With the Chinese government concerned about falling birth rates, some private employers have told workers to do their part or face trouble.
The ideal worker at a Chinese chemical plant, according to an internal memo, is hardworking, virtuous, and loyal. And, perhaps most importantly, willing to have children for the good of the country.
That was the message that Shandong Shuntian Chemical Group recently sent to unmarried employees in a notice widely circulated on social media. It told them to start families by Sept. 30 or else…
“If you fail to marry and start a family within three quarters, the company will terminate your employment contract,” the memo said.
Shandong Shuntian was not the first company to try to dictate its employees’ love lives amid growing concerns about plummeting marriage and birth rates in China. A few weeks earlier, a popular supermarket chain banned its employees from asking for engagement gifts in an effort to keep the cost of weddings down.
Both orders have been widely criticized, for many of the same reasons that people are reluctant to start families in the first place. In addition to the economic costs of having children, many young Chinese cite a desire for personal autonomy. They reject the traditional idea that their families should run their lives, and they are certainly not inclined to let their employers have a say.
Last year, 6.1 million couples married in China, down 20 percent from the year before and the lowest since the government began publishing statistics in 1986. China's population has been shrinking for the third year in a row.
