China's effort to increase birth rate is getting nuttier by the day. First there was the reform of online education to make it cheaper. Now they want to reform wedding customs. Its not going to work and will cause damage to the economy and a backlash against the CCP for interfering in people's private lives.
According to China's Ministry of Civil Affairs,
8.13 million couples registered their marriages in 2020, down 12% and the seventh consecutive year of decline. The figure also represents a 40% fall from the 2013 peak.
China cannot sit by and allow its families to be destroyed. I am not endorsing interference in people's private lives but the government must act to ensure family formation continues in China. The worst thing for the economy in the long run is a plunge in population, workforce, market size and talent pool, and national decline like Japan. I applaud that China is finally waking up to this crisis. If anything they need to do even more like drastically reigning in housing costs.