China's three-child policy will 'exacerbate problems' for women, according to a think tank.

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Kirti Pathak
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China's three-child policy, which is being promoted by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials as a way to address the country's ageing population, will "aggravate problems" for working women who have already faced gender discrimination at work since the one-child policy was repealed in 2015, according to a Canada-based think tank.

The policy was announced on May 31 at a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo on Population Aging, which was presided over by CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. China introduced the one-child policy in 1979, which stated that a couple could only have one child. As a result, the fresh population decreased while the aging population increased.

Despite loosening the "one-child policy" in order to avert a demographic disaster, China's birth rate has been declining since 2017. Despite the relaxation of the one-child policy in 2016, the number of live births per 1,000 people in 2019 decreased to a record low of 10.48, down from 10.94 in 2018.

This has fueled fears of a looming demographic crisis. Meanwhile, experts predict that China's labor force will peak in the coming years before contracting by approximately 5% over the next decade, according to CNN. This could jeopardize President Xi Jinping's major economic policy objectives.

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In 2020, China's birth rate declined by over 15% year on year, and some people have stated that the rising expense of living is a big disincentive to having larger families. For decades, China's family planning laws allowed the government to force hundreds of millions of Chinese women to have abortions or sterilization procedures in order to regulate the population.

Sensing a long-term shortage of productive human resources, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Politburo, chaired by CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping, announced a three-child policy, under which a couple can have three children in the People's Republic of China (PRC).

"Companies already don't want female workers under the two-child policy—now they're going to discriminate even more," said Liu Minghui, a law professor at China Women's University and a public-interest lawyer.

One of the main reasons for the rise in discrimination is companies' unwillingness to pay for maternity leave.

Women in China are legally entitled to at least 98 days of paid leave, although the benefit is only partially supported by the government. In addition, women are perceived as being less inclined to commit to extended working hours after having children due to a lack of availability for child care.

The IFFRAS advised that the Chinese government decrease gender inequities at home and at work, as well as strategies to improve work-life balance.

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