The Chinese React To New 3-Child Policy | Street Interview 

New adults don't even want to have a single kid at this point.

I understand them, why have children if you can hardly keep yourself alive.

Chinese guy: Yeah houses are expensive in a good school district, they’re like $15,000… Me: Oh that’s cheap! Chinese guy: …per square meter. Me: 😰

"We don't have enough people buying yachts here" "Yeah just increase the legally allowed number of yachts people can buy from 2 to 3"

My Chinese colleague laughed when she announced this news in our office. “Affording one child is expensive enough and now they want us to have three? Is this a joke?” She said in chinese.

"Men should have paternity leave just like women." I agree with that 👍

It's a shame. It seems like a lot of these people would like to have kids if not for the financial and time burden. It's a shame because this seems to be an issue that is spreading worldwide, not just in China.

For lots of parents, having children was not for the children, it’s for themselves. They wanted to use children carry on the family bloodline. They push their kids to work hard since they are babies so that the parents can brag. They use their kids as retirement. Naturally they don’t want kids now because kids are expensive and can’t be used as retirement packages anymore.

Having a generation with little to no experience of being a sibling or even really seeing siblings grow up and interact with each other must make it a really weird, new and possibly even terrifying thing to try to attempt

I see a lot of ppl struggling to raise a kid while paying rent in Shanghai. Forget about raising 3 kids in big cities like Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai... lol

The “996” is crazy!!! 12 hours a day for 6 days a week. That’s insane!!! It’s impossible to have a life......

The young generation here probably have the same problem in Singapore where they have to support their elderly parents who were not rich and also look after their own children - the 'sandwich generation'. No way they can afford to have that many kids.

It's ironic that the one-child policy was strictly implemented in a generation of parents who wanted more children. And now, after raising at least 2 generation of people who are used to living in solitude, the government wants them to propagate? Food, clothing and shelter is just the tip of the problem. The real challenge is having the good education, keeping up with trends like fashion, beauty and tech gadgets, and TIME spent together as a family.

The most effective form of contraceptives is high price houses. This is true everywhere

This situation is happening everywhere. Too many people on the planet, funneling of wealth to the super rich, scarce resources, increased competition, increased individualism, stagnant wages, long work hours. All these are factors.

I'm from Singapore and growing up all I ever heard was how my siblings and I were "investments" to take care of my parents when they are old. I have younger 2 siblings and we were forced to share everything and as the oldest I was basically their mom while my actual mom worked to pay for 3 kids. It really sucked and I already decided I'm never having kids when I was 12 lol. We didn't have the 1-child policy here but the culture is the same. We have to take care of our parents when they're old, give them a portion of our salary etc. I don't need kids; I already have to take care of my old folk!

I know most of the audience is young viewers so Asian Boss wants to interview younger people in their videos, but I would have been interested to hear the thoughts of the older population, as their opinion would be based on their personal experience of having paid the price of the one-child policy.

my parents were both only children so they had the option of having another child after me, but they decided not to. It's not surprising that people are reluctant to accept a 3-child policy, given how their generation consists mostly of one child families.

The woman who doesn't want a kid is right. Paternity leave is equally important. The traditional idea of men being the primary breadwinner causes women to not only work (then suffer career setback from childbirth) but also become affiliated with the role of being the family caretaker. If the woman has to 996 and the man has to 996, then they should both have the benefit/responsibility of looking after the kid.

There are psychological differences between growing up as a single child and as a child with siblings. There are also different parental needs and provisions required to support a 3 child household. Usually in multi-child households the help of grandparents and their parenting experience can help. The issue here is that the grandparents do not have any experience raising multiple children because of the one child policy that lasted many generations.

Would've been interesting to see the perspectives of slightly older people who were actually parents during the one child policy era.

Meanwhile, in historical chinese dramas, they are always talking about "the fifth son" and "third daughter" and such. Things sure have changed in 2000 years

I can't even take care of myself, how can i take care of others? And I can't afford to be stressed just to have a kid lol

The worst part is that the company expect you work extra hours for free. And if you want to buy a house, you need to empty "4 wallets" (your parent's wallets and your grand parent's wallets) and a loan that you need to work 30 years to pay off. And the price of everything is raising but your salary stays the same. you work 996 and spend the rest of the free time looking for part time job. There's no time to even meet new people. Everyone's social circle is getting smaller and smaller until there's only your parents and coworkers on your contact list.

It's expensive. The work hours of all my family in China are insane. If housing was more affordable, it would be okay. However, the education costs & housing costs makes it unsustainable to have a large family.

Raising a kid (properly) is just unaffordable for most people in our generation these days. the amount of time and money the parents need to spend is unimaginable. I rather have a dog or cat.

Globally its hard enough to rise one child, let alone three. Good luck with that. Speaking for myself i don't want to have even one child, I'm good as i am, thanks.

Thank you so much for doing this interview, as a Chinese, these people's answers are what I can hear very common in China, you're creating dialogues where people can speak freely with less stereotypes.

It's the same everywhere. The cost of raising a child is in the back of their heads, having more kids means needing more money.

They need to raise their wages and reduce working hours, and implement fair policies for women on top of this too.

The one child policy was already stupid enough. All it did was to make sure that there will be a lot more elders in the future than youth, so now there will be extra pressure on the youth to support a lot more elders.

At 12:30 a cop is taking photos of this Chinese interviewing team. Can they get in trouble for putting real uncensored Chinese thoughts on the net, since China doesn't really allow internet access without censorship (or at least from my understanding)?

The problem was never about having another child. It is what happens after that. The education cost, the housing cost(Chinese parents usually support with buying house) or even daily living expenses making it impossible to raise more than one child in China for average family, especially if you favour quality over quantity. I have one daughter and already kind of struggling with financial problems which never happened before.

In Finland we have paid maternity and paternity leave and with every extra children, a family get's more and more money monthly. This does nothing to the birthrate, unfortunately.

The only reason I’m glad I was a child at the one child policy is that I ended up with a really great family in the states

hey thx for making the interview, you ask good questions!

Meanwhile Singapore has banned egg freezing to encourage women to have children now than later. Women in Singapore who are not ready for children but are able to afford the procedure are now having their eggs frozen in neighboring countries.

" limit women's paternity leave, and give the men paternity leave" That actually very smart. That way both will be equal and companies wont be picky about gender of their employees if both will have equal leave. If you only gives women leave, this will make, on average man work longer than women. Hence more useful. Which incentives them to only hire men.

7:42 how her expression completely changes as the guy suggests having more than 2 kids

wow these interview are very well done, praise to this channel

Everything is getting more and more expensive everywhere! Living in a middle class is a struggle, you can barely and sometimes can't even manage yourself to live a proper life, how are people supposed to just pop kids like that???

One important reason is that nowadays people would choose to enjoy their life if there were any leisure time. Having kids will further shrink the leisure time already shrinked by their job.

996?? How on earth would someone be expected to have a child, let alone three, if they're working almost every minute of their lives? You can't keep working people more and more and then magically expect them to have the time and resources to create new people to replace the aging. Symptoms of a broken system.

Amazing video man, watching from here in America it is amazing to see and hear the perspectives of those living in China towards their own country, also great listening practice for me learning chinese. 谢谢！

People also forget that having more children in the 1950s was driven by economical factors too. You can put children to work in the 1950s, they can farm, work in factories, sell street food, etc. Many poorer families in the countryside will have more than one child exactly for that reason. So having children in the city is expensive because they consume resources and child labour is banned, but having children in the countryside is a necessity because they contribute to the family's income even though these children will never be skilled labour because they don't have the same educational opportunities as city kids.

New adults are in "Sandwitch Generation" Must provide support for both their parents and their child.

In Germany we have paid paternity leave for Men. And still it's not "normal" for men to take it without batting a second thought. Numbers are going up tho. 👍 Paternity leave for all is definitely a good opportunity for Men to bond closer with the kids. And support the woman who just gave birth at home.

12:15 authorities taking photos 😁 as if cctv's aren't enough

I remember this woman in the news who was so outraged talking about "it's IMPOSSIBLE to love two kids or more, there's always going to be a favourite!"

3 kids are a lot. Especially during the current economic situation where the future is full of uncertainties. Not only that, the working hours are very long in Asia as well. By the time they are home they will be dead tired, and the last thing anyone would want in that situation is to deal with 3 babies lol.

These people know so much about everything happening in their and other countries. Its really hard to find intellectual people during such street interviews

OMG! These people think! Whenever I see street interviews in the USA or in Spain, it makes me wonder what people do with the taxes we spend on education - even when they express themselves they sound so simple and unprepared! But these people - the ones in this video - are reading reports, not pieces of news! I'm impressed!

This was very interesting to watch. Due to the one child policy, my biological parents gave me up and I was adopted when I was 1 1/2 years old by my parents. My two other sisters (not biological) were also given up for the same reason. Love the content, thanks Asian Boss

Its impossible for normals like us to afford 2+ child . Things are not like it used to be in the 90s/80s where we can buy houses with just few years of work

It’s crazy that the government has a say in how many children they can have

The young man wearing dark grey? polo shirt and eyeglasses, is extremely knowledgeable about the economic and social impact of China's former one child Policy and the impact of the aging population on resources and available social safety nets. I could watch an interview with him exclusively..No shade towards the other interviewees.

That lady's reaction at 7:45 when the dude says he wants two kids. And then the sigh of relief when he continues..🤣

the one child policy has had irreversible effects on China, I think it'll be hard for any policy to rebalance the population again

Look up "100 childless days" and contrast what happened to this is the biggest form of irony.

Interesting topic, thanks

Having kids is the natural thing to do when you have a good life and have the confindence that the future will be even better. Most of us are already strugling to survive. Why on earth would we want to have children?

Chinese govt: Asking for more kids. But who will carry the expenses of new borns

Great. Thanks to share.

Excellent interviews

The one common thing in this video is, all these Chinese citizens are quite intelligent.. 👍

Interesting that both women did not hesitate to answer subsized maternity leave and equal maternity/paternity leaves at the end. The 3-child policy isn’t just an issue of economic and socio-cultural factors-it has been, and always will be, a women's issue. Policies related to birthing children will always be linked to the policing of women’s bodies. That should be taken into account now, in this day and age, regardless if it’s China or any other country with population control policies today.

I 100% agree with the comment down below; Having children was not for the children, it’s for themselves. This tells you everything already.

We are teen siblings in our family .it feels great having so many brothers and sisters around you

I think that goes for people all over the world everything is getting expensive.. prices are going up rent and houses etc.. I’m 27 and people older then me are pressing both my partner and i to have kids but truth is we’re not ready for that.. I think most people go through it as well

I and my wife struggle enough already to raise a single daughter. And three kids? No thanks

Everyone remembers the one child policy but they don’t know China’s baby boomer generation before that. My mom have 6 siblings and my dad have 5 siblings

not gonna lie, with the stress comes from the toxic work culture and social/family face culture these days, even letting people free to give birth to five children isn't really gonna curve that decreasing fertility rate that much, young people just don't wanna have that little buddy ruining their freedom of financial choices and freer sex life, I ain't gonna be euphemistic on this

12 hours of work a day, 6 days a week, 72 hours a week. There's no time to even enjoy your child. There's no time to be a human yourself or just recharge. It sounds absolutely exhausting.

I totally understand why people would be hesitant to have any kids, let alone 3. When it was just me and my wife we spent maybe $300-$400 per month on food, and now we have 2 kids and we easily spend $900+ per month to feed them

In China we retire at 35. After 35 good luck finding work lol

Very impressed with non misleading questions asked, let them freely express themselves.

Currently staying in China, before even thinking of having children. The cost of marriage is unbearable for a lot of people here (tradition is to give money to the bride's family)

I teach at a Chinese university and we discussed this in my classes. I asked my students how many would have three children - out of 600, only one said she would have 3. The rest were 0,1, or 2 - about equal distribution. Bottom line: it's too expensive (literally!) When I raised the possibility of immigration being a possibility to solve the aging problem, they said that's not going to happen.

Did the CCP already put these people in jail for being ever so slightly critical of the govt policies?

I really liked all the people interviewed, they had interesting and varied insight

Asking the women: Have you heard of the new policy? Asking the men: What is your opinion on this?

I don't think the state should be telling couples how many kids they can have, but this policy seems moot for most people. Millennials and Gen Z are on average delaying marriage and childbearing than their parent's generation. Most have no desire to have more than two children.

The young father talking about how he’d maybe want another kid but would think twice with the cost is literally a conversation you’d hear in Europe or the US. Different circumstances in each country, of course, but this is indeed a global issue.

Life pressure is enormous in the first tier cities of China, just like in London, New York, Tokyo, Soul... Would be interesting to see what is the response from people in the third-fifth tier cities where housing is a much less issue.

Sad thing is that it's not that people don't want children, they just can't afford it (money wise or time wise)

Make the salary higher if you want the people to multiply.

Everyone: Damn I can't afford to buy a Porsche Guberment: YOU CAN NOW BUY 3 PORSCHES Everyone: But I still can't???

This isn't a problem with China, its a problem with all the Asian countries. As Chinese Canadian, I can speak to two main reasons for this: 1. Raising a child is too expensive. Due to the size of the Asian country and high average population, the competition interms of school is exponentially harder than it is here in the west. Like literally I went to a top 30 university in the world. And I tried the grade 12 exam, and I would say I could barely get 600 point. You need over 650 to get to a top school in China. This means parent would need to not only invest way more money on tutor lessons, but also gave up valuable work time to bring their kids to these lessons. On top of that even if a Child graduates from a top university in China, the competition in the job market is just as intense. 2. Traditional ideology around marriage. I am not sure if this only occurs in other Asian countries, but I can speak for China. In China female who gave birth must stay in the bed for 30 days to recover from childbirth. It is believed that if they do any intense exercise it would severely harm the body, that is why a baby nanni is usually hired dirty the first 30 days when the child is born, in families that are better off, the nanni is hired for 60-90 days. This is so engraved in Chinese society that if a husband makes the wife do any work, like literally any work, the wife will consider that you don't care about her body, the wife will literally divorce the husband if she feels like she was not well taken care of during the 30 days. Its all over the news in China, where the wife feels like she wasn't taken care of during the first 30 days of child birth, and she ran back to her own parents house and divorced the husband ASAP. These ideologies paired with the fact that most Chinese companies does not allow for maternity of paternity leave, usually means that the wife must quit her job in order to have kids.

I feel like this was lazy on China's part. "We will let you have 3 children now" and they're done with it. When, there's so much more that's need to make it happen. If any country- not just China, but France, USA, Japan, etc- wants their society do improve something, like the birth rate, then they also have to figure out everything that has to be done to make that demand look attractive...

My grandma had 12 siblings, and I don’t even want one, the irony.

Fun seeing the security guard in the background filming the scene.

Retirement age of 55? And that's it going up? Damn. Who can afford to retire so early?? That would be the life.

They want them to have children with super long work hours? Maybe they need to increase their salary wage as well... 😒

This is a universal issue. Having a kid costs money, plus you have to consider all inflation, rents and bills in the coming years. Government doesn't have any right to demand these to their citizens.

There’s a billion way to live out the human experience, and personally speaking , somethings should only be experienced once; Child birth is one of them; I have one human and have no desire to have anymore. I sometimes think of all the odds I went against when I was pregnant; Stillborn, dying during labor , having my human and it unexpectedly dying weeks or months later , the list goes on, and gosh don’t get me started with not being able to sleep properly , back pains, emotional outbursts body changes etc the list goes on. Mind you I’m a healthy woman had my human at 26 now 29 and it’a just not something I care to repeat 🔁😬everrrrrrr

Not the first mistake, won't be the last. History repeats itself.

It’s not “internal competition”- he said involution. Edit: it’s a “rat race” if “involution” is unfamiliar to most audiences. Just not “internal competition”- so much is lost in that translation that it’s inaccurate😥

Almost every issue is the same that Japan is facing with their aging population and young adults not considering to have children. Very interesting indeed.

ngl the background of this video has some stuff going on 😂 love it A lot of good points though and echoes what I've heard elsewhere.

Well done!