4 hours ago 1

Chinese Company to Single Workers: Get Married or Get Out

Asia Pacific|Chinese Company to Single Workers: Get Married or Get Out

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/world/asia/china-marriage-companies-childbirth.html

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.

As China’s government worries about the falling birthrate, some private employers have ordered workers to do their part, or else.

A bride and groom hold hands in front of a church as photographers take their picture from about 30 feet away.
Taking wedding photos in Shanghai in 2023. Last year, only 6.1 million Chinese couples got married — a 20 percent decline from a year earlier.Credit...Qilai Shen for The New York Times

Vivian Wang

March 4, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET

The ideal worker at the Chinese chemical manufacturer, according to the internal memo, is hardworking, virtuous and loyal. And — perhaps most important — willing to have children for the good of the country.

That was the message that the company, Shandong Shuntian Chemical Group, sent to unmarried employees recently, in a notice that spread widely on social media. It instructed them to start families by Sept. 30, or else.

“If you cannot get married and start a family within three quarters, the company will terminate your labor contract,” the memo said.

Shandong Shuntian was not the first company to try to dictate its employees’ personal lives amid rising concern about China’s plummeting marriage and birth rates. Weeks earlier, a popular supermarket chain had told its staff not to ask for betrothal gifts, to lower the cost of weddings.

Both orders were widely criticized, for many of the same reasons that people are refusing to start families in the first place. Besides the economic cost of having children, many young Chinese cite a desire for personal autonomy. They reject the traditional idea that their families should direct their lives, and they certainly aren’t inclined to let their employers have a say.

Last year, 6.1 million Chinese couples got married — a 20 percent decline from a year earlier, and the fewest since the government began releasing statistics in 1986. China’s population has fallen for three straight years.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.


Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Read Entire Article

From Twitter

Comments