – although usually highly educated and urban – women as young as 27.
Chinese mothers gave birth to 10.62 million babies in 2021 – down 11.5 per cent from 12 million in 2020, official statistics show.
The national birth rate fell to 7.52 births for every 1,000 people, down from 8.52 in 2020, the lowest rate since records began.
