China’s Government has announced plans to remove a tax exemption on contraceptives, including condoms.
The country’s fertility rate has remained low for years, and since 2022, its population has entered a period of decline.
China will also expand its national healthcare program next year to fully cover all out-of-pocket expenses related to childbirth.
Birth rates
China’s low birth rate was at first deliberate: from 1979 to 2016, it had a strict ‘one-child’ policy designed to slow its booming population.
That policy created a lopsided population: a large number of old people and fewer people of parenting age. This can lead to public policy challenges, such as smaller workforces and pressure on younger generations to care for older people.
There were 9.54 million births last year in China, about half the number of a decade ago, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics.
Contraception
As part of the one-child policy, China removed a sales tax on all forms of contraception.
Now, as part of the new plan to boost the birth rate, it will apply a 13% tax to condoms, as well as birth control pills and devices.
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The move to make condoms more expensive comes amid a rise in the number of sexually transmitted infections in China. In 2024, there were about 1.4 million people in China living with HIV/AIDS, according to the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration.
Childbirth
The Government has also unveiled a plan to reduce childbirth costs under the national medical insurance scheme.
Some provinces already offer full coverage of in-hospital childbirth medical expenses.
Under the policy, all standard medical services at public hospitals, including prenatal checkups, will be covered.
Other incentives
In January of this year, each family became eligible to receive a childcare allowance of 3,600 yuan ($AU5,770) per year for each child born.
The Government has also begun phasing in free pre-school, waiving some fees for children in their final year of kindergarten.
It is also offering extended maternity leave, increasing from 128 days to 158 days in parts of the country.
