Birth control: China slaps new taxes on condoms, contraceptives in effort to boost birth rates
It’s a taxing time for sweethearts in China.
After three decades of exemption, the country is imposing a 13% sales tax on condoms, birth control pills, and contraceptive devices in an effort to boost its declining birth rate and address the long-term effects of an aging population and shrinking workforce. The new law takes effect January 1, 2026.
Officials hope that other financial incentives will encourage couples to have children despite the higher cost of contraception. Measures include tax exemptions for childcare services, elder care institutions, and disability service providers. Maternity leave has been extended—ranging from 128 days to 158 days in major cities like Beijing—with a proposed 30-day paid paternity leave. Additionally, starting January 1, 2025, each family became eligible for a cash allowance of 3,600 yuan (roughly $500) per year for each child born after that date, Bloomberg reported.
However, economic pressures are weighing heavily on young adults. A challenging job market and the high cost of raising a child—estimated at 538,000 yuan ($76,000) through age 18—have discouraged many from starting families. China’s recent baby-friendly policies starkly contrast with its infamous one-child policy, which was in place for decades to curb population growth. That policy not only restricted families to a single child but also fostered gender-based discrimination, with girls often abandoned, neglected, or killed due to a cultural preference for boys.
The one-child policy contributed to a dramatic decline in the country’s birth rate, which fell to just 6.77 births per 1,000 people in 2024. Although the policy ended in 2016, China’s population—currently around 1.4 billion—has shrunk for three consecutive years and could fall to 633 million by 2100. Last year, the National Bureau of Statistics reported only 9.54 million births, roughly half the number recorded a decade earlier.
“Removing the VAT exemption is largely symbolic and unlikely to have much impact on the bigger picture,” said He Yafu, a demographer with the YuWa Population Research Institute in Beijing. “It reflects an effort to shape a social environment that encourages childbirth and reduces abortions.”
Experts warn, however, that making contraception more expensive could have unintended consequences. The medical community is concerned about a potential increase in HIV transmission, which has been rising in China even as it declines worldwide. According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV and AIDS cases jumped from 0.37 per 100,000 people in 2002 to 8.41 per 100,000 in 2021.
The new policies have sparked a heated debate on social media. “If someone can’t afford a condom, how could they afford raising a child?” one user wrote on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo.
About Post Author
