Chinese company Trip.com Group is offering its employees 10,000 yuan ($1,376) per year for the first five years of their children’s lives as a way to boost fertility as the Communist nation faces a demographic crisis.
The travel agency said Thursday that it planned to spend 1 billion yuan ($138M USD) in total with employees qualifying after three years of employment at the company. The company has 32,000 employees, according to CNN.
“Employees are our greatest asset to the company and we are committed to creating a better and more supportive working environment for them,” Trip.com Group Executive Chairman James Liang. “Through the introduction of this new childcare benefit, we aim to provide financial support that will encourage our employees to start or grow their families without compromising on their professional goals and achievements.”
Liang, who authored the book “Population Strategies: How Population Affects Economy and Innovation,” reportedly expressed support for government subsidizing population growth.
“I have always suggested that the government give money to families with children … to reduce the family’s child-rearing costs and help more young people fulfill their desire to have multiple children,” CNN reported him saying.
According to the outlet, Beijing Dabeingong Technology and QiaoYin City Management have also offered their employees cash benefits for new children. Both reportedly offered money if families had a third child. For years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) restricted birth to one child but that was eventually relaxed and a three-child policy was announced in 2021.
READ: Fallout from one-child policy: Chinese woman sues for right to freeze her eggs
The company’s announcement came amid news that Chinese authorities looked to incentivize child-rearing and easier marriage, which have declined in recent years as the nation reckons with the fallout of its strict population control.
In its wake, the one-child policy has left millions of children dead and mothers likely racked with trauma from abortions they were forced into by the government.
The country’s draconian policies have even created an entire sub-class of residents known as “heihaizi,” who do not have official documentation because they were born outside of the country’s birth limit.
As Live Action News previously reported, the Chinese government has considered supporting reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization (IVF) for single women. And according to CNN, the country’s National Healthcare Security Administration said in February that the country’s insurance policy would support couples trying to conceive.
It added that the falling population is hindering the country’s attempts to develop. The population reportedly fell by 850,000 to 1.4 billion in 2022, according to government statistics.
