Beijing ends decades-long tax breaks on contraception in an attempt to spur births after years of demographic decline.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Communist China will soon begin taxing condoms and other contraceptives in a controversial bid to revive its collapsing birthrate—a crisis many experts trace back to the country’s decades of coercive population control under the “One Child Policy.”
Starting in January, contraceptive products and medicines will carry a 13 percent value-added tax, according to the Independent. The measure ends more than 30 years of tax exemptions on birth control, a reversal of the communist regime’s previous efforts to restrict reproduction through forced sterilization, mandatory abortions, and mass propaganda discouraging large families.
At the same time, Beijing is offering incentives designed to encourage couples to have children. New laws will remove taxes for nurseries, kindergartens, eldercare facilities, disability service providers, and marriage-related businesses—part of a broader pro-natalist push to stabilize the population.
Population decline deepens despite reforms
Official figures show the world’s most populous country has been shrinking for three consecutive years. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics cited by Breitbart’s John Hayward reported 9.54 million births in 2024, up slightly from 9.02 million in 2023, but still far below the 10.93 million deaths recorded. The result marks another net population loss—extending a trend that began in 2022.
China’s 2024 birth rate of 6.77 per thousand people was only marginally higher than the previous year’s 6.39. For comparison, just eight years earlier, following the end of the one-child limit, the country saw 18.8 million births.
While Beijing officially ended its One Child Policy in 2015, it merely shifted the restriction to two children per household between 2016 and 2021, before expanding it to three. Enforcement has since loosened, but the legacy of decades of reproductive control continues to weigh heavily on the nation’s demographics.
Economic pressures and fading marriages
Compounding the crisis, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs recorded just 6.1 million marriage applications in 2024—down sharply from 7.68 million the year before. Young Chinese adults face steep financial barriers, with youth unemployment hovering near 17 percent, a factor economists say discourages family formation.
“Authorities have reacted with a catalogue of pro-natalist measures: local governments are offering cash rewards for newborns, parental leave has been expanded, and guidelines now discourage abortions that are not considered ‘medically necessary,’” the Independent reported.
Experts question effectiveness
Demographers are skeptical that taxing condoms will meaningfully raise the birthrate. Instead, the policy has triggered widespread debate online over potential public health risks, with some warning that higher costs could discourage safe sex and contribute to rising HIV infections.
China’s population decline—rooted in decades of state-enforced family limits, high living costs, and a shifting social culture—remains one of the most pressing demographic challenges of the 21st century. Critics argue that without addressing the deeper economic and social pressures behind declining marriage and fertility rates, symbolic measures like a “condom tax” may do little to change the trajectory of a nation that once feared overpopulation, but now fears extinction.
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