say goodbye to employees if they do not marry and have children

October 2024. The New York Times Uncapa One of the latest initiatives sponsored by the China Government to lift its battered birth and that takes off once and for all: literally go door by door In search of women to intervene in crucial decisions about motherhood. Several months have passed since then and, far from lowering the tension, the proposals have climbed several levels.

Unprecedented business policy. It also counted the Times this week. In an extreme attempt to reverse the fall in marriage and birth rates, the chemical company Shandong Shuntian Chemical Group issued a notice aimed at its single employees.

The proposal: demand marrying and forming a family before September 30 or face the termination of your employment contract. That mandate, that quickly It went viral on social networkswas presented as a call to loyalty and social responsibility, aligning with government efforts to promote a more “friendly with fertility” in China.

It is not the first time. The truth is that the chemical company was not the first to intervene in the personal life of its employees. Recently, the Pangdonglai supermarket chain prohibited its workers demand “wedding prices” (skills that men pay to the family of the future wife), arguing that They make marriage more expensive and discouraged the formation of families. In addition, he limited the number of guests at the weddings of his employees to five tables. Despite criticism in networks, The People’s Dailyofficial newspaper of the Communist Party, defended the measure as a step towards a Most accessible and civilized marriage.

Be that as it may, before the negative reaction, Shandong Shuntian He withdrew the order that went viral and was forced to undergo a “rectification” by the local government, although the controversy highlighted the degree of interference that some private companies seem to be assuming in the demographic crisis.

The background of the marriage crisis (and demographic). It We counted this week. The nation is so desperate to solve the birth rate that they are even considering reduce legal age To marry. In the background, a drastic decrease in their marriage and birth rates. In 2023, Only 6.1 million couples They married, 20% less than the previous year and the lowest figure since the Government began registering data in 1986.

In addition, the population has decreased for three consecutive yearswhich has generated a growing concern about the impact on the economy and future work of the country.

Other extreme strategies. As We count in October last year, the government had implemented various strategies to encourage birth, from subsidies to Elimination of the Single Son Policy. Some of the most striking actions included those Home visits to women to ask them about their pregnancy plans, but also all kinds of Official propaganda ensuring that pregnancy “makes the most intelligent women”, or even called to create a social environment conducive to fertility, including incentives in the workplace.

However, these measures have been received with skepticismespecially Among the young Chinesewho cite economic reasons, lack of job stability and a desire for personal autonomy as the main reasons to avoid marriage and fatherhood.

Companies as pressure tools. Had the New York Times Although the Chinese government has not issued direct orders as it did in the past with the policy of the only child, it has encouraged an indirect social pressure model. According to feminist activist Lu Pin, instead of imposing drastic measures, the Communist Party would be delegating the Pressure in private companiesusing social norms to influence citizens’ behavior.

The intervention of companies such as Shandong Shuntian and Pangdonglai suggests that many companies consider acceptable to implement Rules aligned with the government agenda. Although officially the government does not force them to marry or have children, it allows and in some cases publicly supports business actions that foster these practices.

Social control. In fact, an example of this approach was A filtered draft of the Quanzhou Health Commission, which proposed that government employees “take the initiative in the implementation of the policy of the three children.” Although the document did not specify how they should do it, the similarities with the Single Son Policy They have generated concern about possible more direct state pressure in the future.

In short, the measures seem to reflect a change in the Government’s demographic control strategy, which has gone from imposing birth restrictions to the opposite: actively foster marriage and reproduction. In question, of course, the erosion of individual rights and the autonomy of the workers themselves.

Image | Josh Vaughn

In Xataka | China only allows you to get married from the age of 20. Now he wants to lower it to solve his demographic crisis

In Xataka | China spends its last bullet for birth to take off in the country: to go a door in search of women