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China’s leaders want more marriages and children, yet many of their policies make family life less attractive. The article argues that the Communist Party misreads the country’s demographic crisis as a failure of women to embrace traditional roles. By tolerating misogyny, sidelining women from power and leaving them poorly protected inside marriage, the state is aggravating the problem it hopes to solve.

Censorship with a double standard

China has its own version of the online “manosphere”: communities where resentment of women spreads easily. In a country whose censors quickly suppress disfavored speech, the government’s response is revealing. Regulators tolerate much of the abuse directed at women while treating “extreme feminism” - including posts that praise remaining single - as a threat.

That bias reflects the outlook of the political system. China has never had a female national leader in modern times, and no woman has served on the Politburo Standing Committee. Under Xi Jinping, women have been pushed even farther from the center of power: the Politburo has been entirely male since 2022. Officials nevertheless lecture women about becoming “virtuous wives and good mothers,” as though declining marriage and birth rates were mainly matters of attitude.

The deeper causes are structural. The one-child policy, which lasted until 2015, encouraged sex-selective abortions and left millions of women missing from the population. Among men aged 23-37 and women aged 22-36, China now has 22.5m more men than women. This imbalance makes marriage especially difficult for poorer rural men, who are often expected to bring an education, a stable job, a home and a substantial payment to the bride’s family. Around a third of young male migrants who hope to marry believe their chance of doing so by age 30 is no better than 50%.

Education widens the divide. Women now make up more than half of people in higher education, while men with weak qualifications and few economic prospects fall further behind. Their frustration can feed chauvinism, which in turn gives women another reason to avoid marriage. The result is a self-reinforcing cycle of scarcity, resentment and distrust.

Make marriage fairer, not compulsory

The government cannot restore the women erased by past population policy, but it can make marriage a safer and more equitable choice. Enforcement against harassment, marital rape and domestic violence remains weak. Fairer divorce proceedings, reliable child-support payments and an easier path out of abusive marriages would give women more confidence that marriage will not trap them.

Those reforms could also help erode the system of bride prices. Research cited by the article suggests that a young male migrant must save for six years to afford a typical payment of 127,300 yuan, or about \$18,780. China formally bans extortionate bride prices, but the rule is vague and poorly enforced. Families continue to demand them because men face intense competition for partners and women may retain part of the payment after divorce. The practice reduces women to a price while excluding men without money.

Economic policy matters too. The state could turn some of China’s large stock of unsold homes into affordable rentals for young families, lowering one of the biggest barriers to marriage. Recent reforms to the hukou household-registration system are a useful step because they make it easier for migrants and their children to gain access to urban schools and public services.

The article’s conclusion is simple: demographic pressure will not be solved by demanding obedience from women. China needs to listen to them and expand their choices. Stronger rights, cheaper housing and easier access to public services would support family formation more effectively than censorship or moral scolding - and would improve millions of lives even if the birth rate remained low.