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The idea of ​​getting a girlfriend doesn’t even cross Owen Cao’s mind. Let alone being a father. When in 2024 this Chinese university student shared his case with SCMP He combined his engineering classes with research and activities in the student club, in addition to of course his own hobbies. With such a workload, 24 hours a day fell short and left no room for appointments or thinking about children. Owen was at that time a twenty-something who had not yet finished his degree, but his approach to life is shared by many other Chinese for whom work it makes it difficult for them to plan a family life. Now Beijing is so desperate for encouraging their birth rate, which is beginning to embrace a radical idea: set limits to overtime in companies. What has happened? That in his (desperate) efforts to reactivate the birth rateChina has asked itself an interesting question: What if overtime in companies is limited? Would that help workers have more free time and energy to focus on their family life and (hopefully) have children? Issues similar to these are those that have been put on the table during what are known as ‘Two Sessions’sessions held every March in Beijing and during which topics of interest to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC) are discussed. Its objective is to listen to proposals and set certain objectives, such as GDP growth. “Significant impact”. Throughout the sessions Ideas have been proposed such as creating a new holiday that helps stimulate consumption or giving vouchers worth hundreds of yuan to families in the hope of boosting the economy. Another very present topic has been the demographic crisis that runs through China. Against this backdrop, Lu Ming, CPPCC member, university professor and advisor to the Shanghai government, slipped the possibility of putting limits on the time that Chinese people spend at their jobs. The goal? That they have more hours (and strength) to find a partner, get married and start a home with children. “Excessive overtime has a significant impact on employees’ physical and psychological health, their quality of life, willingness to have children, and marriage prospects,” claims Lu. Beyond its impact on consumption, the idea is that the new holiday also facilitates conciliation. The culture of ‘996‘. It is no coincidence that Lu focuses the focus on the workplace. As remember Financial Timesin certain Chinese companies, including those in the technology sector, it is common to apply the so-called “‘996’ work culture”which basically translates into grueling weeks during which employees work from nine in the morning to nine in the afternoon six days in a row. To that is added, remember the teacher“invisible overtime”, the time that employees remain aware of their companies through their mobile phones. Saturated agendas. The problem is not only how this dynamic affects the health of employees, but also the impact it has on their family life and to what extent it harms birth rates. China has long been is conscious that the agendas hypersaturated They are taking a toll on their demographics, a trend that is well identified, especially in the case of young people. In 2021 the newspaper China Youth Daily public a survey with more than 14,000 university students in which, among other issues, he analyzed his love life. Their result was striking: almost 70% of all those interviewed were single. There are those who believe that after the pandemic that percentage may have increased. “You can’t cover everything”. The phenomenon is not very different from that experienced by other countries (inside and outside Asia) in which birth rates decreased as societies became more competitive. A clear example is South Koreawhere this trend has made parenting more expensive. “Many people say that you have to manage your time well, but no matter how well you plan, you can’t cover everything,” Cao confesses. “I have limited energy, so I need to eliminate what drains me the most. First thing? Dating.” Of course, lack of time or the cost of parenthood are not the only factors that affect birth rates. Cultural and social conditions come into play and, in the case of Chino, the long shadow of the ‘one child policy’ applied for decades. Companies pending. It is also no coincidence that Lu places emphasis on the workplace. China has considered other similar measures to encourage its birth rate, such as betting on four day week. They are not shots in the air. The country relies on studies and experiences like Itochu’sa Japanese company that a few years ago prohibited its employees from extending their working day beyond eight in the afternoon, accumulating overtime. After a while, managers realized that not only profits per employee were increasing. So did maternity leave requests. Birth rate downhill. To the frustration of Beijing, the measures it has taken so far to encourage its birth rate (and there have been many) have proven to be ineffective. In 2025 the nation saw its birth rate plummet to a historic low: 5.63 per 1,000 inhabitantsthe lowest indicator since the Communist Party came to power 77 years ago. The problem is that in 2025 the mortality rate also rose to historic levels (you have to go back to 1968 to find a higher one), which translated into the loss of around 3.4 million inhabitants. Image | LYCS Architecture (Unsplash) In Xataka | After years of catastrophe, South Korea is increasing its birth rate. The question is whether it is just a “demographic echo”