China Aims To Make Childbirth Cost Completely Free By 2026


China has unveiled an ambitious plan to significantly reduce, and potentially eliminate, out-of-pocket childbirth costs for families by 2026, as part of a broader push to arrest the country’s declining birth rate and ease the financial burden of raising children.

The initiative was announced during a national healthcare security conference on Saturday, where authorities outlined new national medical insurance guidelines aimed at expanding coverage for childbirth-related expenses.

Under the plan, delivery costs — including prenatal care, labour and postnatal medical services — will be increasingly absorbed by China’s public health insurance system, effectively making childbirth “near free” for most parents by 2026.



In response, the authorities have introduced a series of policies to encourage childbirth, including cash subsidies, improvements to childcare and early education services, and extended paternity and maternity leave. They have also announced guidelines aimed at reducing “non-medically necessary” abortions.



In addition, starting next year, China will impose value-added tax (VAT) on😤😱😤😤😱😱 contraceptive medicines and products,


😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱including condoms.😱😱😱😱😱😱😱





The policy is expected to standardise and expand insurance reimbursements across provinces, reducing disparities in maternal healthcare costs nationwide.

The move comes as China faces mounting demographic pressures, with birth rates falling to record lows despite the removal of its decades-long one-child policy and the introduction of two- and three-child allowances in recent years.

Rising living costs, expensive childcare, housing affordability challenges and career pressures have discouraged many couples from having children.


Policymakers now see direct financial support around childbirth as a critical lever to reverse the trend.

“This is the first time the nation is providing broad financial support for childbirth.”


“Nothing motivates people more and signals commitment better than distributing cash.”

According to the 2024 central government fiscal final accounts, that year the central government’s general public budget expenditure was 14 trillion CNY (≈ RM 8.15 trillion), with a budget surplus of 300.11 billion CNY (≈ RM 174.4 billion). The pressure from childcare subsidy spending is relatively small.

The issuance of birth subsidies cannot be driven only by local governments: “Investment in encouraging childbirth cannot form a closed loop of cost-benefit locally — it can only be realized nationwide.”

This article first appeared in Southern Weekly. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

By Southern Weekly Reporter Wu Chao
Editor｜Zhang Yue

On July 28, 2025, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the National Childcare Subsidy System Implementation Plan, clarifying that from January 1, 2025, whether it’s a first, second, or third child, parents will receive an annual subsidy of 3,600 CNY (~RM 2,095) per child until the child reaches the age of three.

For children born before January 1, 2025 but who are not yet three years old, subsidies can be paid on a pro-rata basis based on the number of eligible months.

In other words, children born on or after January 1, 2022 will also qualify for the childcare subsidy. Parents or other guardians may apply through the online Childcare Subsidy Information Management System in the child’s place of household registration, or via an offline application if needed.

On the afternoon of July 30 at a State Council Information Office press conference, Guo Yanhong, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission, said, “Childcare subsidy is the first broad, universal, direct cash transfer to the public in the history of New China.”

“From the national level, this is the first time fiscal support has been offered for childbirth. This is a positive signal, showing more people that having a child is not just a private matter, but a national matter,” said Lu Jiehua, Vice President of the China Population Society and Professor in the Sociology Department at Peking University, in an interview with Southern Weekly.


---

1. Without the first child, there’s no second or third

Guo Yanhong, Deputy Director of the National Health Commission, stated at the press conference that the annual 3,600 CNY (~RM 2,095) per child until age three was set after considering China’s current development phase, parents’ costs of raising children, government fiscal capacity, and international childcare subsidy practices — following the principle of doing what’s feasible and within means.

Guo Yang, Director of the Social Security Department of the Ministry of Finance, said the central government will set up a shared fiscal transfer payment item called Childcare Subsidy Funds, and this year has preliminarily allocated a budget of about 90 billion CNY (~RM 52 billion) for it.

Population scholar Huang Wenzheng, Executive Director of the Yiwu Population Think Tank, told Southern Weekly that “the 3,600 CNY (~RM 2,095) standard is mainly determined by the current fiscal capacity and also reflects that the program is still in its early stage, so the initial funding is not very large.”

In Hohhot, mothers who have just given birth receive milk vouchers from



China Mengniu Dairy Company Limited (2319.HK)
内蒙古 蒙牛乳业（集团）股份 有限公司




and


Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., Ltd. (600887.SS)



, provided on a “no application needed” basis.


After completing hospital discharge procedures, mothers receive a text message informing them that they have received 3,000 CNY (≈ RM 1,740) in milk vouchers — 1,500 CNY (≈ RM 870) from Mengniu and 1,500 CNY (≈ RM 870) from Yili — which can be used to freely select products on the online mall.

Regarding the newly announced national subsidy, her attitude is one of “contentment and gratitude”:



“Since the country is providing subsidies, we will accept them calmly and responsibly.”


However, most people will not decide to have children solely because of subsidies. Issues such as maternity leave, postpartum care, and broader maternal support systems still require comprehensive backing.

Among nearly one hundred regions that already offer childbirth subsidies, Tianmen City in Hubei Province stands out. In addition to one-off birth rewards and childcare subsidies, the city also provides housing purchase incentives.


For families having a second child, the maximum total subsidy reaches 287,188 CNY (≈ RM 166,600), while for a third child, it can go up to 355,988 CNY (≈ RM 206,500).

In 2024, Tianmen recorded 7,217 births, representing a 17% year-on-year increase, compared to the national growth rate of 5.8% during the same period.

According to the official website of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government,


babies born on or after October 25, 2023, are eligible for a 20,000 HKD (≈ RM 12,000) reward paid to their parents over a period of 3 years.


At the time of application, at least one parent must be a Hong Kong SAR permanent resident.

Looking at other countries globally, providing childbirth subsidies through fiscal funding is also common practice.

An information booklet released by Japan’s Ministry of Justice states that residents enrolled in Employees’ Health Insurance or National Health Insurance are entitled to a 500,000 JPY childbirth allowance (≈ RM 16,000) upon delivery.

This post has been edited by plouffle0789: Dec 14 2025, 01:25 PM

Pointless unless come with free education till university.
But again useless in future jobless after graduation.

China will probably the 1st to implement Universal Basic Income with heavily subsidised medical, healthcare & housing + short work week when AI, robotics and automation r in full swing.

they only aim while malaysia already almost did it and doing it

here childbirth is crazy cheap....send your wife go and checkout, the bill is like RM100+- only
everything else is subsidized

but the real cost is raising the child

What will bingchilling do when they pancut already but the government don't pay the promised subsidies?


Nothing.

Anak itu rezeki versi China.

china population 3b coming soon

According to Elon Musk the poorer the country the higher the number of birth

I wonder how does a country try to get themselves to be poorer when already rich

Boi, they need cheap labor, don’t talk grad etc yada yada

in china is possible to achieve workforce upskilling by education system

while over here the dumb offshoring monkey jobs will eventually be replaced by open source ai developed in china

Korea is in crisis. They got to learn something from China, else no more ktards kpops

Wow. Majulah

I want a gf!
So depressing especially on weekends.

In future having babies can be a lucrative business. Imagine a baby farm then collect subsidy from gov.

All talk about want to counter population decline, but have they considered how to counter job market decline? What is the point of having huge population while later most of those population find themselves out of job? It is unavoidable that the elite rich will have more wealth in the future, and most of them will continue to chase for even higher rate of return and wealth, which inevitably causing even more cost cutting in the labor market and indirectly lead to more automation and fewer jobs for actual human. Then what these "extra" human going to do? Government dare to heavily tax the elite rich to provide free basic needs to these "extra" human, and the elite rich will be ok to that?

This is a social issue that is waiting to happen and require new strategy and thinking to counter.

First you need to ask this question, what is the basic need for every human for them to be content. If enough people not content, then there will be revolt and society and order will break down, and economy will collapse.

If elite rich accumulating more wealth is inevitable, what does it take for them to willingly hand over enough wealth to sustain other people who do not have enough basic needs to feel content?

With technology and AI, it simply pushes many routine jobs into the domain of automation, and many jobs will be lost. In fact, it is not sure how much AI will also affect the creativity part of the job market. What are the future jobs that will be left over for human which will maintain a stable economy that benefits all parties involved, while allowing them to feel fulfiled and content?

Lots of difficult questions there. Or all nations can just decide on jihad against the AI and machine so that all future human will have a job, then you are welcome to breed as much as possible.

After 50 years, over population, reverse to 1 child again.

Their government want the population to fill the Canon fodder, not job markwt

you talked cock lah.

Tats wad i also suggested to this bmx government.

Everything so lj expensive, u expect people to make babies. Those making bunch are doing without much responsibilities. Those making not making or making less is because responsible.

If mao push birth rate, every baby give money to help raise it la

Whole world government has same issue.

China promotes AI and robots heavily in the already low job opportunities and hi unemployment rate in China.

For past 1-2 decades, China already open foreign branches of their companies and export their workers overseas to create more jobs opportunities. That is why when China open factory in Msia, they send their own people to Msia to work, not beneficial to Msia. When they win contract to build infta in Malaysia, they send their own workers end to end here to work …

Meanwhile, promote more babies aka jobless people in the society…what they should do is to create more jobs not more babies … when people have jobs have stable life, they will auto try to have babies …

Alternatively is to degrade education and intro religion … can get advice from PAS how they did it … quite successful in manufacturing hi volume lo quality babies

Korek. They going it the wrong way. Making babies is not like business, give tongkat then get more. You want people to voluntarily have babies, to realize their white picket fences dream life.

inflation

China has a birth-rate problem. It's also the 2nd-least affordable country in the world to raise a child, says a Beijing think tank.

n total, raising a child until they are 18 costs Chinese families an average of 538,312 yuan, or about $73,000, Yuwa said. Urban families, on average, spend 666,699 yuan (rm387,000), or about $93,000, while rural families spend 364,868 yuan, or about $51,000.
https://www.businessinsider.com/raising-chi...-than-us-2024-2



This post has been edited by Phoenix_KL: Dec 14 2025, 11:08 AM

Sekarang pun ramai jobless youth kan

CCP already rich ? Only 0.0001% maybe but the rest 99.9999% got no job, no income, lie flat and no hope.
House prices plummet like no tomorrow. More & more sleep under bridges.

photochop the anaks into charsiew

the car can be pakai to sell charsiew

Future no need so many people. AI and robotic will be economic driver. Human just pass time on planet earth.

AI Overview
Xiaomi's Robot Factory Works 24/7 Without Lights, Breaks, or ...
China's "dark factories" are highly automated manufacturing plants run by robots and AI, operating 24/7 with minimal to no human presence, allowing for lights to be turned off to save energy and increase efficiency, crucial for China's goal to dominate high-tech industries like EVs and electronics through hyper-automation. These facilities use advanced tech like infrared, LiDAR, and machine vision, enabling continuous operation and producing goods like phones or cars at incredible speeds with high precision, showcasing China's massive investment in robotics as part of its "Made in China 2025" strategy.

Pipit already enlightened they are merely supplying trained labour at own expense for helang to profit.

Wanna believe what you wrote also susah!
99% no job?

Here already completely free. Buang saja, let other people collect, then its totally free.

It’s too late for China. The young ain’t interested.

Wow

When this start?

As AI, robotics, and automation become fully developed and widely deployed,
China is likely to be one of the first countries to implement a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI), together with:

Heavily subsidised medical and healthcare systems

More affordable and state-supported housing

Shorter working hours or a shortened work week




This is your meaning?

It’s ok. AI and robots will take care off their old and remember to fund their pension and pay taxes.

Not sure. I screenshot the video earlier this year, but I'm not sure how old the video is.

need a communist mindset to properly implement UBI. capitalistic mindset run by oligarchy? good luck!

In addition, starting next year, China will impose value-added tax (VAT) on😤😱😤😤😱😱 contraceptive medicines and products,


😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱including condoms.😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

lie flat jer gaiz
its ogre

Got still but the performers will be in their late 20s or mid 30s. Plus need to work harder with more shows for survival.

So can find ccpmoi pancut inside no worries d

My bad MALEnglish.
CCP already rich ? Only 0.0001% maybe but the rest 99.9999% are considered "poor" with most or majority earning <1000rmb/mth. Most now got no job, no income, lie flat and no hope. Even graduates with degree doing food delivery just to get by.
House prices plummet like no tomorrow. More & more sleep under bridges.
As for those super rich, majority planning on how to transfer as much as possible to US or other western countries while they can before CCP come and confiscate.

Very good idea, make it harder for B40 to buy contraceptives.

Budi beranak Xi

According to some bifoti, its not that expensive, can get by with 2k household income, still got spares for rokok

Mana Ada jobless, semua kerja gig job jadi.delivery Didi driver hahaha

What's the point of having more people when they will be on UBI and jobless after robots and AI take over everything? The only direction is downhill.

Extinction and death.

ai is going to f the poor

OpenAI Staffer Quits, Alleging Company’s Economic Research Is Drifting Into AI Advocacy

Four sources close to the situation claim OpenAI has become hesitant to publish research on the negative impact of AI. The company says it has only expanded the economic research team’s scope.
https://www.wired.com/story/openai-economic...h-team-ai-jobs/

even now without automation the nons population in msia is dying from zero value dumb night shift jobs

msia is only living on petroleum export to china

When they can produce anything abundantly for everyone n yet make them happy, they will have the numbers to dwarf all other countries which has become uncompetitive.

This post has been edited by MGM: Dec 14 2025, 03:26 PM

worry about your own country first. chinese malaysian fertility just 0.8

Chinese Malaysian fertility in 2025 is extremely low, with the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) around 0.8 children per woman, significantly below replacement level and even lower than South Korea, continuing a sharp decline driven by high living costs, delayed marriage, career focus, and lower desire for large families, leading to a shrinking proportion of Chinese births.

Just pass law to force children to pay parents money in old age. Children become long term investment. Everyone will be clamoring to have children.

They need consumers and voters haha.. what AI can’t do

We are equally fk up if not worse off, don’t laugh at people.

Maybe change back to Confucianism?

Whole world like that…

Me laugh at these replies saying having stable job is considered as a standard for human living.

Little do they know that human are content as long as they have a purpose in their lives such as doing what they truly love (that can also be a job) instead serving as human cogwheel for their entire lives.

The cogwheel (wealth generation) is now being replaced by AI while their citizen can then pursue in career/purpose in creative departments such as arts and research or services like nursery.

This will never happen in heavy capitalist countries because their billionaires own the AI and wealth generated will be pocketed instead of redistributed.

The real issue is the cost to raise a baby la... If they are serious, must consider allowance to parents until children reach certain age, say 12yo.

But then, another pressing issue is adults also tak mau kahwin nowadays, how to have baby? Lol... everyone dont have enough money for themselves, and also not willing to take up family responsibilities.

Government no balls to assist chinese in malaysia to prop up the birthrate at all
No serious financial incentive..

But for the M side, berbillion billion
All give birth, no money raise, send to sekolah agama and tahfiz and put them there forever..

This post has been edited by Boomwick: Dec 14 2025, 03:41 PM

LOL

Can also legalize rape to mass produce human.

ai and robot can solve this

CCP will ensure its population procreate by embedding its official in everyhome and ensure every China citizen do its mandated duty

summary: real man bareback

For all the DINKs in /k, listen to chao ah pek ok. Having kids is scary and tough but it is the most fulfilling thing you will ever do in your life. No money or whatever career path you crave can replace having kids.

Go forth and fornicate without dom dom tonight. I'm serious.

Haha

Japan govemrent already doing for long time tons of subsidies according to child number in house family . From birth, insurance,housing and probably education. But still fail to boost birth rate .

I think if everything fails , most probably compulsory by law to have at least a kids for every women.🤣🤣🤣

This post has been edited by TRAZE99: Dec 14 2025, 06:09 PM

I don't understand why most governments around the world are delusional on the issue of declined birth rate.

There's no point of cash subsidy, childcare subsidy when the real issues are not solved.

1) Cost of buying a new property, renting a house/apt that are expensive.

2) Job stability is no longer exist in year 2025 unless if you work in gov job. Even in US, tons of their federal workers are being terminated under Trump administration.

3) cost of living. Eating out is getting so expensive. Your grocery bills are more expensive.

4) Lack of job opoortunities. Companies are agressive in pushing for AI and Automation. Less workers, more profit and they are hungry for more.

5) More women getting better access of education and they are no longer think having 5 kids are the must thing to do as a woman or they can choose Childfree lifestyle.

How the heck you expect citizen to have more kids when the real issues are not being taken seriously by gov?

This post has been edited by xpole: Dec 15 2025, 12:20 AM

GG becoming like Japan lettew

fertility rate already below 1.0. since they are prioritizing material well being

So... Back to socialism again?

Double

This post has been edited by nuvi: Dec 15 2025, 12:59 AM

should give free viagra

Eventually we will arrive a stage where condom is illegal

For babies — and more to come, China ramps up support for new life
By Xinhua on December 15, 2025, Monday at 6:00 AM

BEIJING (Dec 15): Rolling fields stretch toward the horizon, with a stand of bamboo swaying gently behind. Here, children collect eggs from hens’ nests, plant sweet potatoes in soft soil, and wade into clear streams after darting loaches.

This is the kindergarten in Wangqiao, a village in Sanming City, east China’s Fujian Province. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, the school was on the brink of disappearing.

Back then, it wasn’t really a kindergarten at all — just a single mixed-age class with over 20 kids, supervised by two volunteer teachers. Many parents made daily trips to the county seat to drop off their children at private kindergartens instead.

The revival of this rural school offers a snapshot of how Chinese society is pulling out all the stops to encourage families to have more babies, as birth rates remain low and the population ages — trends familiar to many countries experiencing rapid economic and social development.

The country’s total fertility rate has remained below the replacement level for years and has dropped to ultra-low levels more recently, leading to a population decline since 2022. Officials estimate an annual dip of 0.2 percent through 2035. China’s population stands at roughly 1.4 billion.

It is an implausible turn for a nation that had long considered large families a blessing. China imposed family-planning policies in the 1970s to rein in a population boom that strained its resources.

Beijing adjusted to recent demographic shifts by lifting its long-standing restrictions, allowing all couples to have two kids in 2015 and then three in 2021.

The effort has since evolved into a broad campaign to lower the costs of childbirth, childrearing and education, aiming to make society more supportive of having children.

LESS COMMUTING, MORE EQUAL ACCESS

For families in Wangqiao, change arrived in 2019, when a public kindergarten at the county seat took over the management of the village kindergarten. The county provided start-up funds, the township upgraded utilities, and the village contributed 3,000 square meters of land free of charge as an outdoor learning space.

Nowadays, the Wangqiao campus has more than 110 children in six classes. It shares staff, programs and budgets with the county kindergarten, operating as a branch of that school.

For Qian Xiaojie, a mother of two girls who runs a breakfast stall near an industrial park, the new kindergarten is just across the street from her home. She no longer has to endure the frantic commutes to the county seat that she once faced when her older daughter attended a private kindergarten there.

“It’s a great relief,” she said. Qian speaks with admiration about the new facilities, programs and teachers. And she has a clear point of comparison.

“On her second day in the kindergarten, my older daughter told me she didn’t want to go back,” Qian recalled. “But my younger one is always excited. She keeps telling me what she learned and how kind her teachers are — she loves it.”

In addition to her village classes, Qiu Yanchu, Qian’s younger daughter, spends time at the main campus in the county seat. There, she grips metal rods in the science room to navigate an electric-maze game and climbs and leaps across the gym’s play structures. She has found a world of stimulation beyond what her village can currently offer.

The exchange runs both ways. Children from the county seat also rotate through Wangqiao, swapping polished floors for open fields and getting a close look at rural life.

Chen Shiqi, who attends the county’s kindergarten, still talks about the newborn lamb she saw during her stay in Wangqiao. She often tugs at her mother’s sleeve, asking when she can visit it again and whether the little lamb has grown.

Along with 12 million other children nationwide, both girls, who are now in their final year of kindergarten, have benefited from a tuition waiver this semester, each saving around 2,000 yuan (about 283 U.S. dollars). This initiative is part of a landmark policy introduced in August to phase in free preschool education.

The policy wiped an estimated 20 billion yuan off families’ bills this semester alone, said authorities.

DIRECT CASH INCENTIVE

The broader push to raise birth rates includes a nationwide childcare subsidy: 3,600 yuan per child under age 3 each year.

For the first time since 1949, China is rolling out a large-scale, inclusive public-welfare program that puts cash directly into the hands of its citizens.

Huang Wei, an associate professor at the National School of Development at Peking University, praised the policy’s target design, noting that the age window is critical for child development and that cash transfer tends to have the greatest impact on low- and middle-income households.

Guo Yang, an official with the Ministry of Finance, said the central government funds roughly 90 percent of the benefit, with an initial 90 billion yuan earmarked for this year. Families get to keep the full amount, as the subsidies are exempt from personal income tax.

A woman surnamed Wang in Changchun, in northeast China’s Jilin Province, gave birth in January. The 300-yuan monthly subsidy is enough to cover the cost of her baby’s diapers.

“This money sends an encouraging signal. It makes us feel more confident about raising a child,” said Wang.

Subsidies aside, China has expanded the coverage of childbirth insurance, extended maternity leave, and increased the supply of affordable childcare.

BEYOND DIAPERS

For some families, though, immediate hurdles loom larger.

Li Qian, an expectant mother working in media in Beijing who asked to be identified only by a pseudonym, is searching for a reliable postnatal care center, followed by a trustworthy confinement nanny, and eventually a childcare helper.

Quality postnatal care in Beijing can cost around 100,000 yuan a month, and a nanny about 18,000 yuan for 28 days. Still, she said, steep prices do not ensure dependable care.

“The industry needs clearer standards and a real evaluation system,” she said. “And it needs stronger oversight.”

A baby boom in the post-COVID Year of the Dragon, combined with the slew of birth-friendly policies, helped lift China’s newborn count to 9.54 million in 2024 — a birth rate of 6.77 per 1,000 people, up from 6.39 the year before.

But worries remain.

“Compared with the day-to-day costs of diapers and formula, what really worries me is education,” Wang said in Changchun. Many of her friends start tutoring their kids as early as primary school, with some spending as much as 10,000 yuan a month.

“We keep hearing about easing the burden on students and on families,” she said. “But the intensity of competitions doesn’t feel much lighter.”

The concern is shared by Qian, the mother in Fujian, whose older daughter is now in middle school. “There’s not much we can do to help our kids at home. They need more tutoring at school.”

Still, at 34, she and her husband are discussing whether to try for a third child — boy or girl, it doesn’t matter.

“I’ve always wanted a bustling, lively family,” she said.- Xinhua

Source: https://www.theborneopost.com/2025/12/15/fo...t-for-new-life/