China's New Policy on Declining Birthrate: Regulating Posts Hesitant About Marriage and Childbirth

China's New Policy on Declining Birthrate: Regulating Posts Hesitant About Marriage and Childbirth

1. Aligning the Lunar New Year Atmosphere "Positively"—China's New "Purification Campaign"

As China approaches its largest annual celebration, the Spring Festival (Lunar New Year), it has intensified its crackdown on online spaces. This was announced by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the body responsible for internet regulation in the country. The campaign will last "about a month," aiming to remove elements deemed "harmful" or "destabilizing" by authorities from the online space during the festive season, creating a more "appropriate" atmosphere for the celebration.


What particularly drew attention this time was the explicit inclusion of themes like "fear of marriage" and "anxiety about childbirth (having children)" among the crackdown targets. In other words, feelings of hesitation towards marriage or childbirth have started to be treated as "air that must not be spread."


2. The Season When "Relatives' Inquisition" Becomes a Viral Topic

The Spring Festival is a time for family gatherings. Simultaneously, for the younger generation, it often becomes a customary event of being bombarded with questions from relatives.
"Do you have a partner?"
"Why aren't you married?"
"When will you have children?"

Such exchanges are repeatedly depicted in movies, essays, and online posts, and in recent years, they have become a common topic for sarcasm and complaints online.


The authorities have identified the "negative discourse on marriage and childbirth" and "posts inciting gender conflict," which tend to amplify during this period, as detrimental to the social mood.


3. Focus of the Crackdown: ① Anti-Marriage/Anti-Childbirth Narratives ② Gender Conflict ③ AI-Generated Family Drama

The announcement reveals three main focuses.


(1) Suppression of Narratives Leading to "Anti-Marriage/Anti-Childbirth"
The authorities have prioritized the removal of posts that incite anxiety about marriage or childbirth and maliciously stimulate negative emotions. Ostensibly, the focus is on "malicious agitation," but in practice, the boundaries can easily expand.


(2) Elimination of Gender Conflict Content
Posts that "incite gender conflict" have also been targeted. Themes like the division of roles within the family, burdens after marriage, and disparities in child-rearing are closely tied to real pain points. With regulation, there is a concern that even earnest voices of those affected might be swept up as "incitement to conflict."


(3) Crackdown on "Digital Waste" Mass-Produced by AI
The campaign has specifically targeted AI content. Particularly, videos mass-produced for view counts, featuring poorly structured and exaggerated family conflicts (mother-in-law vs. daughter-in-law, sibling rivalry, parental favoritism, etc.), are being scrutinized.
The authorities have categorized these as "low quality," "hollow content," and "high similarity," aiming to eliminate them as disruptors of a "healthy online environment" during the Spring Festival.


4. Why Now?—Anxiety Over the Demographic Crisis and "Narrative Control"

The underlying issue is a strong sense of crisis regarding the declining birthrate and aging population. China has long implemented population control measures (notably the one-child policy), but is now steering in the opposite direction, aiming to "promote family formation."


However, reasons for hesitating about marriage and childbirth cannot be dismissed as mere personal feelings. Housing costs, education expenses, long working hours, job insecurity, uneven childcare burdens, and weak future prospects—online, posts citing these structural factors as reasons for saying "marriage is not cost-effective" or "having children is scary" tend to increase.


The authorities seem to aim not only to advance countermeasures against declining birthrates as "policy" but also to align societal emotions, atmosphere, and narratives themselves in a "positive direction."


In other words, population policy has begun to extend beyond "subsidies" and "system design" to include the management of "emotions that can be expressed/should not be expressed."


5. SNS Reactions: More Than Approval or Disapproval, "Temperature Differences" Became Visible

Regarding this move, the following reactions are prominent on social media (note: these are not definitive quotes from individual posts but an organization of points raised in reports and general reaction patterns).


A: Voices Understanding It as a Measure Against Declining Birthrates (Though Conditional)
There is some support for "purifying the internet" itself, with comments like "It's necessary to curb malicious agitation, rumors, and extreme gender conflict" and "AI's low-quality mass production cluttering timelines is indeed annoying." Especially, the crackdown on poor-quality AI content and falsehoods is generally welcomed.


B: The Real Issue Lies Elsewhere—Anger Over Living Costs
On the other hand, many argue that "the reasons for hesitating about marriage and childbirth are not narratives but real burdens." The point is that blocking expressions alone won't solve problems while issues like housing, education, healthcare, work styles, and childcare support remain unresolved.


C: Caution Against Word Hunting and the Spread of "Self-Censorship"
Concerns about the lack of transparency in the boundaries lead to comments like "Will expressing anxiety itself become a no-go?" and "Where does 'agitation' start and 'honesty' end?" This results in the fear that it will become difficult for individuals to share experiences and concerns, leading to increased self-censorship.


D: Irony and Memeification (But in a Roundabout Way)
In environments with strong crackdowns, overt criticism is avoided, and indirect expressions, euphemisms, and meme-like expressions increase. Posts themed around the Spring Festival's "inquisition" tend to be expressed through metaphors and comedy rather than direct criticism.

6. "Censorship in the AI Era" Is More Realistic and Easier to Expand

The current campaign also suggests that censorship could change its nature with AI involvement.

  • Mass Production: AI can create a large volume of videos and texts in a short time, posing a risk of rapidly spreading "air" disliked by authorities.

  • Automated Judgment: On the other hand, those enforcing the crackdown can also easily advance mass surveillance and mass deletion using AI and algorithms.

  • Ambiguity of Boundaries: Terms like "low quality," "hollow," and "inciting anxiety" used by authorities are subjective, and the scope can expand depending on how they are applied.


In other words, AI can be a tool for expanding freedom of expression while also serving as a tool for "efficient" control. This case symbolizes that both aspects are simultaneously at play.

7. Can the "Positivity" of Marriage and Childbirth Be Created Through Regulation?

"Fear of marriage" and "anxiety about childbirth"—even if these feelings can be erased, unless the causes are addressed, they will resurface elsewhere.


Moreover, the Spring Festival, a season for family gatherings, could naturally serve as an opportunity for families and society to share and support the burdens and anxieties faced by the younger generation. Suppressing this as "inappropriate to discuss anxieties" makes it difficult to "visualize" the problems.


To advance population policy, it is necessary to build up "conditions that allow for safe family formation," not just incentives and systems.


The current campaign indicates that China, facing this difficult issue, has begun seeking part of the solution in "narrative control." However, the silence in online spaces does not necessarily lead to an increase in the actual birth rate. Rather, silence may obscure the pain points society faces and delay policy adjustments.


Whether the online space during the Spring Festival becomes "cheerful and positive" remains to be seen. Meanwhile, attention must be paid to where the unspoken anxieties will go, including the future implementation and its backlash.


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