On a more serious note, experts have voiced concerns about a potential rise in unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections as a result of higher costs for contraceptives.
China will soon begin collecting value-added tax on contraceptive medicines and products for the first time in more than three decades — a move that aligns with Beijing’s efforts to encourage families to have more children after decades during which most were restricted to having only one child, Euronews reported.
Under the country’s latest value-added tax law, “contraceptive medicines and products” will no longer be exempt from taxation as of January 1. Products such as condoms will be subject to the standard 13 percent value-added tax applied to most goods.
Although state media have not widely covered the change, it has become a trending topic on Chinese social media, where it has prompted mockery from users. Many joke that one would have to be foolish not to know that raising a child is far more expensive than using condoms, even when they are taxed.
On a more serious note, experts have voiced concerns about a potential rise in unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections as a result of higher costs for contraceptives. The ruling Communist Party’s former “one-child policy” was enforced from around 1980 to 2015 through heavy fines and other penalties, and at times through forced abortions. In some cases, children born beyond the permitted limit were denied an identification number, effectively rendering them without legal status. In 2015, the government raised the limit to two children. After China’s population first peaked and then began to decline, the cap was increased to three children in 2021. For a long time, contraception was actively promoted and widely available, including free of charge.
“This is truly a ruthless move,” said Hu Linlin, a mother of a five-year-old child who said she is firmly determined not to have a second. She added that, as a form of protest, she would “set a personal example through abstinence.”
In 2024, 9.5 million babies were born in China — about one-third fewer than the 14.7 million born in 2019, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. This occurred despite a higher-than-usual birth rate driven by the traditional preference for children to be born in the Year of the Dragon under Chinese astrology.
As the number of deaths in China has surpassed the number of births, India overtook the country as the world’s most populous nation in 2023.
“The effect of this tax on encouraging higher birth rates will be very limited. For couples who do not want children or do not want additional children, a 13 percent tax on contraceptives is unlikely to influence their reproductive decisions, especially when compared with the far higher costs of raising a child,” said Qian Cai, director of the Demography Research Group at the University of Virginia in the United States.
Nevertheless, imposing the tax is “entirely logical,” according to Yi Fuxian, a senior scholar at the U.S.-based University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Before, they were controlling the population, and now they are encouraging people to have more children; this is a return to normal practices, where these products are treated as ordinary goods,” Yi said. As in many other parts of the world, the bulk of responsibility for birth control in China falls on women.
Only 9 percent of couples use condoms, while 44.2 percent rely on intrauterine devices and 30.5 percent on female sterilization, followed by 4.7 percent male sterilization, according to a study published by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2022. The remainder use contraceptive pills or other methods.
Given the authorities’ long-standing intrusive approach to people’s private lives and bodies, some women feel affected by the state’s renewed attempt to influence their personal reproductive choices.
“This is a disciplinary tactic — governing women’s bodies and my sexual desire,” said Zou Xuan, a 32-year-old teacher from the city of Pingxiang in China’s southern Jiangxi province.
There are no official figures on the scale of annual condom consumption in China, and estimates vary. A report published by IndexBox, an international market analysis platform, states that 5.4 billion condoms were used in China in 2020, marking the eleventh consecutive year of growth.
Experts warn that reduced condom use could increase public health risks. “Higher prices may restrict access to contraceptives for economically vulnerable groups, potentially leading to an increase in unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections,” Cai said.
“This, in turn, could result in more abortions and higher healthcare costs.”
China is among the countries with the highest number of abortions in the world — between 9 and 10 million annually during the period from 2014 to 2021, according to data from the National Health Commission. Experts believe the actual number may be higher, as some women seek help at illegal clinics.
China stopped publishing official abortion statistics in 2022.
Sexually transmitted infections are also on the rise, despite a temporary decline during the COVID-19 pandemic years. In 2024, more than 100,000 cases of gonorrhea and 670,000 cases of syphilis were reported, according to data from the National Administration of Disease Control and Prevention. The number of people living with AIDS and HIV infections is also increasing, particularly among older Chinese citizens, reaching around 1.4 million in 2024. | BGNES
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