Cash incentives to encourage births bear fruit in Tianmen

But modest bump in births unlikely to reverse China’s population decline: Analysts

- Michelle Ng

When Ms Zhou Xiaoying shared on Douyin a screenshot of a 6,500 yuan (S$1,200) cash reward deposited into her bank account by her local government in October 2024, it elicited envious comments from other Chinese mothers.

"I am also from Hubei province, but in our city, how come we get nothing?" wrote one commenter on Douyin, China's TikTok. "So good? I only received 200 to 300 yuan," another comment read.

Ms Zhou, 37, who is from Tianmen city in central Hubei province, received the money for having a second child, born in September 2024.

The 6,500 yuan is the first tranche of the 35,300 yuan in cash rewards she will receive over three years, which comes on top of 60,000 yuan in housing subsidies from the Tianmen local government.

Fertility incentives such as cash rewards, tax cuts and maternity leave extensions are determined by local governments and differ from place to place.

The sum is "enough to offset the baby's daily expenses, but not enough to raise a child", Ms Zhou told The Straits Times.

"For instance, kindergarten costs about 5,000 yuan a semester, which comes to about 30,000 yuan for three years. And this is just school fees, excluding other expenses," said Ms Zhou, who recently resigned from her factory job to be a full-time mother.

"For me, it was a lucky coincidence that my second child was born a few months after Tianmen subsidies started in April 2024, but I won't be having a third child."

Regardless, the generous cash rewards aimed at encouraging families to have a second and third child have been lauded by many as the main reason that Tianmen, a city of one million people, welcomed 1,050 more newborns in 2024 compared with 2023 - an increase of 17 per cent.

The little-known fifth-tier Chinese city made waves in local media recently for being the first to buck its declining birth rate in eight years, amid a national trend of falling birth rates and an ageing population.