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Why are women in China not having more babies?

Mar 17, 2023
In China, each woman went from having about three children in the late 1970s to now one. Decades later, the Chinese government wants women to have three children again but is meeting resistance.
A woman holding a baby girl lines up for a PCR COVID test in Shanghai in 2022. Birth rates continued to fall during China's strict zero-COVID policy during the pandemic.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

China lacks psychologists, so businesses fill the mental health care gap

Nov 22, 2021
One entrepreneur is placing her bets on a paid online listening service for women.
In China, online and app-based companionship services have cropped up to address isolation. Above, a man sits alone on his cellphone in Beijing.
Courtesy Shanghai 808 Studio

Chinese citizens greet new 3-child policy with humor

Jun 21, 2021
Women in China have taken to social media to push back against having one more child.
A father with his son on a low-cost train heading into the Chinese countryside. People in rural China cite the cost of raising a child as a main reason they don't want to have more children.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

The one-child policy is history, but rules in China still restrict families

Oct 13, 2020
Some Chinese couples aren't interested in having more than one child, while unmarried woman aren't allowed to have children at all.
Zhuang Mengyi left a good job in Beijing to raise her son in the cheaper countryside.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

Cost of child rearing in China hinders baby boom

Oct 9, 2020
Besides the high costs of raising children, the cost of living is often cited as one of the key deterrents for young parents.
Fang Zixian and his abundance of toys — the first generation in his family to have such items.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

What worries China's manufacturers more than tariffs? Labor shortages

Dec 4, 2018
The country's workforce has shrunk 3 percent from 2012 to 2017; now its economy is slowing.
Huade High Voltage Electric needs a dozen more workers to keep up with demand.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

China's "professional" pick-up artists

May 22, 2018
Services promise men can get women even if they're not tall, handsome or rich.
Dating expert Cheng Zhen talks with three of his fans who caught the bullet train just to see him.
Jennifer Pak/Marketplace

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China Eases One-Child Policy

Nov 15, 2013
China to ease restrictions on one-child policy among other reforms.